Using Nvidia Graphics Drivers With Initial Optimus Support In Ubuntu 13.10 Got Easier With Nvidia-Prime

<div style="text-align: justify;">As you probably know, the Nvidia graphics drivers have received <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/nvidia-releases-linux-graphics-drivers.html">initial Optimus support</a> a while back. Currently, the Nvidia GPU can be used to render the desktop, but there's no power saving yet. That means you can for instance play games or watch videos using hardware acceleration.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But to be able to take advantage of this feature in the latest Nvidia drivers, you need up-to-date dependencies (such as Randr 1.4, Xorg 1.13 - that's what the initial Nvidia release notes mention, but it seems you actually need 1.14 -, Linux Kernel 3.9 with some special flags enabled), as well as a custom xorg.conf file and some other bits.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">That means that out of the box, the only Ubuntu version that can use this initial <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus">Optimus</a> support in the Nvidia graphics drivers is Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, but even in Saucy, you need to configure some things to get it to work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>If you're using Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander, things got a lot easier and you don't need to configure anything to be able to take advantage of this Optimus feature in the Nvidia graphics drivers 319.12+: a package called "<a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-prime">nvidia-prime</a>", which comes with a set of tools that enable Nvidia's Prime on MUXless systems, has been uploaded to the Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander repositories</b> about a month ago and it has currently reached version 0.4 (released today).</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;">This package automatically checks if your system supports Nvidia Optimus and the required packages, creates the xorg.conf file and tweaks the LightDM configuration to support this.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In my test, I've installed the Nvidia 319.32 drivers and the "nvidia-prime" package (both from the Ubuntu 13.10 repositories) and after a reboot, the Nvidia card was used on my Optimus laptop (Dell XPS L702X):</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1JArYwpXaCX1NYDVlzikcXNQaivd53CREv-6HDjafP9VtBAZF9QIkyWDGaFQlzlhRne6aLyF0J0ozWl3Fl64VC2TmHapZZ5yiLmJ2O73dCcnA4xf97RHqzKEKe-8ACApquhEiVTbkUTk/s1600/nvidia-prime-nvsettings.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Nvidia settings optimus" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1JArYwpXaCX1NYDVlzikcXNQaivd53CREv-6HDjafP9VtBAZF9QIkyWDGaFQlzlhRne6aLyF0J0ozWl3Fl64VC2TmHapZZ5yiLmJ2O73dCcnA4xf97RHqzKEKe-8ACApquhEiVTbkUTk/s320/nvidia-prime-nvsettings.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: center;">(Bumblebee was removed and as you can see, I didn't launch "nvidia-settings" using "optirun")</div></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">I was also able to play a h264 video using <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2010/10/use-mplayer-with-vaapi-support-hardware.html">Mplayer with VDPAU (hardware acceleration)</a>:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPUePJI1yhyphenhyphenEX8oD-qTu7WD5Z0zIT5Qmh35IaYfpajEiha5G7RTw9Pg4FBWcuj9sELBjuABMJrIZ6NwgiHR0ITvybkmAUqsON5ht0rfdSj-rzYyV9meXdv_G0Xsis9dTBngOfF3ejpmgE/s1600/nvidia-prime-vdpau.