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I'd like to blacklist a couple of modules, namely drm, drm_kms_helper, i2c_algo_bit and i915 to forbid my integrated Intel GPU to be used, but to use my Nvidia MXM card instead.

I inserted the following lines into /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf:

blacklist i915
blacklist drm
blacklist drm_kms_helper
blacklist i2c_algo_bit

Despite the above right after rebooting my laptop and typing lsmod I can see these modules loaded.

Why does my blacklist get utterly disrespected and what can I do about it?

Jorge Castro
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László Monda
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3 Answers3

14

After modifications in /etc/modprobe, you need to run:

sudo update-initramfs -u

I would be careful with disabling drm etc. I wouldn't be surprised if the nvidia driver depends on it (check with modinfo nvidia). Also, should you have any problems with your nvidia driver, then you will have a low resolution screen which might not support the GUI login at all.

Why would you disable the iGPU? The processor is already in use so I doubt if it saves any power or resources.

Lekensteyn
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2

In a similar situation to the OP, and heeding all of @Lekensteyn's good advice, blacklist i915 silently appeared to do nothing for me, even though lsmod said nothing was using i915, but install i915 /bin/false did the trick, causing Gnome 3 to automatically fall back to using llvmpipe.

Martin Dorey
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1

None of these solutions worked on 16.04 LTS for i915.ko.

Even using module_to_blacklist.blacklist=yes or modprobe.blacklist=module_to_blacklist on the kernel commandline of grub did not work.

The (dirty) solution I found was to rename /lib/modules/4.4.0-22-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko and /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so and /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so

Unfortunately, external VGA screen is not recognized anymore :{

amc
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plop
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