In this tutorial you will learn how to uninstall the NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa Linux, hence switch back to the opensource Nouveau Nvidia drivers.
In this tutorial you will learn:
- How to uninstall the Ubuntu repository and PPA NVIDIA drivers
- How to uninstall the Official Nvidia driver
- How to switch to Nouveau driver
Software Requirements and Conventions Used
Category | Requirements, Conventions or Software Version Used |
---|---|
System | Installed or upgraded Ubuntu 20.04 Focal Fossa |
Software | N/A |
Other | Privileged access to your Linux system as root or via the sudo command. |
Conventions | # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command$ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user |
How to uninstall the NVIDIA drivers on Ubuntu 20.04 step by step instructions
Uninstall the Ubuntu repository and PPA NVIDIA drivers
- The following command will remove the proprietary Nvidia driver:
$ sudo dpkg -P $(dpkg -l | grep nvidia-driver | awk '{print $2}') $ sudo apt autoremove
- Switch back to nouveau driver:
$ sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-nouveau
- Reboot your system.
- Once your system has rebooted confirm loaded
nouveau
modules:$ lsmod | grep nouveau nouveau 1949696 4 mxm_wmi 16384 1 nouveau ttm 106496 1 nouveau drm_kms_helper 184320 1 nouveau drm 491520 7 drm_kms_helper,ttm,nouveau i2c_algo_bit 16384 1 nouveau wmi 32768 3 wmi_bmof,mxm_wmi,nouveau video 49152 1 nouveau
Uninstall the official NVIDIA drivers
For Nvidia drivers downloaded and installed from the official Nvidia website follow the below steps for Nvidia driver uninstall and to switch back to Nouveau opensource driver.
- Locate the installation script used to install the Nvidia driver. In case you cannot locate the original installation script simply re-download it again.
$ ls NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-440.44.run
- Uninstall the Nvidia Driver. Update the below Nvidia script name where appropriate :
$ sudo bash NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-XXX.XX.run --uninstall
- If you have not done so yet, restore your
xorg
original configuration from backup:$ sudo nvidia-xconfig --restore-original-backup
- Enable Nouveau modules. If you followed our guide on how to disable nouveau drivers on Ubuntu 20.04 execute the following command:
$ sudo rm /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nvidia-nouveau.conf
- Reboot your Ubuntu 20.04 system.