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Nvidia Optimus Prime VDPAU hardware acceleration mplayer Ubuntu" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPUePJI1yhyphenhyphenEX8oD-qTu7WD5Z0zIT5Qmh35IaYfpajEiha5G7RTw9Pg4FBWcuj9sELBjuABMJrIZ6NwgiHR0ITvybkmAUqsON5ht0rfdSj-rzYyV9meXdv_G0Xsis9dTBngOfF3ejpmgE/s320/nvidia-prime-vdpau.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE3RC8lVq5tU5QfIRkDIgTfGgGWIAQ6nsteDXtV62sb5ff1B65LfFAttab8M9R6n_JMzkmOpBWCdBZjAzXxEXArBpVnp_qhyphenhyphenB7snwOC-4KwkplTSWG5F1a9yG2QRqeMBQlt2qFRg_2Q9k/s1600/nvidia-prime_1.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Nvidia Optimus VDPAU Ubuntu" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE3RC8lVq5tU5QfIRkDIgTfGgGWIAQ6nsteDXtV62sb5ff1B65LfFAttab8M9R6n_JMzkmOpBWCdBZjAzXxEXArBpVnp_qhyphenhyphenB7snwOC-4KwkplTSWG5F1a9yG2QRqeMBQlt2qFRg_2Q9k/s320/nvidia-prime_1.png" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>glxspheres</i> reports some insane framerates - this is most probably a bug, but here's a screenshot anyway:</div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9xluPW033pwKLAsuu7QIeBYNkdEGTxs53qqecsRPd9UzvLvTrRtmOrI1p6B3Af_M4XAQ9-23c7xenxNCk4m7oF5IJfrx2QIxguovBjuHAPr4ha07-nsP3kBiWQH3HUkSyeHrI2prP750/s1600/nvidia-prime-glxspheres.png" rel="image_group"><img alt="Nvidia Optimus glxspheres" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9xluPW033pwKLAsuu7QIeBYNkdEGTxs53qqecsRPd9UzvLvTrRtmOrI1p6B3Af_M4XAQ9-23c7xenxNCk4m7oF5IJfrx2QIxguovBjuHAPr4ha07-nsP3kBiWQH3HUkSyeHrI2prP750/s320/nvidia-prime-glxspheres.png" /></a></div><br /><br /><b>That's all nice, but there are some important issues I've encountered during my test (</b>the issues are most probably in the Nvidia graphics drivers and not in the nvidia-prime package):<br /><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>my laptop got pretty hot, especially when running <i>glxspheres</i> or playing a video using VDPAU;</li><li>Multiple monitors don't work out of the box; to enable multiple monitors, you need to edit the <i>xorg.conf</i> file, comment <<i>Option "UseDisplayDevice" "none"</i>> and add the devices sections as explained <a href="http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/319.12/README/randr14.html">HERE</a>;</li><li>this only occurred at first and it now seems to have stopped for some reason: changing the theme from Ambiance to some other theme didn't change the GTK theme (only the window borders changes) and GTK2 theming was broken so GTK2 apps used the ugly Windows 98-like fallback theme;</li></ul><br /><br /><h2>Install Nvidia-Prime in Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: red;"><b>Follow the instructions below only if you know what you're doing and how to revert the changes in case LightDM fails to start, etc.! </b></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Note: the  <i>nvidia-prime</i> package only supports the proprietary Nvidia drivers and won't work with Nouveau!<br /><br /><b>If you're using Ubuntu 13.10 Saucy Salamander and want to test the Optimus support in the Nvidia Graphics Drivers 319.12+, here's what you need to do:</b></div><br /><b>1.</b> Firstly, purge Bumblebee and bbswitch if you've installed them:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get purge bumblebee* bbswitch-dkms</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>2.</b> Install the proprietary Nvidia drivers and the Nvidia Prime package:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install nvidia-319 nvidia-settings-319 nvidia-prime</code></pre><br /><b>3.</b> Reboot the system.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">That's it, after a reboot, your laptop should be using the Nvidia GPU to render the desktop.</div>

