How to install Bumblebee on Ubuntu 15.04/14/04 and Derivatives on Laptops with Optimus Nvidia Cards
Nvidia Optimus
technology is something that is not completely supported out of the
box. I have recently purchased a Lenovo Z50 laptop which has a 2GB
NVIDIA GE FORCE GT820M. This is an entry level gaming card but can
play most games without issues.
So I was happy with
my purchase. Since I am a Linux Power User I immediately got rid of
Windows and installed Ubuntu on it. However to my surprise I always
got a black screen after installing Nvidia proprietary drivers.
Bumblebee would also
throw errors . After 2 weeks or breaking my head against the wall an formatting my laptop 5 times now I am back. I have been able to
successfully install the nvidia drivers and configure bumblebee as
well.
I LOVE LINUX..
Below are the steps
I took to get things working for myself. I am sharing this to make
things easier for others.
1) Install Bumblebee
from the Official Ubuntu Repositories.
Sudo apt-get
install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia --– This installs bumblebee.
dkms status-- This
tels whch ersion of bbswitch and kernel is installed
sudo apt-get
install bbswitch-dkms - Install bbswitch dkms
sudo apt-get
install primus
sudo systemctl
enable bumblebeed ( Ubuntu 15.04 Since it uses systemd now)
sudo gpasswd -a
$USER bumblebee
2) Add the following
lines to the /etc/modules file
i915
bbswitch
I am using Ubuntu
15.04 beta and it has switched to Systemd so I have added these two
into this file.
/etc/modules-load.d/modules.conf
3) Now We need to
blacklist nouveau module, we need to do it event though we might need
to use it later. This is important we want only bbswitch to load
either the nouveau or nvidia drivers
/etc/modprobe.d/nouveau.conf
OR /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-nouveau.conf
just add one line
to any of these files
blacklist nouveau
4) Reboot and then
run
sudo cat
/proc/acpi/bbswitch this shoud give a result as OFF
sudo echo ON > /proc/acpi/bbswitch
sudo cat
/proc/acpi/bbswitch This should now give a result of ON
This confirms that
BBSWITCH works.
6) One more reboot
Once rebooted if
you run the command
primusrun glxinfo |
grep OpenGL
You would see the
OpenGL String points to
OpenGL vendor
string: nouveau
This confirms that
bumblebee is working fine and able to load the nouveau driver fine.
NOTE no need to edit
the /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf file as of yet as it is already
configured for using nouveau drivers.
7) Now the really
tricky part. Which means We need to install the Proprietary NVIDIA
Drivers which Will override the nuoveau drivers.
IMPORTANT TO NOTE
THAT THERE IS A BUMBLEBEE BLACKLIST FILE BY DEFAULT IN THE FOLDER.
/etc/modprobe.d/
bumblebee.conf
Contents of this
file are
sudo cat
/etc/modprobe.d/bumblebee.conf
# installed by
bumblebee-nvidia
# to be used by kmod
/ module-init-tools, and installed in /etc/modprobe.d/
# or equivalent
# do not
automatically load nouveau as it may prevent nvidia from loading
blacklist nouveau
# do not
automatically load nvidia as it's unloaded anyway when bumblebeed
# starts and may
fail bumblebeed to disable the card in a race condition.
blacklist nvidia
blacklist
nvidia-current
blacklist
nvidia-current-updates
# 304
blacklist nvidia-304
blacklist
nvidia-304-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-304
# 310
blacklist nvidia-310
blacklist
nvidia-310-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-310
# 313
blacklist nvidia-313
blacklist
nvidia-313-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-313
# 319
blacklist nvidia-319
blacklist
nvidia-319-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-319
# 325
blacklist nvidia-325
blacklist
nvidia-325-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-325
# 331
blacklist nvidia-331
blacklist
nvidia-331-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-331
# 334
blacklist nvidia-334
blacklist
nvidia-334-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-334
# 337
blacklist nvidia-337
blacklist
nvidia-337-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-337
# 340
blacklist
nvidia-340
blacklist
nvidia-340-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-340
#343
blacklist nvidia-343
blacklist
nvidia-343-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-343
This is a problem specific to Ubuntu and its derivatives only.(Sorry for this earlier I posted that one needs to uncomment the Driver in above file which is not true.)
So if you see the
contents of this file reveal that no matter what you do you can't get
succes in getting bumbleebee work with any of the nvidia drivers
unless you Ensure that your Driver is listed above and blacklisted.
This will ensure that the driver Is not loaded automatically. If it loads automatically, you will have a BLACK SCREEN at boot.
Bumblebee needs to be controlling the Loading and Unloading of the NVIDIA DRIVER MODULE.
This will ensure that the driver Is not loaded automatically. If it loads automatically, you will have a BLACK SCREEN at boot.
