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I had a nvidia GPU and onboard graphic card (ivy bridge). Is it possible to enable both cards in ubuntu? When I do CUDA computing I would like to use the onboard graphic card to handle X-display and nvidia GPU to dedicate on computing. But when I need the openGL support I would like to switch back to use the GPU. Is there any way we can do this?

updates

glxinfo |grep "OpenGL"
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce GTX 970/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.3.0 NVIDIA 346.96
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.30 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 346.96
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.50 NVIDIA
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask: (none)
OpenGL extensions:

> dpkg -l|grep prime
ii  nvidia-prime                              0.6.2linuxmint1                            amd64        Tools to enable NVIDIA's Prime

so the nvidia-prime is installed. I use 346 driver and KDE.

lshw -c video
  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: NVIDIA Corporation
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:51 memory:f6000000-f6ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:f7000000-f707ffff
  *-display
       description: Display controller
       product: Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 09
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm bus_master cap_list
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:47 memory:f7400000-f77fffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff ioport:f000(size=64)

So the intel graphic is there.

I tried the prime-select intel, it applied several alternative config, but nothing changed. Then I reboot the machine, it stuck at black screen. I then disabled the intel graphic in bios, boot back. the prime-select tell me nvidia profile is in use. I enable the intel graphic again. Boot back, it still said it is nvidia in use. I also noticed in x-server setting I never have the prime profile option.

Do I need to reboot after switch to intel graphics?

updates 1

I finally dig into dmesg.log then I find out:

[   31.785003] init: Failed to spawn hybrid-gfx main process: unable to execute: No such file or directory
[   31.820796] init: plymouth-upstart-bridge main process ended, respawning

it seems affected by this bug. Any work around?

updates2

seems the hybrid-detect is missing...

start on (starting lightdm
          or starting kdm
          or starting xdm
          or starting lxdm)
task
exec hybrid-detect
/etc/init/hybrid-gfx.conf (END)

but I cannot find hybrid-detect any where. The system seems using gpu-manager. But it still has bugs: "update-alternatives: error: no alternatives for x86_64-linux-gnu_gfxcore_conf" and "/etc/modprobe.d is not a file"

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1 Answer 1

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The Nvidia GeForce GTX 970 is a powerful recent model graphics card with 4GB DDR5 memory. Eventually this graphics card will work perfectly in Ubuntu, but meanwhile the best thing you can do is to install the latest versions of everything.

  • Ubuntu 15.10 is currently the latest version of Ubuntu.
  • The latest proprietary NVIDIA graphics driver from the official NVIDIA Driver Downloads website (if you did not install NVIDIA CUDA from the official NVIDIA CUDA website)
  • Or else install only the latest version of NVIDIA CUDA if it comes bundled with the NVIDIA proprietary graphics driver.

NVIDIA Prime is a way of adding hybrid graphics support to your computer. NVIDIA Prime allows the user to switch between NVIDIA (Performance Mode) and Intel (Power Saving Mode) graphics from the NVIDIA Settings utility.

Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs support NVIDIA Prime. If your computer has an NVIDIA 319 or more recent graphics driver installed, run the following command in all currently supported versions of Ubuntu to install NVIDIA Prime packages:

sudo apt install nvidia-settings nvidia-prime  

Then NVIDIA Prime can be enabled/disabled from the NVIDIA X Server Settings application. You don't need to reboot after toggling Performance Mode/Power Saving Mode in NVIDIA X Server Settings.

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  • Thanks a lot! Do I need to connect the monitor to intel card or it can be on the same displayport/DVI/HDMI?
    – Wang
    Nov 10, 2015 at 4:58
  • You don't need to connect the monitor to the Intel integrated graphics. It can be on the same displayport/DVI/HDMI as the NVIDIA discrete graphics processor.
    – karel
    Nov 10, 2015 at 5:22
  • it does not work so far. See the updates.
    – Wang
    Nov 10, 2015 at 10:19
  • I have to stick to 14.04. I do installed cuda from official site, though it seems irreverent. I do not have prime profiles even I had v352 nvidia-settings. It seems gpu-manager still has many bugs. See here vxlabs.com/2015/02/05/…
    – Wang
    Nov 10, 2015 at 19:22

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