Using Nvidia Graphics Drivers With Initial Optimus Support In Ubuntu 13.10 Got Easier With Nvidia-Prime

As you probably know, the Nvidia graphics drivers have received initial Optimus support a while back. Currently, the Nvidia GPU can be used...

+ Read more »

Bumblebee 3.2.1 Released With Ubuntu 13.04 Fixes, New Options

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Bumblebee 3.2 has been released a few days ago but there was an issue and it didn't work on a lot of setups o version 3.2.1 has been released to fix this. The new version also fixes the Primus backend for Ubuntu 13.04 and adds some new options.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><a href="http://bumblebee-project.org/">Bumblebee</a> is an unofficial tool that brings Nvidia Optimus GPU switching to Linux. It's useful to increase battery life by only switching the dedicated GPU (Nvidia) on when needed. Nvidia has added <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/nvidia-releases-linux-graphics-drivers.html">initial Optimus support</a> in their latest 319.12 beta drivers, but it doesn't have GPU switching yet.</i></div><br /><a name='more'></a><b>Bumblebee 3.2 comes with the following changes:</b><br /><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">new option: "-b" to disable injection of any render offloading bridge (primus or VirtualGL). Use this to invoke nvidia-settings (optirun -b none nvidia-settings -c :8)<i>;</i></li><li style="text-align: justify;">new option: "--no-xorg" for optirun to disable starting secondary X server. Use this to run CUDA or OpenCL applications that do not need the graphics rendering capabilities. Implies "-b none";</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Bumblebee no longer depends on the primusrun script anymore for the Primus backend. However, "primusrun" and "optirun -b primus" have different behaviors: the first one powers on the discrete GPU when needed while the second one will immediately do this; the difference in behavior is most noticeable with WebGL content in Firefox;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">Added support for passing <i>-configdir</i> to X, defaulting to <i>/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d</i>,<i> --xconfdir</i> option added to bumblebeed and XorgConfDir added to <i>bumblebee.conf</i>; this finally fixes a long-standing annoyance with SNA config option for the Intel driver;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">the BusID is added automatically on Ubuntu 13.04 so users no longer need to do this manually. Without this, Bumblebee failed to work on Ubuntu 13.04;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">fix: added <i>/usr/$LIB/mesa/libGL.so.1</i> to default primus libGLd for supporting Ubuntu 13.04;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">fix: fixed a "buffer overflow" issue in bumblebeed;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">fix: removed accesses to PCI config space from the daemon process.</li></ul><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Also, <b><a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/set-up-bumblebee-with-bumblebee.html">Bumblebee Configurator GUI</a></b>, a tool that allows you to easily setup Bumblebee, has been <b>updated recently with support for the latest Bumblebee 3.2</b>. <b>The latest version also adds an option to install Bumblebee in Ubuntu</b>.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Bumblebee Configurator GUI in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFH2WxRju9zKCfbGmfS_LUX2vUKBq57qoqO_aFakjIfyjwLK3e_NnzaiN7gYAgdK8viUdFBzXn3hjrH1LepblhUDYjRIUB4KIeO1yhKqkw6URIl4lz3ZIItRpzNVlVZierePzJTsn2LbAI/s1600/bumblebee-config_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bumblebee Configurator GUI" border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFH2WxRju9zKCfbGmfS_LUX2vUKBq57qoqO_aFakjIfyjwLK3e_NnzaiN7gYAgdK8viUdFBzXn3hjrH1LepblhUDYjRIUB4KIeO1yhKqkw6URIl4lz3ZIItRpzNVlVZierePzJTsn2LbAI/s320/bumblebee-config_1.png" title="Bumblebee Configurator GUI" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkZPW9pWgovei-2iC0KDqI4fgcwSvKBp8LRS51JHWIgXjsiZrch55BqhlsTrajQgLYBHoEy8yqnsBnHoDcb49mPVrbaA2KuSBySodCSSUxI1TBtiIZf34VNEVSvEVtnUcRtCm5IMz0nRAj/s1600/bumblebee-config_2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bumblebee Configurator