Bumblebee needs to be controlling the Loading and Unloading of the NVIDIA DRIVER MODULE.
Or example i am
using the 340 series of drivers so My drivers were already blacklisted.
blacklist
nvidia-340
blacklist
nvidia-340-updates
blacklist
nvidia-experimental-340
Now you can edid the
bumblebee.conf as below.
Sudo gedit
/etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
1. line 22:
Driver=nvidia
2. line 55:
KernelDriver=nvidia-331
3. line 58:
LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-331:/usr/lib32/nvidia-331
4. line 61:
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-331/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules
5. Reinstall
bbswitch-dkms:
sudo apt-get install
--reinstall bbswitch-dkms
6. Reboot
NOTE :- You neeed to
make sure that you place the nvidia-331 with whatever driver
version you have installed in previous steps and the one you
uncommented from the bbswitch.conf file under
/etc/modprobe.d/bumblebee.conf
In my case below is
what my bumblebee.conf looks like.
# Configuration file
for Bumblebee. Values should **not** be put between quotes
## Server options.
Any change made in this section will need a server restart
# to take effect.
[bumblebeed]
# The secondary Xorg
server DISPLAY number
VirtualDisplay=:8
# Should the unused
Xorg server be kept running? Set this to true if waiting
# for X to be ready
is too long and don't need power management at all.
KeepUnusedXServer=false
# The name of the
Bumbleblee server group name (GID name)
ServerGroup=bumblebee
# Card power state
at exit. Set to false if the card shoud be ON when Bumblebee
# server exits.
TurnCardOffAtExit=false
# The default
behavior of '-f' option on optirun. If set to "true", '-f'
will
# be ignored.
NoEcoModeOverride=false
# The Driver used by
Bumblebee server. If this value is not set (or empty),
# auto-detection is
performed. The available drivers are nvidia and nouveau
# (See also the
driver-specific sections below)
Driver=nvidia
# Directory with a
dummy config file to pass as a -configdir to secondary X
XorgConfDir=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d
## Client options.
Will take effect on the next optirun executed.
[optirun]
# Acceleration/
rendering bridge, possible values are auto, virtualgl and
# primus.
Bridge=auto
# The method used
for VirtualGL to transport frames between X servers.
# Possible values
are proxy, jpeg, rgb, xv and yuv.
VGLTransport=proxy
# List of paths
which are searched for the primus libGL.so.1 when using
# the primus bridge
PrimusLibraryPath=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/primus:/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/primus
# Should the program
run under optirun even if Bumblebee server or nvidia card
# is not available?
AllowFallbackToIGC=false
# Driver-specific
settings are grouped under [driver-NAME]. The sections are
# parsed if the
Driver setting in [bumblebeed] is set to NAME (or if auto-
# detection resolves
to NAME).
# PMMethod: method
to use for saving power by disabling the nvidia card, valid
# values are: auto -
automatically detect which PM method to use
# bbswitch -
new in BB 3, recommended if available
# switcheroo -
vga_switcheroo method, use at your own risk
# none -
disable PM completely
#
https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/Comparison-of-PM-methods
## Section with
nvidia driver specific options, only parsed if Driver=nvidia
[driver-nvidia]
# Module name to
load, defaults to Driver if empty or unset
KernelDriver=nvidia-340
PMMethod=auto
# colon-separated
path to the nvidia libraries
LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-340:/usr/lib32/nvidia-340
# comma-separated
path of the directory containing nvidia_drv.so and the
# default Xorg
modules path
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-340/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia
## Section with
nouveau driver specific options, only parsed if Driver=nouveau
[driver-nouveau]
KernelDriver=nouveau
PMMethod=auto
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nouveau
=======================================================================
So please make
changes to your files accordingly..
Now the final
Reboot.
After the reboot you
can now test
Run the command
primusrun glxinfo |
grep OpenGL
primusrun glxinfo |
grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor
string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer
string: GeForce 820M/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL core profile
version string: 4.4.0 NVIDIA 340.76
OpenGL core profile
shading language version string: 4.40 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
OpenGL core profile
context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile
profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile
extensions:
OpenGL version
string: 4.4.0 NVIDIA 340.76
OpenGL shading
language version string: 4.40 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
OpenGL context
flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask:
(none)
OpenGL extensions:
So now my Laptop is
using the Nvidia Optimus technology with the 340 Series Nvidia
Proprietary Driver.
I Hope this helps
people..
I have used the below two articles to reach this solution.
My OS :- Ubuntu
14.04.2
Laptop :- Lenovo
Z50
Nvidia:- GE
GFORCE GT 820M
COREI5 4th
gen with Haswell graphics.
4GB RAM
Regards
Rajat Pandita
