Ubuntu – Using Nvidia 319 with bumblebee

13.04bumblebeedriversnvidianvidia-optimus

I have Optimus laptop running Raring and now I'm using nvidia 304 drivers, which have bad performance and some games are not working properly (e.g. Oil Rush is working properly only with 319, with older drivers I have a problem with lighting, so the game is unplayable)

So is there a way how to run bumblebee with Nvidia 319 downloaded from Nvidia website?
I know about Bumblebee config, but I don't know what should I edit in it.
Thanks for help.

Best Answer

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:xorg-edgers/ppa 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nvidia-319 nvidia-settings-319

Then edit bumblebee.conf

 sudo nano /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf

It should have this lines:

# You need to explicit the driver used by Bumblebee server.
Driver=nvidia

KernelDriver=nvidia-graphics-drivers-319
PMMethod=auto
# colon-separated path to the nvidia libraries
LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-graphics-drivers-319:/usr/lib32/nvidia-graphics-drivers-319
# comma-separated path of the directory containing nvidia_drv.so and the
# default Xorg modules path
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-graphics-drivers-319/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia

Restart the bumblebeed daemon using the following command:

 sudo service bumblebeed restart

Just install & tested its working fine

optirun glxspheres

Bumblebee-Project

WEBUPD8

optirun -vvv glxspheres 
[ 1385.959123] [DEBUG]Reading file: /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
[ 1385.959847] [INFO]Configured driver: nvidia
[ 1385.960226] [DEBUG]optirun version 3.2.1 starting...
[ 1385.960269] [DEBUG]Active configuration:
[ 1385.960281] [DEBUG] bumblebeed config file: /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
[ 1385.960292] [DEBUG] X display: :8
[ 1385.960302] [DEBUG] LD_LIBRARY_PATH: /usr/lib/nvidia-319:/usr/lib32/nvidia-319
[ 1385.960313] [DEBUG] Socket path: /var/run/bumblebee.socket
[ 1385.960323] [DEBUG] Accel/display bridge: auto
[ 1385.960333] [DEBUG] VGL Compression: proxy
[ 1385.960343] [DEBUG] VGLrun extra options: 
[ 1385.960354] [DEBUG] Primus LD Path: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/primus:/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/primus
[ 1385.960419] [DEBUG]Using auto-detected bridge virtualgl
[ 1388.086427] [INFO]Response: Yes. X is active.

[ 1388.086477] [INFO]Running application using virtualgl.
[ 1388.086729] [DEBUG]Process vglrun started, PID 3491.
Polygons in scene: 62464
Visual ID of window: 0x20
Context is Direct
OpenGL Renderer: GeForce GT 525M/PCIe/SSE2
94.087784 frames/sec - 102.571552 Mpixels/sec
104.808515 frames/sec - 101.916638 Mpixels/sec
105.079375 frames/sec - 102.180025 Mpixels/sec
105.155037 frames/sec - 102.253599 Mpixels/sec
[ 1397.201911] [DEBUG]SIGCHILD received, but wait failed with No child processes
[ 1397.201986] [DEBUG]Socket closed.
[ 1397.202029] [DEBUG]Killing all remaining processes.

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – How to install Nvidia 319.12 driver on an optimus system

Try installing the new beta version of Nvidia 319.12 with bumblebee.

sudo apt-get remove bumblebee-nvidia nvidia-current nvidia-settings

sudo apt-get install bumblebee-nvidia nvidia-319 nvidia-settings-319

Link http://orkultus.wordpress.com/2013/04/20/how-to-nvidia-319-12-drivers-in-ubuntu-based-systems-with-bumblebee/

Ubuntu – Laptop Nvidia Bumblebee clarification

It depends on how have you configured Bumblebee. If you open /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf you will see the following option:
```
TurnCardOffAtExit=true
```
Depending if it is true or false, Bumblebee will turn off the card for you after optirun finishes or not.
It depends if your applications use or not the GPU. In my system the discrete card is enough to play 1080p videos and use HDMI, so I really only use it for games.
When you installed Bumblebee it should have installed bumblebee-nvidia, which if I'm not wrong will install nvidia-current. You can check which nVidia packages you have installed with dpkg --get-selections | grep nvidia.
That's the strength of opensource: you have N ways to do something, and if you don't like any probably you are able to make your own way :) . In regard the driver, I would say the best is the one that is more recent and works (this may not always be true). So you can try each one and see which works the best.

If you read that file you will understand why. There are many options that you need to specify (ex: which driver to use, make Bumblebee turn card off or not, what Bumblebee should do if anything fails, etc)that Bumblebee can not guess by itself. For example, take this section from that file:

[driver-nvidia]
# Module name to load, defaults to Driver if empty or unset
KernelDriver=nvidia-current
PMMethod=auto
# colon-separated path to the nvidia libraries
LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-current:/usr/lib32/nvidia-current
# comma-separated path of the directory containing nvidia_drv.so and the
# default Xorg modules path
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-current/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia

If you only install nvidia-319 for example, probably Bumblebee will stop working because when asked to use the card, it will try to use nvidia-current.

So, if you want to make this as simple as possible, use nvidia-current or nouveau. If they work I doubt the performance increase to use a more modern driver pays the hassle. Primus is not required, but should give you a performance boost.