GUI" border="0" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkZPW9pWgovei-2iC0KDqI4fgcwSvKBp8LRS51JHWIgXjsiZrch55BqhlsTrajQgLYBHoEy8yqnsBnHoDcb49mPVrbaA2KuSBySodCSSUxI1TBtiIZf34VNEVSvEVtnUcRtCm5IMz0nRAj/s320/bumblebee-config_2.png" title="Bumblebee Configurator GUI" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To install Bumblebee Configurator GUI in Ubuntu, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alessandrofac93/bumblebee-config-gtk-dev<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install bumblebee-config-gui</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, you launch the application and use it to install and set up Bumblebee. Or, if you want to manually install Bumblebee, see the instructions below.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Report any Bumblebee Configurator GUI bugs you may find @ <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bumblebee-config-gtk">Launchpad</a>. </div><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Bumblebee in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To add the stable Bumblebee PPA and install the latest Bumblebee in Ubuntu, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install bumblebee</code></pre><br />To use the new Primus backend, you'll also have to install Primus:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install primus</code></pre><br />On 64bit, also install primus-libs-ia32:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install primus-libs-ia32</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To configure Bumblebee you must decide if you want to use Nouveau or the proprietary Nvidia drivers. If you want to use the proprietary Nvidia drivers, take a look at the version you've installed (e.g.: "nvidia-304"), then, open the bumblebee configuration file as root with a text editor:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>gksu gksu gedit /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf</code></pre><br />And in this file, change:<br /><ul><li>"Driver" to "Driver=nvidia"</li><li>"KernelDriver" to "KernelDriver=nvidia-VERSION" (e.g.: "nvidia-304)</li><li>"LibraryPath" to "LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-VERSION:/usr/lib32/nvidia-VERSION" (e.g.: "LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-304:/usr/lib32/nvidia-304")</li><li>"XorgModulePath" to "XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-VERSION/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules" (e.g.: "XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-304/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules")</li></ul>Report any Bumblebee issues you may find @ <a href="https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/issues?state=open">GitHub</a>.<br /><br /><b>For Debian, Arch Linux, Gentoo or Mandriva, see the <a href="http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html">Installing Bumblebee</a> page.</b><br /><br /><br /><br /><h2>Using Bumblebee</h2><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibhqw21rnQ0wrMH0Ukzx6V_SL5VJYOblQxRVojBmU8zPHRHIGfbxnhSyfllNDQnw5RNiJ_UGAgIYceyQE_GVJt4OyG6aPVmnQLM7EcCD2meZymv-Qs7kNLG8GsKHJPlbaadPozPTFmluRh/s1600/bumblebee-3.2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bumblebee" border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibhqw21rnQ0wrMH0Ukzx6V_SL5VJYOblQxRVojBmU8zPHRHIGfbxnhSyfllNDQnw5RNiJ_UGAgIYceyQE_GVJt4OyG6aPVmnQLM7EcCD2meZymv-Qs7kNLG8GsKHJPlbaadPozPTFmluRh/s320/bumblebee-3.2.png" title="Bumblebee" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To run a game or application using the dedicated GPU (Nvidia), use the following command:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>optirun APP-EXECUTABLE</code></pre>replacing "APP-EXECUTABLE" with the application (or game) executable.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">To use the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/primus-better-performance-and-less.html">Primus backend</a> (note: you'll only get about 60 frames / sec in glxspheres but this backend should actually work better than Primus) without changing the Bumblebee configuration, use:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>optirun -b primus APP-EXECUTABLE</code></pre>This will immediately turn on the dedicated GPU.<br /><br />Or:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>primusrun APP-EXECUTABLE</code></pre>This will only power the discrete GPU on when needed.

