Confused over NVIDIA graphic card is installed or not?

Question

Hi I have a doubt this command shows me these drivers :

$ apt-cache search nvidia | grep -P '^nvidia-[0-9]+\s'

nvidia-331 - Transitional package for nvidia-331 <br/nvidia-346 -
Transitional package for nvidia-346<br/nvidia-352 - Transitional
package for nvidia-361<br/nvidia-361 - Transitional package for
nvidia-367<br/nvidia-367 - NVIDIA binary driver - version
367.57<br/nvidia-304 - NVIDIA legacy binary driver - version 304.134<br/nvidia-340 - NVIDIA binary driver - version 340.101<br/>

And but this command is showing me this result :

$ lspci | grep VGA

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 5500
(rev 09)

making me confuse whether I have NVIDIA graphic card installed or not.
I don't really understand what all this means.

The output of :

$ lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D|Display'

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation HD Graphics 5500 (rev 09) 
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company HD Graphics 5500 
Kernel driver in use: i915 
Kernel modules: i915

--
09:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M/810M/820M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] (rev a1) 
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company GeForce 820M 
Kernel driver in use: nouveau 
Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau

but its not visible anywhere else. Have to install it?

Please [edit] your question and add output of lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D|Display' terminal command. That will answer your question. — Pilot6, Mar 20 '17 at 20:21
apt-cache search nvidia only shows packages available in the repositories, but tells you nothing about installed/not installed. To see if any nvidia related packages are installed, run dpkg -l | grep nvidia. — mikewhatever, Mar 20 '17 at 20:34
@mikewhatever the output of dpkg -l | grep nvidia
is empty. I think the nvidia packages are not installed.Have to install them to use? — user667688, Mar 21 '17 at 04:12
Here you go: http://askubuntu.com/questions/47506/how-do-i-install-additional-drivers?noredirect=1&lq=1. — mikewhatever, Mar 21 '17 at 15:43
@Pilot6 added the output of command lspci -k | grep -EA3 'VGA|3D|Display' . But it's not visible anywhere else. — user667688, Mar 22 '17 at 01:56
@mikewhatever checked the link for installation but in additional driver section nothing is coming up related to NVIDIA. may be they are bundled with Ubuntu. — user667688, Mar 22 '17 at 01:56

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 21 '17 at 07:03

2

As mentioned in the comments: apt-cache search only shows available packages.

The second lspci output shows that you have an Nvidia GeForce 820M and it's currently using the nouveau driver (Kernel driver in use: nouveau). You can use ubuntu-drivers to show applicable packages or it's GUI frontend named additional drivers (can also be started from command line with /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/software-properties-gtk --open-tab=4) and install the package you like.

answered Mar 21 '17 at 07:03

Sethos II

541

ran the above command but didn't find anything in additional drivers section related to NVIDIA.may be they are bundled with Ubuntu. – user667688 Mar 22 '17 at 01:59
Can you boot from a live CD/usb stick and try the same things again? It should at least show up on a fresh install. – Sethos II Mar 22 '17 at 05:39

Confused over NVIDIA graphic card is installed or not?

1 Answers1