Linux find out graphics card installed in my system

by nixCraft on April 24, 2007 · 23 comments· last updated at April 24, 2007

Q. How do I find out which graphics card installed in my Linux desktop system? I’m using Ubuntu Linux. I don’t want to open up the computer hardware to just see the make and model of the graphics card in a system.

A. You don’t have to open the hardware to see the make and model of the graphics card in a system. There is direct method provided by using lspci command.

This command will usually tell you the vendor and model of your card. Open xterminal or shell prompt and type the command:
$ lspci $ lspci -v $ lspci -v | less
Output:

00:01.0 PCI bridge: Broadcom BCM5785 [HT1000] PCI/PCI-X Bridge
00:02.0 Host bridge: Broadcom BCM5785 [HT1000] Legacy South Bridge
00:02.1 IDE interface: Broadcom BCM5785 [HT1000] IDE
00:02.2 ISA bridge: Broadcom BCM5785 [HT1000] LPC
00:03.0 USB Controller: Broadcom BCM5785 [HT1000] USB (rev 01)
00:03.1 USB Controller: Broadcom BCM5785 [HT1000] USB (rev 01)
00:03.2 USB Controller: Broadcom BCM5785 [HT1000] USB (rev 01)
00:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27)
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
01:0d.0 PCI bridge: Broadcom BCM5785 [HT1000] PCI/PCI-X Bridge (rev b2)
01:0e.0 RAID bus controller: Broadcom BCM5785 [HT1000] SATA (Native SATA Mode)
02:03.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)
02:03.1 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5704 Gigabit Ethernet (rev 10)

Look for video controller / vga keywords in above output listing.

It is a good idea to run update-pciids command to fetches the current version of the pci.ids file from the primary distribution site and installs it. You must run update-pciids command as root user:
$ sudo update-pciids
OR
# update-pciids

Hardware information GUI tool

Under Ubuntu Linux you can open hardware information GUI tool by clicking on:
System > Preferences > Hardware information

(click to enlarge)

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{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Steph April 25, 2007 at 5:03 am

great :-)
it’s work also for AGP bus ? (like “lsagp” )

2 DayOldPorridge January 12, 2009 at 10:48 pm

Awesome. Just what I needed.

3 Dhana March 23, 2009 at 7:21 am

Hi frds im new in ubuntu os. Any one tell me which tv tuner card is suitable for ubuntu 8.04 version and also plz tell me the installation steps for drivers software

Adavance thanks!..

4 Carr April 8, 2009 at 9:27 am

Great – thanks for the help!

5 isa May 9, 2009 at 6:47 am

That System>Preferences>Hardware Information tool looks nifty… how do I install it?

I looked, and didn’t see it on my menu :(

I am running Jaunty Jackalope 64 bit

In the mean time, I did an lspci and found out this though:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RV770 [Radeon HD 4870]

Now, where would I find a linux driver for that card?

(Why do I hear a deafening roar on “The friggin ATI website ya moron!”? OK, ok, I’ll look their, ok? LoL…)

6 Vivek Gite May 9, 2009 at 7:47 am: You can download driver from ATI website or see driver CD:
http://support.amd.com/us/
Click on Driver Download
Enter your product Select Linux as os.
Reply

7 isa May 9, 2009 at 7:48 am

OK, so I went there and DL’d the driver, which was a .run file.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/linux/Pages/radeon_linux.aspx?type=2.4.1&product=2.4.1.3.36&lang=English

Now I can’t get it to work!

What to do?

8 isa May 9, 2009 at 8:05 am

I double clicked on the package and got this:

Then I changed the character coding to Western (ISO-8859-15):

…without success :(

9 Vivek Gite May 9, 2009 at 8:28 am: First, read installation notes . Next, try command to download and start installer:
cd /tmp wget https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206/0/www2.ati.com/drivers/linux/ati-driver-installer-9-4-x86.x86_64.run chmod +x ati-driver-installer-9-4-x86.x86_64.run ./ati-driver-installer-9-4-x86.x86_64.run
Note above is 64 bit driver. If you are using 32bit Linux os, download 32bit driver.
Reply

10 isa May 9, 2009 at 9:35 am

It says:

Uninstalling the ATI Linux Proprietary Driver
Uninstalling the ATI Linux Proprietary Driver is dependent on the mode of the
initial installation.
…/snip/…
Package Generation
If the initial installation of the driver was done via the Operating Systems package
management software (RPM, APT, etc.) then please use that package management
software to remove the ATI Proprietary Linux Driver.
Here’s a Q…

I opened up the Synaptic Package Manager and searched for the string:
ATI Linux Proprietary Driver

I came across so many items, it was nauseating! I am too scared to touch anything other than that specific string… And I can’t find it :”(

So, what would it be called exactly? I mean, am I indeed looking for the correct string in the first place???

11 isa May 9, 2009 at 1:31 pm

Done!

I got some more help from elsewhere.

Anyone else that wishes to learn how I installed my driver, please read Legace‘s post.

12 isa May 9, 2009 at 1:32 pm

That link again…

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=7245052#post7245052

Mods can please merge the posts, and delete the gibberish a href code I mismanaged.

Thank you

13 gishaust June 3, 2009 at 5:34 am

thanks just what i need

14 Hadi June 25, 2009 at 8:43 pm

hehhe,
just testing.

15 AO June 28, 2009 at 4:36 pm

Good one. Just what I needed.

16 gsk July 2, 2009 at 12:46 pm

I have a Pinnacle Tv tuner 110i card on PCI and working with windows, but ubuntu does not recognise nor reads CD supplied with it. How to install this Tv tuner? Pl.help

17 theGuyOnThePC October 25, 2009 at 4:58 pm

Excellent! Now why can’t this be done under windows? They call it “plug n’ play”…

18 aghaei January 10, 2010 at 4:47 am

how can video adapter installes in linux 5?
thanks

19 theorist February 6, 2010 at 4:40 am

hi….
i got output of lspci in terminal of ubuntu 9.10 as this
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82Q963/Q965 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

now how do is this also installed the same way as ati card is intalled or do i have to something different.?

20 theorist February 6, 2010 at 5:04 am

i wanted to install 3d desktop on ubuntu 9.10. and i found a “how to” which only spoke of ati.

21 jay July 16, 2010 at 3:15 pm

hello..
i have a via chrome video chrome9 hc and i couldnt find the driver for it. i tryed many things but it didnt work. is there anyone who could help here?!

22 CH SANTHOSH September 28, 2010 at 4:47 am