Using the Onboard VGA output with a PCIe video card. Both nVidia

Posted by sebikul on Ask Ubuntu See other posts from Ask Ubuntu or by sebikul
Published on 2011-03-12T17:19:22Z Indexed on 2011/03/13 0:19 UTC
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I have 2 video cards, one On board, a nVidia 6150SE nForce 430 and a PCIe nVidia GeForce GT 220 1GB DDR2 RAM

I have already configured the PCIe card to use the dual monitor feature, using the VGA and HDMI ports, but now I want to add a third monitor, using the On board VGA port

I have managed to enable the On board graphics processor, which is taking 400MB of ram, but I cant manage to use it, nvidia-settings does not detect it, like it's not usable (but is there)

My questions are the following:

  1. How can I manage to get the On board VGA display to work together with the PCIe graphics card?

  2. If possible, how can I recover those 400 MB the on board card is taking (even without being used) or how can I get it to use the PCIe card available memory?


System Details:

Linux 2.6.35-28-generic i686 Ubuntu 10.10 (All updates installed)
NVIDIA Driver Version: 260.19.06 (Official)

If more info is needed please let me know.

Here is the lspci output when the On board card is disabled:

00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMBus (rev a2)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMU (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge (rev a1)
00:05.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 IDE (rev a2)
00:07.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller (rev a2)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 08)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 220] (rev a2)
02:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)

And this is when both are enabled:

00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a1)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 LPC Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMBus (rev a2)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SMU (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP61 USB Controller (rev a3)
00:04.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI bridge (rev a1)
00:05.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP61 High Definition Audio (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 IDE (rev a2)
00:07.0 Bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:08.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP61 SATA Controller (rev a2)
00:09.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0b.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP61 PCI Express bridge (rev a2)
00:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430] (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
01:09.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82557/8/9/0/1 Ethernet Pro 100 (rev 08)
02:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GT216 [GeForce GT 220] (rev a2)
02:00.1 Audio device: nVidia Corporation High Definition Audio Controller (rev a1)

Output of lshw -class display:

  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GT216 [GeForce GT 220]
       vendor: nVidia Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:02:00.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:18 memory:df000000-dfffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:da000000-dbffffff ioport:ef80(size=128) memory:def80000-deffffff
  *-display
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: C61 [GeForce 6150SE nForce 430]
       vendor: nVidia Corporation
       physical id: d
       bus info: pci@0000:00:0d.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 66MHz
       capabilities: pm msi vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
       resources: irq:22 memory:dd000000-ddffffff memory:b0000000-bfffffff memory:dc000000-dcffffff memory:deb40000-deb5ffff

If what I'm looking for is not possible, please tell me, so I can disable the On board card and recover those 400MB of wasted RAM

Thanks for your help!

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