Feature added by: Staffan Tjernstrom (staffantj) Feature #312901, revision 1 Title: Add bumblebee for NVidia Optimus graphics support Package Wishlist: Unconfirmed Priority Requester: Important Requested by: Staffan Tjernstrom (staffantj) Partner organization: openSUSE.org Description: https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee ------------------- ## About Bumblebee ------------------- Bumblebee aims to provide support for nVidia Optimus laptops for GNU/Linux distributions. Using Bumblebee, you can use your nVidia card for rendering graphics which will be displayed using the Intel card. Note that you cannot disable the Intel GPU even with Bumblebee installed. Support for enabling and disabling the the nVidia card is in development. Please refer to section 'Power Management' below. Currently, Bumblebee has only been tested on Ubuntu and Arch Linux. Please join #bumblebee channel on Freenode if you wish to help testing and creating the installer. ---------------- ## Installation ---------------- There are several ways to get Bumblebee: ### Using your package manager (recommended if available): If you were using an old version of Bumblebee (<2.3 non-Arch distribution), please run this the first time before switching to a newer version: 1. wget https://raw.github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/master/cleanup 2. chmod +x cleanup 2. sudo ./cleanup Ubuntu: 1. sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable 1bis. If you are on Ubuntu prior to 11.10 and want newer drivers (recommended) than the ones available in the official repos, run: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates 2. sudo apt-get update 3. sudo apt-get install bumblebee Arch Linux: AUR package: http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=49469 Instructions in the ArchWiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bumblebee ### Using the installation script: If you were using an old version of Bumblebee (<2.3), please run this the first time before switching to a newer version: 1. wget https://raw.github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/master/cleanup 2. chmod +x cleanup 2. sudo ./cleanup Then, you need to install VirtualGL > 2.2.1 (2.2.90 is advised) and nvidia driver. Tarballs can be found at https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/downloads Download the tarball named like bumblebee-VERSION.tar.gz, extract and install it: 1. Download 2. Extract: $ tar xf bumbleee-VERSION.tar.gz 3. Change your directory to the extracted folder: $ cd bumblebee-VERSION 4. (if you've previously installed Bumblebee < 2.3:) $ sudo ./cleanup 5. Run the installer: $ sudo ./install Installation instructions for getting the code from git: $ git clone git://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee.git Users who want to test the development code should run: $ git clone git://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee.git -b develop --depth 1 Then in order to install: $ cd Bumblebee $ sudo ./install --------- ## Usage --------- After the initial bumblebee installation, you need to add yourself to the 'bumblebee' group: $ sudo usermod -a -G bumblebee YOURUSERNAME Replace YOURUSERNAME accordingly and please double check the command, if you forget the '-a' option, you remove yourself from other groups. After adding yourself to the group, you need to re-login for the changes to apply. Applications can be started using bumblebee by prefixing it with optirun. For example, starting Firefox can be done with: optirun firefox -------------------- ## Power Management -------------------- Since 2.4, we added backend support for enabling/disabling the card. You should first read the following page: https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/ACPI-Removed It will help you understand the current situation about Power Management. If you understand what that does mean, then, here is how to enable it. You need to install acpi_call module for your system. Ubuntu: available on the PPA. To install it, run: sudo apt-get install acpi-call-tools Arch Linux: AUR package: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=39470 First, edit the 'bumblebee.conf' file and set power management to Y. You should also set STOP_SERVICE_ON_EXIT to Y: ENABLE_POWER_MANAGEMENT=Y STOP_SERVICE_ON_EXIT=Y Then, in the bumblebee conf dir, create the textfiles 'cardon' and 'cardoff' which should just contain the calls to respectively enable and disable the card. Each line should contain a call, comments are not allowed. Check 'bumblebee.conf' file comments on Power Management for more informations. After that, reboot (or restart daemon) to apply changes. ------------- ## Uninstall ------------- If you're unsatisfied with Bumblebee, you can remove it by running: $ sudo bumblebee-uninstall If you used a package version of Bumblebee, then use your package manager to uninstall. --------------------------- ## Reporting bugs/problems --------------------------- First of all: If you have any problem, please read this article: https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/Reporting-Issues Then create a bug report package with the bumblebee-bugreport tool and open an issue on GitHub at https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/issues -------------- ## Developers -------------- The current developers for Bumblebee are: - ArchangeGabriel - Lekensteyn - Samsagax - paulvriens - Ximi1970 Check the https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/Developers page for developer information. ---------------- ## Useful Links ---------------- Status updates can be found here on twitter: https://twitter.com/Team_Bumblebee Commits are flooded here: https://twitter.com/Bumblebee_Git You may also join the facebook group: http://tinyurl.com/bumblebeefacebook Launchpad Team page: https://launchpad.net/~bumblebee Use Case: Lenovo Thinkpad W520 with NVidia 2000GT discrete graphics hidng behind Intel Optimus. Business case (Partner benefit): openSUSE.org: Currently there is no Optimus support in the distro (that I can see), and with more and more high-end laptops shipping with i2xxx Intel CPUs with NVidia / Optimus graphics cards, restricting those laptops to the drm'd Intel driver is quite a hindrance. -- openSUSE Feature: https://features.opensuse.org/312901