# LiveCD: Does it use my video card? Potential silly question

## qrthur

Hello folks,

I have a doubt about something, this might be silly but I need to be sure because I am kinda stuck!

How can I determine if when I boot from the LiveCD, it is my graphic card (ATI HD7400M) that is used or my graphic chipset of my processor (Intel® HD Graphics 3000) ?

If I am not wrong, we can be sure it is mandatory using one of them (since framebuffer looks like it is activated because of the 1920x1080p resolution of my terminal). Is this correct ?

When I run lsmod | grep -i radeon, nothing comes out of it. However during boot, the kernel probes my hardware and it sees my graphic card.

Thanks for your insights.

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## NeddySeagoon

qrthur,

Is this a laptop ?

If so, which one?

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## qrthur

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> qrthur,
> 
> Is this a laptop ?
> 
> If so, which one?

 

Yes, it is an HP Elitebook 8560p.

Here are the important specs. : (extracted from here)

```
Processor Name: Intel Core i7-2640M

RAM: 4 GB

Graphics Card: Intel HD Graphics 3000

Graphics Memory: 64

2nd Graphics Card: AMD Mobility Radeon HD 6470M

2nd Graphics Memory: 512
```

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## vaxbrat

Check your /var/log/Xorg.0.log and you may find that the radeon driver gave up because the card is too new and that your X fell back to vesa or something else.  In that case, the radeon module will no longer be loaded.  Because the livedvd is based on stable ebuilds, you will find that it doesn't go native with the Hawaii or other recent series cards.

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## qrthur

Allright,

However my cards is in the Northern Islands/BARTS category. Is this "new" enough to be concerned with what you said ?

And on the liveCD, Xorg is not installed. If the radeon module is not loaded, can we be sure that my graphic card is not used? And that it is indeed my intel hd graphics that handles the framebuffer display?

I want to know this because when I will install my gentoo I don't want to setup my radeon card but only use the graphic chipset from my cpu (because I have no use for high graphics but I crave for power saving)

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## NeddySeagoon

qrthur,

The HP Datasheet reads as if you have two complete graphics systems.

Maybe you do.

There are framebuffer drivers for both your graphics chips.

/var/log/Xory.0.log will show which graphics chip is in use.  If you don't yet have Xorg, look through dmesg.  Its using whichever chip has been assigned fb0

Oh, there are no silly questions, except the one you never ask.

Be on your guard for silly answers.

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## qrthur

Great, I have all the needed infos !

Thanks for your help,

qrthur

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## Ant P.

For future reference, just do:

```
cat /sys/class/graphics/fb0/name
```

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## qrthur

 *Ant P. wrote:*   

> For future reference, just do:
> 
> ```
> cat /sys/class/graphics/fb0/name
> ```
> ...

 

Good to know ! Cheers.

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