Bumblebee 3.2.1 Released With Ubuntu 13.04 Fixes, New Options

Bumblebee 3.2 has been released a few days ago but there was an issue and it didn't work on a lot of setups o version 3.2.1 has been rel...

+ Read more »

Set Up Bumblebee With Bumblebee Configurator GUI [Nvidia Optimus]

<div style="text-align: justify;">The latest proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers, released a few days ago, include <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/04/nvidia-releases-linux-graphics-drivers.html">initial Optimus support for Linux</a>, but there's still a long way to go until Linux will get full Optimus support. Until then, Linux users have <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/02/bumblebee-31-released-with-primus.html">Bumblebee</a>, which is still required for proper gaming on Nvidia Optimus-based laptops.</div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Bumblebee Configurator GUI is a new tool that allows you to easily set up Bumblebee.</b></div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The tool is a front-end for the Bumblebee configuration files and allows you to:</b></div><ul><li style="text-align: justify;">set the secondary Xorg server display number;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">set if the card should be turned off at exit or not;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">select the driver (proprietary Nvidia drivers or Nouveau);</li><li style="text-align: justify;">select the acceleration / rendering bridge: auto, virtualgl ("optirun") or primus ("primusrun");</li><li style="text-align: justify;">set the method used for VirtualGL to transport frames between X servers: proxy, jpeg, rg, xv or yuv;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">set the proprietary Nvidia driver version (e.g.: nvidia-304, nvidia-310 and so on) as well as set the library paths;</li><li style="text-align: justify;">more;</li></ul><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPqlmcpinaRzAiFZAfJeOpoD1HZoAnv9bGRnmqSyO3R0blLIdZz85eAkwsEvbft1mFo3DdH2d7bVBww_3DsE3__uRT7hMD-ybgJoXN4MeBX9brhjv5-FcSg4bA2uRJrv-A7olFVDCMAoLo/s1600/bumblebee-configurator-gui.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="bumblebee configurator gui" border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPqlmcpinaRzAiFZAfJeOpoD1HZoAnv9bGRnmqSyO3R0blLIdZz85eAkwsEvbft1mFo3DdH2d7bVBww_3DsE3__uRT7hMD-ybgJoXN4MeBX9brhjv5-FcSg4bA2uRJrv-A7olFVDCMAoLo/s320/bumblebee-configurator-gui.png" title="bumblebee configurator gui" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOewzU-Y9xgP-EU87v99nUeU5diAcOJG0KNQPUqLwqpCVA1pphyphenhyphenJlpfA40jh48V97Gkc3ZDSyQY4_9PfDhCfTz1BD91Vcgt5nnTegkWQoEjR8AgU8O5U4cgKRHCD4332tfAQ733DUqZl0f/s1600/bumblebee-configurator-gui_2.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="bumblebee configurator gui" border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOewzU-Y9xgP-EU87v99nUeU5diAcOJG0KNQPUqLwqpCVA1pphyphenhyphenJlpfA40jh48V97Gkc3ZDSyQY4_9PfDhCfTz1BD91Vcgt5nnTegkWQoEjR8AgU8O5U4cgKRHCD4332tfAQ733DUqZl0f/s320/bumblebee-configurator-gui_2.png" title="bumblebee configurator gui" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1CbIzM68vweC0GT-5GSItbYup43OSDo_ec6aAgILGLQ4hs2afw49HK8tvrfNKB_3px5AwfiPUHkojMyDP3gB4keVOdnUBfJXQCJWUBP6hh_UMJCOZ-kKdlLrg_h2EmPIYqUHws4VmkQQI/s1600/bumblebee-configurator-gui_3.png" imageanchor="1" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="bumblebee configurator gui" border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1CbIzM68vweC0GT-5GSItbYup43OSDo_ec6aAgILGLQ4hs2afw49HK8tvrfNKB_3px5AwfiPUHkojMyDP3gB4keVOdnUBfJXQCJWUBP6hh_UMJCOZ-kKdlLrg_h2EmPIYqUHws4VmkQQI/s320/bumblebee-configurator-gui_3.png" title="bumblebee configurator gui" width="320" /></a></div><br /><ul></ul><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Bumbbebee Configurator GUI is pretty easy to use but it lacks explanations for what each option does but hopefully some tooltips or some other way of informing the user about each option will be added in a future release.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When saving the changes, the tool automatically restarts the Bumblebee daemon so there's no need to log out or restart the daemon yourself.</div><br /><br /><h2>Install Bumblebee Configurator GUI in Ubuntu</h2><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bumblebee Configurator GUI is in its early development stages so you may encounter bugs. If you do, report them @ <a href="https://bugs.launchpad.net/bumblebee-config-gtk">Launchpad</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Bumblebee Configurator GUI is available in a PPA for Ubuntu (and derrivates) users - add the PPA and install it using the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:alessandrofac93/bumblebee-config-gtk-dev<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install bumblebee-config-gtk</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Once installed, launch Bumblebee Configurator GUI from the menu / Dash.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For other Linux distributions you can get the Bumblebee Configurator GUI code via <a href="https://launchpad.net/bumblebee-config-gtk/+download">Launchpad</a>.</b></div>

Set Up Bumblebee With Bumblebee Configurator GUI [Nvidia Optimus]

The latest proprietary Nvidia graphics drivers, released a few days ago, include initial Optimus support for Linux , but there's still a...

