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Graphics Cards

How to list graphic cards and its drivers

$ lspci | grep -i --color vga

Result:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 06)

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM206 [GeForce GTX 960] (rev a1)

Driver installed for GeForece GTX 960 (device 01:00.0):

$ sudo lspci -v -s 01:00.0 | grep Kernel

Result:

Kernel driver in use: nouveau

Kernel modules: nouveau

How to check the VGA kernel driver in use

$ lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3 | grep 'in use'

How to install Nvidia drivers for GeForce GTX 960 graphic card

sudo apt install nvidia-driver-418

WARNING: Don't restart the computer after installation. Instead, follow next steps intermediately:

1. Edit /etc/default/grub so the following two lines end up like this:
   • GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nvidia-drm.modeset=1"
   • GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="nomodeset"
2. sudo update-grub

How to disable Nouveau drivers

• Create a file at /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf with the following contents:

blacklist nouveau

options nouveau modeset=0

• Regenerate the kernel initramfs:

$ sudo update-initramfs -u

Screen

How to increase/decrease brightness in MX Linux (XCFE desktop)

Find out the connected display:

$ xrandr -q | grep ' connected' | head -n 1 | cut -d ' ' -f1

In my case, the connected display is HDMI-3. You can now set the brightness with this command (values between 0.0 and 1.0):

$ xrandr --output HDMI-3 --brightness 0.8

How to create a command to change brightness in Debian and alike (MX Linux, etc)

Xrandr allow us to change monitor brightness between the ranges of 0.0 and 0.99 values, being 0.0 total darkness and 0.99 total brightness. We can make a command to set the brightness.

Note: For this work on Fedora, you must disable Wayland and enable Xorg as default GNOME session. Please read intructions here.

• Create a bin directory on your home directory:

$ mkdir bin

• Create a file with a text editor inside the newly created bin directory:

$ vi bin/mycommand

• Add the following code:

#!/bin/bash

display=$(xrandr -q | grep ' connected' | head -n 1 | cut -d ' ' -f1)

xrandr --output $display --brightness 0.$1

• Make the file executable:

$ chmod +x bin/mycommand

• Edit the file ~/.bashrc and add the following line:

export set PATH=$PATH:~/bin

• Reboot

Usage example

Set brightness to 0.75:

$ mycommand 75

Backing out in case of failure

In case you want to restore your system to the state it was before, do:

If you can't use your desktop environment:

hit Ctrl+alt+F2

login as root

 # apt-get purge nvidia. (don't forget the "." dot) It erases every package with "nvidia" on its name

 # /etc/init.d/gdm3 stop  (gdm3 for gnome 3)

 # apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg

 # apt-get install --reinstall xserver-xorg-video-nouveau

 # killall Xorg

 # reboot

Xorg should reconfigure itself, if not run a terminal and pass

# X -configure

https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers