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Switch Back From NVIDIA to Nouveau

· 2 min read

disable nvidia driver​

  1. open terminal

  2. check the current driver

    lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"

    see the output like this:

    Kernel driver in use: nvidia

  3. switch to text mode

    sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target
    sudo reboot

  4. remove nvidia driver one by one

    sudo modprobe -r nvidia*

uninstall nvidia driver​

sudo apt remove --purge '^nvidia-.*'
sudo apt autoremove
sudo apt clean

Or if you installed nvidia driver from the official website, you can uninstall it by running the installer again and select uninstall.

sudo ./NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-xxx.xx.run --uninstall

reinstall the nouveau driver​

sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau

update the initramfs​

sudo update-initramfs -u

reconfigure xorg​

sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf*

enable nouveau driver​

sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf

switch back to graphical mode​

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
sudo reboot

verify the nouveau driver​

lspci -k | grep -A 2 -E "(VGA|3D)"

see if the output like this:

Kernel driver in use: nouveau

resolve the issue​

modprobe: FATAL: module nvidia is in use

stop the display manager​

sudo systemctl stop gdm/kdm/lightdm

kill processes using the nvidia driver​

sudo fuser -k /dev/nvidia*

unload the nvidia driver​

sudo modprobe -r nvidia_drm nvidia_modeset nvidia_uvm nvidia

blacklist the nvidia driver​

echo "blacklist nvidia" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia.conf
sudo update-initramfs -u