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Bumblebee 3.1 Released With Primus Support [Nvidia Optimus GPU Switching]

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Bumblebee 3.1 has been released today with support for <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/primus-better-performance-and-less.html">Primus</a> as an alternative to the VirtualGL optirun backend, along with other enhancements and fixes.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://bumblebee-project.org/">Bumblebee</a> is a (unofficial) tool that brings Nvidia Optimus GPU switching to Linux. Nvidia Optimus is a technology used to increase battery life by switching the dedicated GPU (Nvidia) off when it's not needed; when the dedicated GPU is off, the integrated graphics chip (Intel) is used. Bumblebee also supports legacy Nvidia hybrid graphics. </div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitrBiuFU1s-YQ9ku-JT0H2eHiXSSaT9WgkPJjHVeNnlt8BLUTgcRQ9HigQCwf8HIufRj8EZBoeAcROqoLjqo3aHyEL_lSbnYCSnuF6fmLm9nGB28qbHYYZcPbbGu53or3cDyUaWin7TeKP/s1600/bumblebee-optirun.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Bumblebee optirun glxspheres" border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitrBiuFU1s-YQ9ku-JT0H2eHiXSSaT9WgkPJjHVeNnlt8BLUTgcRQ9HigQCwf8HIufRj8EZBoeAcROqoLjqo3aHyEL_lSbnYCSnuF6fmLm9nGB28qbHYYZcPbbGu53or3cDyUaWin7TeKP/s320/bumblebee-optirun.png" title="Bumblebee optirun glxspheres" width="320" /></a></div><br /><a name='more'></a><br /><b>Changes in Bumblebee 3.1:</b><br /><ul><li>support for Primus as an alternative to VirtualGL as optirun backend. This is configurable through a new "Bridge" option in <i>bumblebee.conf</i> that by default is set to "auto" - it selects VirtualGL if installed and if not, it uses Primus. In Bumblebee 4.0, Primus may be used as the default option;</li><li>optirun has gained an option for on-the-fly back-end choice: --bridge;</li><li>use of non-blocking sockets, replacing former 3.0.1 hotfix for socket polling;</li><li>added an udev rule to fix nvidia card randomly turning on;</li><li>fix for Kepler generation cards was added in xorg.conf.nvidia;</li><li>fix for dual nvidia hybrid systems;</li><li>fixed nouveau not working under X.org 1.13+;</li><li>fixed available drivers detection by supporting module aliases;</li><li>other fixes.</li></ul><br />For the complete Bumblebee 3.1 release notes, see <a href="https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/blob/master/doc/RELEASE_NOTES_3_1">THIS</a> page.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Bumblebee isn't useful just for those who want to use the Nvidia graphics card for gaming, but also to improve battery life because by default, Bumblebee disables the Nvidia card which is always turned on unless you disable it some other way. To use the Nvidia card for an application or game, you can launch it with "optirun" (e.g.: "optirun firefox").</div><br /><br /><br /><br /><h2>Install Bumblebee in Ubuntu</h2><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>To add the <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bumblebee/+archive/stable">stable Bumblebee PPA</a> and install Bumblebee in Ubuntu Raring, Quantal, Precise, Oneiric or Lucid, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Update: initially, Bumblebee 3.1 was only available in the testing PPA, but it's now available in the stable Bumblebee PPA.</i></div><br /><b>Once installed, log out and log back in</b>, then try it out by running "<i>optirun glxspheres</i>". You may need to edit the Bumblebee configuration file if you're not using nvidia-current (<i>/etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf</i>).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Then, if you want an application or game to use the Nvidia graphics card, launch it with "optirun", e.g.: "optirun steam".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />Primus is now available in the Bumblebee Stable PPA. However, please note that if you were using the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/primus-better-performance-and-less.html">Primus PPA</a> and want to only use the packages in the Bumblebee PPA, you'll have to purge primus ("sudo apt-get purge primus*") before installing Primus from the Bumblebee PPA.<br /><br /><b>To use the new Primus backend</b>, you'll also have to install Primus:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install primus</code></pre><b>64bit:</b> you also need to install "primus-libs-ia32:i386" (note that if you're using the <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/primus-better-performance-and-less.html">Primus PPA</a>, the package you need to install is "primus-lib:i386"):<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install primus-libs-ia32:i386</code></pre><br />Then, change the "Bridge" option in <i>/etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf</i> to "primus". You can also directly call Primus from optirun via command line, like this:</div><pre class="linux-code"><code>optirun -b primus APP</code></pre>Where "APP" is the application you want to launch.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For other Linux distributions, see the Bumblebee <a href="http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html">installation page</a> or get the code via <a href="https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project">GitHub</a>.</b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">If you encounter issues with Bumblebee, report them @ <a href="https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/issues">GitHub</a>.</div>

Bumblebee 3.1 Released With Primus Support [Nvidia Optimus GPU Switching]

Bumblebee 3.1 has been released today with support for Primus as an alternative to the VirtualGL optirun backend, along with other enhancem...

