Which graphics board my OS is using?

Question

Is there any way to specify which graphics chipset our OS should use? on machines with discrete GPU, when graphics driver installed linux will by default use GPU for UI but I want OS to use on-board graphics. Is there any way to do this? through BIOS?Xorg.conf? Machine conf: Linux 32bit GPU: NVIDIA Tesla

Answer 1

The on-board graphics card is disabled by the plugged in card. This is expected behaviour on most motherboards.

You can check if you see both cards using lspci. It'll show you one line per monitor output. There will be many lines of output because your system is loaded with devices connected to the PCI-bus, so you'll have to filter the GUI lines manually. That shouldn't be too hard though. Mine looks like this:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

A single on board GPU (PCI address 00:02) with two outputs (output .0 and .1). I have no extra GPU in my system.

Answer 2

The easiest way to do this is to plug a monitor into the port for the GPU you want to use, and don't plug a monitor into the port for the GPU you don't want to use. Then start the computer.