TIP: How to check which video driver is your X server using?
If you need to find out which driver is being used by your X server in Linux, you can easily find that out by giving the following command:
debian-:~# cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Output
X.Org XInput driver : 2.0
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//vesa_drv.so
ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 2.0
ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 2.0
(II) VESA: driver for VESA chipsets: vesa
ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 2.0
(II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 0.14.6 (1406)
From the above output you can see that your X server is using generic “vesa” driver for your graphics card. Generally it is recommended that you use a native driver instead of a generic driver for performance reasons. You should only use “vesa” driver if you are having trouble with your X server.
Now let’s see an example in which the X server is using a native driver:
debian-:~# cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Output
X.Org XInput driver : 2.0
(==) Matched nv for the autoconfigured driver
(==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
(II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//nv_drv.so
ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 2.0
ABI class: X.Org XInput driver, version 2.0
(II) NV: driver for NVIDIA chipsets: RIVA 128, RIVA TNT, RIVA TNT2,
As you can see from the above output we are using the native “nv” driver for our graphics card.
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April 24th, 2009 at 1:59 am
[...] you begin to read further it is a good idea to know how to check which video driver is your X server using on your Linux [...]
July 13th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
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October 6th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
[...] check if the XOrg driver, psb, has been loaded or [...]
April 30th, 2011 at 9:35 am
I tried finding my driver in all that mess of Xorg.0.log and it says it loads intel_drv.so then fbdev_drv.so then vesa_drv.so so which one is it really using?
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June 13th, 2011 at 2:58 pm
Craig, nowadays it’s more frequent to have a bunch of drivers and let Xorg figure itself the best one.
You have to analyse your Xorg.0.log and look for unloading messages, or other clues that tell you which driver is being used.
Here vesa_drv.so is explicitly unloaded.
Also, I guess in your case intel_drv.so gets picked if you have an intel card. But this is just a guess, check your log.
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