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Use Nvidia Experimental 310 Drivers With Bumblebee

<div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Bumblebee PPA has been updated today, and the packages now allow the latest "nvidia-experimental-310" drivers to be used with Bumblebee.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Nvidia GeForce driver 310 is <a href="http://nvidianews.nvidia.com/Releases/NVIDIA-Delivers-Massive-Performance-Boost-to-Linux-Gaming-8ac.aspx">said</a> to "double the performance and dramatically reduce game loading times for those gaming" and it can be installed from the "updates" Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 repository. Below you'll find instructions on how to configure Bumblebee to work with nvidia-experimental-310 driver.</div><br /><a name='more'></a><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Nvidia Optimus is a technology used to increases battery life by switching between two graphics adapters (a low-performance integrated Intel graphics adapter and a high-performance one by Nvidia) within a computer system. Optimus GPU switching is officially only supported on Windows, but it's also unofficially available on Linux thanks to the Bumblebee project.</i></div><br /><br /><br /><h2>How to configure Bumblebee to work with nvidia-experimental-310 driver</h2><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://img.netupd8.com/bumblebee-nvidia-experimental-310.png"><img alt="Bumblebee nvidia experimental 310" src="http://img.netupd8.com/bumblebee-nvidia-experimental-310_thumb.png" /></a></div><br /><b>1.</b> <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee">Install Bumblebee</a> if you haven't already.<br /><br /><b>2.</b> Install the Nvidia GeForce driver 310.14 experimental driver:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install nvidia-experimental-310 nvidia-settings-experimental-310</code></pre><br /><b>3.</b> Configure Bumblebee to use nvidia-experimental-310.<br /><br />Open "/etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf" as root with a text editor:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>gksu gedit /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf</code></pre><br />And change the following:<br /><br />- on line 22, make sure "Driver=" is set to "nvidia", like this:<br /><b>Driver=nvidia</b><br /><br />- change the "KernelDriver=" (on line 47) to "nvidia-experimental-310", like this:<br /><b>KernelDriver=nvidia-experimental-310</b><br /><br />- change "LibraryPath=" (on line 51) to "/usr/lib/nvidia-experimental-310:/usr/lib32/nvidia-experimental-310", so it looks like this:<br /><b>LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-experimental-310:/usr/lib32/nvidia-experimental-310</b><br /><br />- change the "XorgModulePath=" (line 54) to "XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-experimental-310/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules" so it looks like this:<br /><b>XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-experimental-310/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules</b><br /><br /><br /><b>4.</b> Restart Bumblebee, logout.<br /><br />Restart the bumblebeed daemon using the following command:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo service bumblebeed restart</code></pre><br />Then log out and log back in and try it out:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>optirun glxspheres</code></pre><br /><b>If it doesn't work, try to restart your system.</b><br /><br /><b>Note:</b> if you're using <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2012/11/primus-better-performance-and-less.html" title="Primus: Better Performance And Less Power Consumption For Bumblebee [Optimus Hybrid Graphics Chipsets]">Primus</a>, you'll have to edit the <i>/usr/bin/primusrun</i> script to use "nvidia-experimental-310" instead of "nvidia-current".

Use Nvidia Experimental 310 Drivers With Bumblebee

The Bumblebee PPA has been updated today, and the packages now allow the latest "nvidia-experimental-310" drivers to be used with ...

