Ubuntu – Split screen problem with Nivida GeForce GTX 770M

graphicsmultiple-monitorsnvidia

The Info

I am running a laptop with dual graphics cards: Intel and the Nvidia GrForce GTX 770M

I have the Nvidia drivers installed

I have Ubuntu 14.04 x64 installed

The second monitor shows in the system settings, and all of the settings are properly set

The Problem

When I plug in my external monitor (via VGA) I get this weird split screen problem as depicted in the following picture:

problem

Sorry for poor picture quality, my phone stinks for a camera

When I go into the Nvidia control panel and switch to my Intel card the problem is gone but I need the power of my Nvidia card. Any ideas?

If you need more info feel free to ask!

Best Answer

I had similar problem. You have probably two graphic controllers one is GeForce GTX770M and second is integrated in processor Intel GMA 4000. Run nvidia-settings and check which one you have currently using. After changing from NVIDIA (Performance Mode) to Intel ( Power Saving Mode) my 2 screens started to working properly.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Ubuntu 16.04: nvidia drivers for GeForce GTX 960M

This file was modified by the Community with no fresh time stamps after May 7 2016, but there should be one for Sep 16 2016 because it showed up on the active list.

The answer above sudo apt-add-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa today results with:

 Fresh drivers from upstream, currently shipping Nvidia.

## Current Status

We currently recommend: `nvidia-367`, Nvidia's current long lived branch.
For GeForce 8 and 9 series GPUs use `nvidia-340`
For GeForce 6 and 7 series GPUs use `nvidia-304`

nvidia-370 is the current BETA release!

## What we're working on right now:

- Normal driver updates
- Investigating how to bring this goodness to distro on a cadence.

## WARNINGS:

This PPA is currently in testing, you should be experienced with packaging before you dive in here. Give us a few days to sort out the kinks.

Volunteers welcome! See also: https://github.com/mamarley/nvidia-graphics-drivers/

### How you can help:

## Install PTS and benchmark your gear:

    sudo apt-get install phoronix-test-suite

Run the benchmark:

    phoronix-test-suite default-benchmark openarena xonotic tesseract gputest unigine-valley

and then say yes when it asks you to submit your results to openbechmarking.org. Then grab a cup of coffee, it takes a bit for the benchmarks to run. Depending on the version of Ubuntu you're using it might preferable for you to grabs PTS from upstream directly: http://www.phoronix-test-suite.com/?k=downloads

## Share your results with the community:

Post a link to your results (or any other feedback to): https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers-testers

Remember to rerun and resubmit the benchmarks after driver upgrades, this will allow us to gather a bunch of data on performance that we can share with everybody.

If you run into old documentation referring to other PPAs, you can help us by consolidating references to this PPA.

If someone wants to go ahead and start prototyping on `software-properties-gtk` on what the GUI should look like, please start hacking!

## Help us Help You!

We use the donation funds to get the developers hardware to test and upload these drivers, please consider donating to the "community" slider on the donation page if you're loving this PPA:

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/contribute
 More info: https://launchpad.net/~graphics-drivers/+archive/ubuntu/ppa
Press [ENTER] to continue or ctrl-c to cancel adding it

Be advised there are instructions on Nvidia site about disadvantages of upgrading Debian (which Ubuntu is based on) versus clean install.

Also be advised Nvidia website might have special instructions for Haswell, however their current drivers use the same one from my lowly GT650M up to OP's GT760M but there can be all kinds of recommended changes in other areas of the system based on Intel CPU and/or systemd or Debian.

Also there are special circumstances like the OP where Integrated Graphics and Discrete Graphics aka "Hybrid Graphics" are built into the Motherboard.

The Nvidia website does talk about black screens that are common questions in A.U. (Ask Ubuntu) so it's a worthwhile visit for most reading the OP's question.

Ubuntu – Ubuntu 16.04 only works when secondary monitor is connected

You appear to have an Intel "Skylake" CPU in your Gigabyte Aero 14 laptop. The Skylake has integrated Intel graphics and unless I'm mistaken is used by default to drive the primary (non-external) monitor. Issues have been reported with screens freezing related to the Skylake line of mobile processors. Considering everything you've already tried and the results you've reported I think it's safe to say that this may be a kernel issue and not the usual graphics driver issue. Make sure you do not have nomodeset or vga= as a kernel parameter, since Intel requires kernel mode-setting.

It could also be useful to temporarily try intel_idle.max_cstate=1 as a kernel boot parameter.

You might also reconfigure X.

EDIT: Since your laptop has Optimus Graphics technology you might need to install nvidia-prime or bumblebee and check your BIOS display setting to obtain the desired results (as it's unclear at least to me whether you've selected a specific display adapter or are using a hybrid graphics setting .

You might also obtain some clues from this question.

It's also possible that in your numerous attempts to find the right graphics driver for your situation that you may have inadvertently created something of a mess in which case you might find this answer particularly useful.