Help with GPU drivers in ubuntu

[cheloxnz]

Sorry, I don't have any systems with AMD GPUs, but

nvidia ($70):

$ sudo lshw -C display
  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: GP108 [GeForce GT 1030]
       vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
       physical id: 0
       bus info: pci@0000:08:00.0
       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:85 memory:f5000000-f5ffffff memory:e0000000-efffffff memory:f0000000-f1ffffff ioport:e000(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff

nvidia 430 GT that is failing. It has been dying a few months. Think it was $30 about 9-10 yrs ago.

           *-generic:0
                description: Unassigned class
                product: Illegal Vendor ID
                vendor: Illegal Vendor ID
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
                version: ff
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 66MHz
                capabilities: bus_master vga_palette cap_list rom
                configuration: driver=nvidia latency=255 maxlatency=255 mingnt=255
                resources: irq:16 memory:fa000000-faffffff memory:d8000000-dfffffff memory:d6000000-d7ffffff ioport:ac00(size=128) memory:c0000-dffff

KVM/QEMU Virtual Machine:

$ sudo lshw -C display
  *-display                 
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: QXL paravirtual graphic card
       vendor: Red Hat, Inc.
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 04
       width: 32 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: vga_controller rom
       configuration: driver=qxl latency=0
       resources: irq:10 memory:f4000000-f7ffffff memory:f8000000-fbffffff memory:fc058000-fc059fff ioport:c0c0(size=32) memory:c0000-dffff

Intel iGPU from Pentium G3258 CPU ($50 new):

$ sudo lshw -C display
  *-display               
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Xeon E3-1200 v3/4th Gen Core Processor Integrated Graphics Controller
       vendor: Intel Corporation
       physical id: 2
       bus info: pci@0000:00:02.0
       version: 06
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: msi pm vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
       configuration: driver=i915 latency=0
       resources: irq:29 memory:f7400000-f77fffff memory:e0000000-efffffff ioport:f000(size=64) memory:c0000-dffff

The fact that no driver is being shown for the AMD on your system is concerning. Need to wait for someone with an AMD GPU to respond, it seems. Sorry.

Is that why I can't use 2 screens? I also do not understand, from what it says there I understand that it recognizes my driver, but honestly I am not understanding.

[TheFu]

This is yours:

$ sudo lshw -C display
[sudo] password for cheloxnz: 
  *-display UNCLAIMED       
       description: VGA compatible controller
       product: Wani [Radeon R5/R6/R7 Graphics]
       vendor: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
       physical id: 1
       bus info: pci@0000:00:01.0
       version: e6
       width: 64 bits
       clock: 33MHz
       capabilities: pm pciexpress msi vga_controller cap_list
       configuration: latency=0
       resources: memory:c0000000-cfffffff memory:d0000000-d07fffff ioport:f000(size=256) memory:feb00000-feb3ffff memory:c0000-dffff

The card is "unclamed" and doesn't show any driver. That's sorta important. Look at the "configuration:" lines for all my GPUs. They list the driver .... I bolded and made it RED in hope that it would jump out to you.

A driver is being loaded - lsmod shows that - but it doesn't seem to recognize the GPU. There are a few choices, at least that I can guess.
a) the wrong driver was loaded.
b) the card is failing in some way.
c) the card is reporting it is initialized already, but isn't. This can happen on dual-boot systems with Windows if Windows OS isn't fully, completely, powered off. 5 yrs ago, some hardware, not GPUs, needed Windows to initialize the hardware before it would work. The vendor had created really bad drivers for Linux that didn't initialize all the registers correctly, so when power was lost, whatever the power-spike caused put something random into those registers. Almost always, it was incorrect values, but once every 50 boots, it would work. Some of that old hardware is certainly still in the world. Again, it wasn't GPUs, so that really shouldn't matter here.

For me, I'd swap in an old GPU I have laying around and see if that changes things. I have a few PCI, AGP, and PCIe GPUs laying around for that still.

And just so it is clear - I probably will not buy another nvidia GPU for my next systems. The driver hassles with those are more than I care to deal with anymore. My next build will probably be a Ryzen 2xxx after the next generation has been available for a few months and prices drop 30-50%.

[cheloxnz]

Is that why I can't use 2 screens? I also do not understand, from what it says there I understand that it recognizes my driver, but honestly I am not understanding.

So linux does not serve me any distribution, unfortunately I have to use windows, it works much better with linux.
Thanks greetings.