[SOLVED]It says I'm running nvidia graphics card in Prime but INXI -G says differently

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dinkarnold
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[SOLVED]It says I'm running nvidia graphics card in Prime but INXI -G says differently

Post by dinkarnold »

Okay, so I'm a noob (first time posting here and just got mint cinnamon a few days ago) and trying to run my nvidia card for gaming. It seems I have everything setup right, however it doesn't seem to work.
My active PRIME profile says Performance Mode but when I run inxi -G in the Terminal I get this

Code: Select all

Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics driver: i915 v: kernel 
  Device-2: NVIDIA driver: N/A 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: modesetting 
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~144Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics (CML GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 
I know it says I don't have an nvidia driver installed, but my Driver Manager says my device is using
nvidia-driver-470 (recommended) Version 470.86-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 nvidia driver metapackage

Anybody able to help me?
btw, am loving Linux Mint and it's so nice to be rid of Windows! My new system came with Windows 11 and I just couldn't take it anymore. I'm not dual booting, I don't ever want to use Microsoft products again.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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AZgl1800
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Re: It says I'm running nvidia graphics card in Prime but INXI -G says differently

Post by AZgl1800 »

LM20.3 Cinnamon here also,

Terminal says

Code: Select all

john@FX705:~$ inxi -G
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 630 driver: i915 v: kernel 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP106M [GeForce GTX 1060 Mobile] driver: nvidia v: 470.86 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.13 driver: modesetting,nvidia 
  unloaded: fbdev,nouveau,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060/PCIe/SSE2 v: 4.6.0 NVIDIA 470.86 
john@FX705:~$ 

and Driver Manager says:

Driver Manager.png
LM21.3 Cinnamon ASUS FX705GM | Donate to Mint https://www.patreon.com/linux_mint
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Larry78723
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Re: It says I'm running nvidia graphics card in Prime but INXI -G says differently

Post by Larry78723 »

Please post the results of the following command:

Code: Select all

cat /etc/default/grub
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dinkarnold
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Re: It says I'm running nvidia graphics card in Prime but INXI -G says differently

Post by dinkarnold »

I forgot to mention it in the first post but my device 2 should be rtx 2070 super.
Thanks for the reply!

Code: Select all

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"
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Re: It says I'm running nvidia graphics card in Prime but INXI -G says differently

Post by SMG »

dinkarnold wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:38 amI know it says I don't have an nvidia driver installed, but my Driver Manager says my device is using
nvidia-driver-470 (recommended) Version 470.86-0ubuntu0.20.04.2 nvidia driver metapackage

Anybody able to help me?
Please check this post for an explanation of the difference between the Nvidia driver files being installed and them loading at boot time.

There can be several different reasons the Nvidia driver files do not load at boot time. The most common reason is secure boot being enabled and MOK not set up for the Nvidia driver files. You can check your Secure Boot status by running mokutil --sb-state in a terminal. If it is enabled, then see if you can disable it in your BIOS/UEFI.
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A woman typing on a laptop with LM20.3 Cinnamon.
dinkarnold
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Re: It says I'm running nvidia graphics card in Prime but INXI -G says differently

Post by dinkarnold »

Thanks so much, that worked! I turned off secure boot in the BIOS. I just want to be sure that it is safe to run to laptop without secure boot? It gave me a warning beforehand, I'm assuming that's ignorable? Thanks again for your help, very appreciated!
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Re: It says I'm running nvidia graphics card in Prime but INXI -G says differently

Post by SMG »

dinkarnold wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 9:50 pmI just want to be sure that it is safe to run to laptop without secure boot? It gave me a warning beforehand, I'm assuming that's ignorable?
Most people running with Nvidia drivers have disabled Secure Boot. I'm not aware of anyone having issues because of it. In fact, it can get quite tedious to have to work around Microsoft's Secure Boot requirement to sign and re-sign third party drivers every time the kernel is updated.

This is an older article, but it explains How Secure Boot Works on Windows 8 and 10, and What It Means for Linux.
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A woman typing on a laptop with LM20.3 Cinnamon.
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