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I recently installed Nvidia graphics card on my laptop. However even after installation the machine is still using the Intel graphic chip. I tried running prime-select nvidia, the output being nvidia profile is already set but whenever I try checking which graphic card I am using, by, 

lspci -vnnn | perl -lne 'print if /^\d+\:.+(\[\S+\:\S+\])/' | grep VGA

the output is still

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 520 [8086:1916] (rev 07) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])

I also tried 

optirun glxinfo|egrep "OpenGL vendor|OpenGL renderer"

output

OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: llvmpipe (LLVM 5.0, 256 bits)

but still no effect. I tried going to the nvidia-setting to configure the prime profile through the GUI, but the prime profile tab is not displayed. NOTE: I installed nvidia-prime through a deb file, apt install nvidia-prime didn't seem to work.

UPDATE
The output from sudo lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3&&sudo lshw -c display

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 520 [8086:1916] (rev 07)
    Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Skylake GT2 [HD Graphics 520] [103c:820c]
    Kernel driver in use: i915
    Kernel modules: i915
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: HD Graphics 520
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 07
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pciexpress msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:131 memory:a2000000-a2ffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff ioport:5000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff
  *-display
       description: 3D controller
       product: GM108M [GeForce 940MX]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:134 memory:a3000000-a3ffffff memory:90000000-9fffffff memory:a0000000-a1ffffff ioport:4000(size=128)
Sahil
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  • Will you add the output of sudo lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3&&sudo lshw -c display to your question? – L. D. James Apr 11 '18 at 06:39
  • done @L.D.James – Sahil Apr 11 '18 at 07:16
  • What release of Ubuntu & which nvidia driver version/ – doug Apr 11 '18 at 12:48
  • Are you still having problems switching to nvidia? If the command provided in the answer doesn't work, you may have some other unexpected issue, which I'm sure I would be able to help with. If it works, it may be a contribution back to the community for others trying to switch to preferred drives, to find solutions that work. – L. D. James Apr 12 '18 at 18:57
  • I recently had the chance to try your solution out. Thank You so much. It worked for me flawlessly and even on my buddies system, who switched to Linux only, recently. @L.D.James – Sahil Apr 13 '18 at 19:37

1 Answers1

2

You can switch nvidia graphics drivers from the commandline using this command:

$ sudo apt install nvidia-###

(Replace the ### with the number of the version you want to switch to.)

Currently the latest version from the repository is nvidia-384. The latest version # from the Official nVidia Website will depend on which specific card you specify in the download option.

You have nvidia [GeForce 940MX] which is compatible with nvidia-384 driver (currently the highest nvidia in the repository). You can install it with this command:

$ sudo apt install nvidia-384

The following command will show you the current drivers you have installed on your computer:

$ ubuntu-drivers devices

This command will show you all the available drivers in the repository, and will include any PPA's you have installed:

$ apt search nvidia - | egrep "^nvidia-[0-9]+\/"

Because it appears that you have downloaded drivers from nvida, you will see a later version than the one in the default repository. You can use the command to install that driver by replacing install nvidia-384 with the number you see from the previous command install nvidia-xxx.

Note:

If you inadvertently select an unstabled version that causes the desktop not to properly load, you can change the driver to the nvidia-384 (or working version) from the console (Alt+Ctrl+F2).

After the install of a different driver, this command shows which one is currently in use:

$ lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3

In your case, results from the requested command shows that you currently have the [HD Graphics 520] driver being used.

You can use this direct link to nVidia's Driver Downloads. From the Operating System drop-down, choose your version of Ubuntu.

Currently the highest nVidia driver version that I find is in the PPA provided by Webupd8, which is version nvidia-396.

L. D. James
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