When typing into terminal lspci, the output for the graphics card is VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 18)
BUT, further down there is
VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Device 0dd3 (rev a1)
Now i know i have an integrated graphics card, but the regular nvidia driver wont work properly, thus forced to use the Nouveau driver. And for some reason i suspect the Nouveau driver is giving me a hard time letting me connect to a large hdtv via hdmi. Help?
Ninja Edit: if i install the nvidia driver, it just says not in use, and it defaults me to gnome, so i cant use unity, while the Nouveau driver works perfectly..minus not working when i try to connect an external moniter
Best Answer
It sounds like you've a Nvidia Optimus laptop. The nvidia driver from nvidia.com won't work with it out-of-the-box because of the way it's connected (through the CPU). See also Is a NVIDIA GeForce with Optimus Technology supported by Ubuntu?
Since the nvidia driver cannot use the nvidia card and the Intel display is still used by the X server, OpenGL will be unavailable resulting in symptoms like:
To solve this issue after installing the nvidia driver, you need to set the GL library to Mesa which is used for the Intel card. Bumblebee does this when installing.