Ubuntu – Remove nvidia graphics card and use integrated intel graphics

The trick is to load nvidia card in to the device without module nvidia, because nsight don't need this module to debug. And I don't need nvidia module as a display.

Here is what I did:

I add the file named nvidia_cuda into /etc/init.d and make it executive by chmod +X

This is given by nvidia, but I commented the line /sbin/modprobe nvidia

#!/bin/bash

# /sbin/modprobe nvidia

if [ "$?" -eq 0 ]; then
  # Count the number of NVIDIA controllers found.
  NVDEVS=`lspci | grep -i NVIDIA`
  N3D=`echo "$NVDEVS" | grep "3D controller" | wc -l`
  NVGA=`echo "$NVDEVS" | grep "VGA compatible controller" | wc -l`

   N=`expr $N3D + $NVGA - 1`
   for i in `seq 0 $N`; do
     mknod -m 666 /dev/nvidia$i c 195 $i
   done

   mknod -m 666 /dev/nvidiactl c 195 255

 else
   exit 1
 fi

This file is from http://docs.nvidia.com/cuda/cuda-getting-started-guide-for-linux/#runfile-installation 2.5.2. Runfile Installation, Step 6.

But first you need to verify that you have both cards as pci device. I enabled intel multi-display in BIOS to get this.

$ lspci | grep VGA
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 GK208 [GeForce GT 635] (rev a1)

• It seems you are running free driver where Steam recommend NVIDIA proprietary driver. You can confirm using: glxinfo or more precisely:

  glxinfo | grep OpenGL
  

• Myself I have bad experience with installing NVIDIA proprietary driver from Ubuntu repository. so I would prefer downloading it from NVIDIA website. Check your OS architecture 32bit or 64bit using System Monitor or by just running one of these commands:

  file /bin/ls    
  uname -a
  

• Drop shell using Ctrl+Alt+F6 , login

  cd to_directory_where_driver
  sudo su
  chmod +x driver_filename
  service lightdm stop
  ./driver_filename
  reboot
  

Read very well the installing messages as the default is not always what you want.

You should keep that driver installation file because it needed in case you want to revert or repair the installation.