How can I find what video driver is in use on my system?
I know that sometimes I have the option to change my video display driver, and I can access this functionality by using System->Administration->Additional Drivers. But what's the simple way to see what driver my Ubuntu 10.04 or 10.10 system is using currently?
UPDATE -- I found a command I didn't know about in How to determine version and origin of proprietary drivers.
jockey-text -l
Martin Owens gives this example output:
kmod:nvidia_current - nvidia_current (Proprietary, Enabled, Not in use) pkg:sl-modem-daemon - Software modem (Proprietary, Disabled, Not in use)
kmod stands for kernel module, pkg is obviously an apt package. According to the code, jockey installs the latest candidate package and ignores any detectable kernel modules or blacklisted modules.
The output is more descriptive than that from lshw by itself, but I think it is limited to giving information about drivers that were installed with jockey in the first place. Jockey, launched as jockey-gtk, is (I believe) the same application that runs when you select System->Administration->Additional Drivers .
xorg drivers video nvidia ati
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Run lshw -c video, and look for the line with "configuration". The loaded driver is prefixed with "driver=". Example output:
*-display
description: VGA compatible controller
product: Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
vendor: Intel Corporation
physical id: 2
bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
version: 02
width: 64 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
resources: irq:45 memory:fd000000-fd3fffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff ioport:1800(size=8)
If you want more information about the loaded driver, run modinfo. Output of modinfo i915:
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.35-24-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko license: GPL and additional rights description: Intel Graphics author: Tungsten Graphics, Inc. license: GPL and additional rights ... stripped information for saving space ... depends: drm,drm_kms_helper,video,intel-agp,i2c-algo-bit vermagic: 2.6.35-24-generic SMP mod_unload modversions
Note that modinfo works on filenames and aliases, not on module names. The majority of the modules will have the same name for the module name and filename, but there are exceptions. One of them is nvidia.
Another way of using these commands in order to show you the file name of the driver would be:
modinfo -F filename `lshw -c video | awk '/configuration: driver/{print $2}' | cut -d= -f2`
When loaded, the command lsmod will show the nvidia module as loaded. modinfo nvidia will error out. Why? Because there is no alias "nvidia" and the module is placed in /lib/modules/3.2.0-32-generic/updates/dkms/nvidia_current.ko. You have to use modinfo nvidia_current in this case. (note that modinfo automatically converts - to _, so modinfo nvidia-current is equivalent.)
Use modinfo. If you want to have more information about the i915 driver, run: modinfo i915.
lshw -c video
does show me the driver details as nvidia
You could use the following command to see the currently used vga kernel driver:
lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3 | grep 'in use'
Example output for an ATI / AMD graphic card:
if the open source Radeon driver is used:
Kernel driver in use: radeon
if the proprietary Fglrx driver is used:
Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci
Complete Output with
lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 [1002:94c9] Subsystem: Toshiba America Info Systems Device [1179:ff00] Kernel driver in use: fglrx_pci Kernel modules: fglrx, radeon
Available kernel modules you can see with
lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3 | grep 'Kernel modules':
Kernel modules: fglrx, radeon
Note: This does not work in every case!
For a SiS 65x/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter, there is no "Kernel driver in use" line:
lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A2
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 65x/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter [1039:6325] Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Device [1043:1612] Kernel modules: sisfb
and the available sisfb kernel module is not the loaded driver, because lsmod | grep sisfb has no output (sisfb is blacklisted). In this case also sudo lshw -c video | grep Konfiguration does not work. The output is:
Konfiguration: latency=0
without any driver information.
/usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test --print
One reason is that I have Nvidia Optimus card and that makes thing harder so I added optirun before the command. shareimprove this answer
sudo apt-get install sysinfo
This is a handy little program that can tell you all ya need to know about your PC. Your Answer