Driver Manager shows blank

[rare phoenix]

Laptop randomly wouldn't detect the nvidia driver that was currently installed, no updates were installed; it just stopped detecting it.

I am new to linux, so I followed forums to guide me through the process of installing a new driver via terminal.
Installed nvidia PPA > installed nvidia-driver-550 but regardless of this installation the nvidia GPU is not shown in system report.

Any help would be appreciated,
Thanks in advance,

tried posting "inxi -Fxz" results but is too long.

Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Rembrandt [Radeon 680M] vendor: ASUSTeK driver: amdgpu
v: kernel arch: RDNA-2 bus-ID: 06:00.0 temp: 43.0 C
Device-2: Shine-optics USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
bus-ID: 1-4:2
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.6 driver: X:
loaded: amdgpu unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: amdgpu
resolution: 1920x1080~144Hz
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: radeonsi,swrast platforms:
active: x11,surfaceless,device inactive: gbm,wayland
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 24.0.9-0ubuntu0.3
glx-v: 1.4 direct-render: yes renderer: AMD Radeon Graphics (radeonsi
rembrandt LLVM 17.0.6 DRM 3.57 6.8.0-51-generic)

[floral bloom]

starting off, do you have an Nvidia card?

[rare phoenix]

Yes, GTX 2050

[floral bloom]

if the card is not detected by the system as it didn't exist, it means something is wrong with the card itself, the firmware or is not connected to your motherboard properly. it's not appearing in driver manager because your pc can't see it.

do you have a 2nd pc you could test the card with?

[rare phoenix]

Unfortunately, I do not.

Is there anything else that could be done to trybto detect the gpu besides opening the laptop?

Up until yesterday I never ran into an inssue of such nature.

[floral bloom]

@opal vapor

[opal vapor]

You rang?
From what I can see that thing has a 680M, which is not all that much slower than the nvidia. Use that for the time being.
Since the inxi query does not even show the nvidia, you should check in BIOS/UEFI if you can enable/disable it. If not, mentally prepare to cross-check with a live ISO from another distro.

I would seem that, after ~25 years of "support", nvidia is also still new to Linux.

[rare phoenix]

Thank you both for the reply, opened the laptop for a quick check, GPU seemed to be in proper place. (is all mounted together cpu/gpu with a screw securing a plate on top). BIOS is already latest version & unfortunately the BIOS doesn't provide an option to enable/disable between Radeon 680 & RTX 2050 so is pretty much stuck with 680.

using dpkg -l | grep nvidia

it showed driver 550 installed & nvidia prime applet as well. I tried uninstalling both & reinstalling but the problem remains.

@opal vapor may I ask what does it means to cross-check with a live ISO?

Thanks again.

[opal vapor]

You could get an ISO of another distro, get it on a flash drive and boot from that. Fedora is a known quantity and popular for this kind of test. You want to see if the nvidia shows up there. If not, something is wrong on the hardware level. If it does, we need to fix a software issue.

But first, how did you install the nvidia driver?

[rare phoenix]

I unstalled it using PPA repository
command: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

after updating it still was showing blank and inxi -Fxz was still showing Radeon 680

[opal vapor]

The thing is, if you used the script that can be downloaded from the nvidia website, you may taint your system, and it will likely break the driver on kernel update. Which happens regularly.

[rare phoenix]

I apologize if i seem to have issues grasping the concepts, so I should've installed the drivers directly from website instead of a script?

[opal vapor]

No. Nvidia offers a "Linux driver" on their website, which some people download and run. This is actually script that does not fit well on most systems and should not be used. I was just trying to find out if you used that at some point.

[rare phoenix]

I did made the mistake of installing the drivers via different methods. Which could've result in what youre saying. But the GPU was not being deteced by driver manager before I attempted to make changes tot he drivers.

[rare phoenix]

To answer precisely I did tried to reinstall drivers using PPA & also manual method without success.

[opal vapor]

The PPA just adds another source, but the driver gets installed through Driver Manager. Did you use that?

[rare phoenix]

Unfortunately no, it shows no driver available for installation.

which is precisely why I tried alternate ways to get it done.

[opal vapor]

The 2050 is still in support, it should show up. But at this point, either the GPU or your install is broken. Let's assume the latter, so you want to get an ISO, put it on a bootable medium and test with that. Anything with explicit nvidia support is probably good. Nobara and Endeavour have ISOs with preloaded nvidia drivers, iirc, but there are more choices. The idea is to check in there if the nvidia is detected.

[floral bloom]

any progress?

[rare phoenix]

Hello,

I apologize for the late replies. I had put this on hold during the hollidays & got back to trying a new ISO to see if the GPU would show as opposed to the LM issue as directed.

I just finished Nobara 41 ISO install & the driver manager doesnt show the RTX 2050 but the dual Radeon 680M just like in mint. I also opened the laptop to verify it was properly mounted, everything seemed to be tight & in place (this laptops about 1 year old with less than 9 months of consistent use specifically gaming).

I'll provide a screenshot from my phone of what the driver manager shows.

Thanks in advance;

[floral bloom]

try in terminal inxi -G and lspci

[rare phoenix]

inxi -G
Graphics:
Device-1: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD/ATI] Rembrandt [Radeon 680M]
driver: amdgpu v: kernel
Device-2: Shine-optics USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam driver: uvcvideo type: USB
Display: wayland server: Xwayland v: 24.1.4 compositor: kwin_wayland
driver: N/A resolution: 1536x864
API: EGL v: 1.5 drivers: kms_swrast,radeonsi,swrast
platforms: gbm,wayland,x11,surfaceless,device
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: amd mesa v: 24.3.3 renderer: AMD
Radeon 660M (radeonsi rembrandt LLVM 19.1.5 DRM 3.59
6.12.8-201.fsync.fc41.x86_64)
API: Vulkan v: 1.3.296 drivers: N/A surfaces: xcb,xlib,wayland

[floral bloom]

is the nvidia card detected in windows?

[rare phoenix]

Yes, I didnt know this dual GPU even existed until it randomly stopped detecting the RTX 2050

[floral bloom]

do you currently have a dualboot?

[rare phoenix]

the laptop came with this set up & I never had to enable/disable anything before. It would just automatically detect the nvidia card y default

[zealous zenith]

honestly trying different driver versions is pointless

this is what you would do if the card was detected and you wanted to ensure the proper driver is used for it

trying to install different drivers for a card that isn't detected is like buying a better dress for the prom date you don't have

I had a similar configuration with an older nvidia. The nvidia overheated and died

you should also be able to see the card with lspci

[rare phoenix]

Thanks for that insight. I was actuallly playing PoE2 for 3 days straight and checked the resources the GPU was at 98-100% at all times in low everything. Checked if this would be an issue and found out that "it is ok if your GPU is running at 100% capacity for is properly being used" I'm beggining to wonder if it literally just fried?

[floral bloom]

lspci is posted 5 messages above

we aren't trying to install any drivers for now, the card isn't detected by inxi or lspci on neither mint or fedora

[zealous zenith]

ya its dead

[floral bloom]

so do you currently have a dualboot with windows or no

[opal vapor]

There is a small chance that a UEFI setting is hiding the GeForce from the OS, but it is indeed more likely it just died. Be glad you have a competent iGPU at least.

[rare phoenix]

I do not, I uninstalled windows after trying & testing LM

[rare phoenix]

The BIOS is pretty much useless in terms of customization, you can barely do a thing & there are no options to enable/disable anything retaled to the GPU.

Thanks for the reply;