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Primus: Better Performance And Less Power Consumption For Bumblebee [Optimus Hybrid Graphics Chipsets]

<div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Nvidia Optimus is a technology used to increases battery life by switching between two graphics adapters (a low-performance integrated Intel graphics adapter and a high-performance one by Nvidia) within a computer system. Optimus GPU switching is officially only supported on Windows, but it's also unofficially available on Linux thanks to the Bumblebee project.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><a href="https://github.com/amonakov/primus">Primus</a> brings better performance and less power consumption when using <a href="http://www.bumblebee-project.org/">Bumblebee</a></b>, by replacing VirtualGL. According to the Bumblebee <a href="http://www.bumblebee-project.org/g+">G+</a> page, this has the following <b>advantages over the optirun (VirtualGL) solution</b> used by default in Bumblebee:</div><a name='more'></a><ul><li>Less overhead (better framerates) and cleaner solution (no networking or compression involved at all)</li><li>Fixes the "bug" that causes Bumblebee to shut down the GPU too early sometimes (no more need for the "optirun bash" workaround)</li><li>Less buggy/glitchy, easier to debug</li><li>Only uses/starts secondary GPU for OpenGL parts of applications - everything else remains on your main GPU (power savings)</li></ul><br />The Bumblebee developers explain what Primus does and the difference between Primus / optirun in simple terms in a comment on their G+ page:<br /><br /><blockquote>Bumblebee uses VirtualGL to copy the image generated by the second (faster) GPU to your display. VirtualGL was intended for use over a network though, so it takes a great many steps to enable this (compression, sending the image over a network link, decompression, etc).<br /><br />Primus doesn't perform all these "extra" steps, instead taking a more direct route (copying the rendered image in memory to the other GPU, then displaying there). In theory this should get you better performance as well as better compatibility. Running applications will "see" the OpenGL implementation of your real hardware, nothing virtual is presented to them.</blockquote><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">For comparison, here are the framerates I get on my laptop when using the integrated Intel graphics, when using the Nvidia graphics card using optirun and using primusrun (this is just for FPS and not an indicator for the whole performance!): </div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-regular.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Using integrated (Intel) graphics"><img alt="glxspheres intel gpu" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-regular_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Integrated (Intel) graphics</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-optirun.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Using optirun (default in Bumblebee) with Nvidia GPU"><img alt="glxspheres optirun bumblebee" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-optirun_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">optirun (default in Bumblebee) using the Nvidia GPU</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-primus.png" rel="image_group" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="Using Primus with Nvidia GPU - best performance of the 3"><img alt="glxspheres primusrun bumblebee" src="http://netupd8.com/w8img2/glxspheres-primus_thumb.png" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Primus using the Nvidia GPU</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">As you can see, the FPS using  Primus is a lot better than using the integrated graphics or using optirun with the Nvidia GPU.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Note: I've used "vblank_mode=0 primusrun" instead of simply running "primusrun" because that was recommended by the Primus GitHub page for benchmarking. Without it, I get just 60 FPS because of vblank synchronisation.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Update: Primus has been integrated into Bumblebee and is now available in the Bumblebee Ubuntu PPA.</div><br /><br /><br /><h2>How to install Primus for Bumblebee in Ubuntu</h2><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Update: <a href="http://www.webupd8.org/2013/02/bumblebee-31-released-with-primus.html">Primus is now available in the Bumblebee Stable PPA</a>. To add the Bumblebee PPA and install Primus and Bumblebee, use the following commands:</b></div><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable<br />sudo apt-get update<br />sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia primus</code></pre><b>64bit: </b>you also need to install the "primus-libs-ia32:i386" package:<br /><pre class="linux-code"><code>sudo apt-get install primus-libs-ia32:i386</code></pre><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>For other Linux distributions, see the <a href="http://bumblebee-project.org/install.html">Bumblebee Wiki</a> for installation instructions.</b></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Once installed, use "primusrun APP", to launch an application or game</b> - this works just like the "optirun" command available in Bumblebee ("APP" is the application or game executable which you want to run using the Nvidia GPU). You can also use "<b>bumblebee -b primus APP</b>".</div>

Primus: Better Performance And Less Power Consumption For Bumblebee [Optimus Hybrid Graphics Chipsets]

Nvidia Optimus is a technology used to increases battery life by switching between two graphics adapters (a low-performance integrated Intel...

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