bumblebee

This package provides a bumblebee daemon that enables Linux to utilize the Nvidia Optimus Hybrid cards.

For more details, please see the project page, Wiki, and troubleshooting

See also primus as an alternative to the optirun (VirtualGL) solution used by default in bumblebee.

Installation and Setup

Procedures as of September of 2015

1) Install the Nvidia driver. See nvidia-detect for details.

Install bumblebee from ELRrepo. kmod-bbswitch and libbsd are installed as dependencies.

Install VirtualGL from the EPEL repository. (This package will be pulled in automatically if EPEL is enabled)

2) Add your user account to group 'bumblebee'.

3) Configure the /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf file.

[bumblebeed]
VirtualDisplay=:8
KeepUnusedXServer=false
ServerGroup=bumblebee
TurnCardOffAtExit=false
NoEcoModeOverride=false
Driver=nvidia
XorgConfDir=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d

[optirun]
Bridge=auto
VGLTransport=proxy
PrimusLibraryPath=/usr/lib/primus:/usr/lib32/primus
AllowFallbackToIGC=false

[driver-nvidia]
KernelDriver=nvidia
PMMethod=bbswitch
LibraryPath=/usr/lib64/nvidia:/usr/lib64/vdpau:/usr/lib/nvidia:/usr/lib/vdpau
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia,/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers,/usr/lib64/xorg/modules

XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia

[driver-nouveau]
KernelDriver=nouveau
PMMethod=auto
XorgConfFile=/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nouveau

4) Edit the file /usr/share/applications/nvidia-settings.desktop and change the Exec line to:

5) Reboot.

Old procedures

The following instructions were taken from a CentOS forum post (thanks to 4hr1m4n) with adjustments.

1) Make a back up copy of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf (if it exists).
2) Install these packages.

• kmod-nvidia from ELRepo
• kmod-bbswitch from ELRepo
• bumblebee from ELRrepo
• VirtualGL from Virtual.org or Springdale (formerly PUIAS).

3) Delete the file /etc/ld.so.conf.d/nvidia.conf and run
4) Restore your back up copy of /etc/X11/xorg.conf if you originally had one. If not then just delete the one that might be there now.
5) Move the directory /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia with all its contents to /usr/lib64/xorg/nvidia.
6) Edit the file /usr/share/applications/nvidia-settings.desktop and change the Exec line to:

7) Create a new group called bumblebee and add your user ID to it.
8) Run
9) Edit /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf file and make sure to set the following parameters:

ServerGroup=bumblebee
Driver=nvidia
KernelDriver=nvidia
Module=nvidia
PMMethod=bbswitch
LibraryPath=/usr/lib64/nvidia:/usr/lib64/vdpau:/usr/lib/nvidia:/usr/lib/vdpau
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib64/xorg/nvidia,/usr/lib64/xorg/modules

10) Reboot your laptop

To test if NVIDIA GPU is now accessible, log in as usual and open NVIDIA X Server Settings application (System -> Administration). If it runs ok then it's working.
You can also execute

Want to compare the Intel and NVIDIA GPUs' performance? Open a terminal, run

and

NOTE: steps 3, 5 and 9 are critical; make sure you execute them correctly.

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