Why are 3d effects working without any graphics driver installed?

**josephellengar** · May 5th, 2012

I was getting pretty frustrated with the Nvidia driver not working and how I kept being put in low-graphics mode. So I followed these instructions up to step 5. That is, I blacklisted nouveau and all of those other drivers and completely uninstalled all of the Nvidia drivers, but did not install a new driver. Why are 3D effects and compiz still working? And why I am now able to use the most up to date kernel when I never could before?

**josephellengar** · May 6th, 2012

bump

**stinkeye** · May 6th, 2012

Check driver your using...

Code:

sudo lshw -c video

eg

Code:

glen@Precise:~$ sudo lshw -c video
[sudo] password for glen: 
  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: G96 [GeForce 9400 GT]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a1
       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:fa000000-faffffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:f8000000-f9ffffff ioport:ef00(size=128) memory:fb000000-fb07ffff

Sure your still using compiz?
Are you being dropped back to the Ubuntu 2d session because you don't have the appropriate drivers?

Code:

echo $DESKTOP_SESSION

**josephellengar** · May 6th, 2012

It says I'm using nouveau, but I thought that that didn't support 3D effects and all of the 3D compiz effects are still working.

EDIT: I'm just curious- not complaining about stuff that's working!

Code:

ross@ross-Laptop:~$ sudo lshw -c video
  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GT216 [GeForce GT 230M]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
       resources: irq:16 memory:d2000000-d2ffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:7000(size=128) memory:d3080000-d30fffff

**stinkeye** · May 6th, 2012

Originally Posted by josephellengar

It says I'm using nouveau, but I thought that that didn't support 3D effects and all of the 3D compiz effects are still working.

EDIT: I'm just curious- not complaining about stuff that's working!

Code:

ross@ross-Laptop:~$ sudo lshw -c video
  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GT216 [GeForce GT 230M]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
       version: a2
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=nouveau latency=0
       resources: irq:16 memory:d2000000-d2ffffff memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d1ffffff ioport:7000(size=128) memory:d3080000-d30fffff

The nouveau driver works wth some nvidia cards and 3d.