How to verify if my graphics card is well installed on Linux?

Question

I have Debian 64 bits Wheezy XFCE and a MSI GT720 2Gb of memory, when I launch hardinfo it said I have only 128Mb so how can be sure ?

Is there a specific command ?

• lspci | grep VGA gives:

  01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1288 (rev a1)
  

  But, my card is GT720 MSI, not really 1288 ?

• The command find /dev -group video gives nothing.

• The command glxinfo | grep -i vendor gives:

  server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
  client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
  OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
  

• The command apt-cache search nvidia | grep driver gives:

  bumblebee-nvidia - NVIDIA Optimus support using the proprietary NVIDIA driver  
  nvidia-settings-legacy-173xx - tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics   driver (173xx legacy version)  
  nvidia-settings-legacy-96xx - tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics   driver (96xx legacy version)  
  nvidia-installer-cleanup - cleanup after driver installation with the nvidia-installer  
  nvidia-support - NVIDIA binary graphics driver support files  
  nvidia-xconfig - X configuration tool for non-free NVIDIA drivers  
  nvidia-glx - transition to nvidia-driver  
  nvidia-opencl-common - NVIDIA OpenCL driver  
  nvidia-glx-legacy-173xx - transition to nvidia-legacy-173xx-driver  
  nvidia-legacy-173xx-driver - NVIDIA metapackage (173xx legacy version)  
  xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-legacy-173xx - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver (173xx legacy version)  
  nvidia-glx-legacy-96xx - transition to nvidia-legacy-96xx-driver  
  nvidia-legacy-96xx-driver - NVIDIA metapackage (96xx legacy version)  
  xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-legacy-96xx - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver (96xx legacy version)  
  nvidia-settings - tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver  
  nvidia-settings-legacy-304xx - tool for configuring the NVIDIA graphics driver (304xx legacy version)  
  vdpau-va-driver - VDPAU-based backend for VA API  
  xserver-xorg-video-nouveau-dbg - X.Org X server -- Nouveau display driver (debug symbols)  
  nvidia-driver - NVIDIA metapackage  
  nvidia-driver-bin - NVIDIA driver support binaries  
  nvidia-opencl-icd - NVIDIA OpenCL installable client driver (ICD)  
  nvidia-vdpau-driver - Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix - NVIDIA driver  
  xserver-xorg-video-nvidia - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver  
  nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver - NVIDIA metapackage (304xx legacy version)  
  xserver-xorg-video-nvidia-legacy-304xx - NVIDIA binary Xorg driver (304xx legacy version)  
  

• The command lspci | grep -e VGA -e 3D gives:

  01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1288 (rev a1)
  

• The command glxinfo | grep OpenGL | grep renderer give:

  OpenGL renderer string: GeForce GT 720/PCIe/SSE2

• The software Config Xserver Nvidia gives:

Solution

I can't comment (this is my first answer here, I will do my best with it), but I had a similar issue on Arch Linux before and this post (see below) helped me troubleshoot if my video driver is running. I don't know if you have done this already, but here are a few things to do:

As suggested by @eyoung100 above you should check if your video card is picked up by the system: lspci | grep -e VGA -e 3D. If it is, since you have Nvidia, make sure you install nvidia driver. apt-cache search nvidia | grep driver on Ubuntu is telling me that the package is called 'nvidia-304', which is what you should install, (however you can also install one from Nvidia itself for a more up to date package).

Instructions from Ubuntu Forum: will tell you if your driver (that you installed) is loaded properly. I list the main ones below, but the credit is to that post.

In Linux, there is two parts for the video driver, the kernel part and the X server part.

• Let's identify your hardware first. By typing lspci | grep VGA in a terminal, you should see a line with you graphic card description (even if not configured at all).
• Let's check the correct kernel driver is loaded find /dev -group video. Small Update: I forgot that on Debian you might need to run this as root, which is why this command gave nothing, but I could be wrong. Sorry.
• Let's check the correct X driver is loaded glxinfo | grep -i vendor.

Note: Glxinfo may not be installed by default.

I would've written most of this in a comment, but I can't. Feel free to edit this to make the answer better (Sorry, I am on a VM at work, so I can't provide sample output to these commands, but I will try to when I am at my machine). Thank you.

Comments

[Admin]

Use lshw or lspci...

[rbaleksandar]

lspci, glxinfo and find /dev ... all should work on a VM too. Sure, the vendor will be VirtualBox whatever but still it will provide some decent output. :)