Description
Nvidia Optimus is an optimization technology created by Nvidia which, depending on the resource load generated by client software applications, will transparently and seamlessly switch between two graphics adapters within a computer system in order to provide either maximum performance or minimum power draw from the system's graphics rendering hardware. From Bumblebee's FAQ: Bumblebee is a effort to make Nvidia Optimus enabled laptops work in GNU/Linux systems. Such feature involves two graphics cards with two different power consumption profiles plugged in a layered way sharing a single framebuffer.
Install Dependencies
su -c "yum install -y libbsd-devel libbsd glibc-devel libX11-devel help2man autoconf git tar glib2 glib2-devel kernel-devel kernel-headers automake gcc gtk2-devel"
You also need to install VirtualGL. Download the latest version for your arch at the VirtualGL download page
Note: VirtualGL added Fedora 18 repository.You can install via yum with that command If you use Fedora 18;
yum install VirtualGL
If you want to run 32 bit apps on your 64 bit system, then also install:
yum install VirtualGL.i686
Install Bumblebee
Install the bumblebee yum repository
Fedora 17
yum -y --nogpgcheck install http://install.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/yum/itecs/public/bumblebee/fedora17/noarch/bumblebee-release-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
Fedora 18
yum -y --nogpgcheck install http://install.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/yum/itecs/public/bumblebee/fedora18/noarch/bumblebee-release-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
Now install bumblebee:
yum -y install bbswitch bumblebee
bumblebee with the NVIDIA proprietary drivers
The previous commands install bumbleblee with the nouveau drivers. If you want to install bumblebee with the NVIDIA proprietary drivers you must also follow these instructions:
Install the bumblebee-nonfree repository:
Fedora 17
yum -y --nogpgcheck install http://install.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/yum/itecs/public/bumblebee-nonfree/fedora17/noarch/bumblebee-nonfree-release-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
Fedora 18
yum -y --nogpgcheck install http://install.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/yum/itecs/public/bumblebee-nonfree/fedora18/noarch/bumblebee-nonfree-release-1.0-1.noarch.rpm
Now install bumblebee-nvidia
yum -y install bumblebee-nvidia
"bumblebee-nvidia" is both a rpm package and a shell script. The "bumblebee-nvidia" package contains the shell "wrapper" script, init scripts to run it at bootup, and a SELinux security policy, and lastly a copy of the NVidia Linux binary driver "blob" downloaded from NVidia's UNIX drivers page. This is why the packages are so large compared to the bumblebee package.
Reboot.
Testing bumblebee
If you want to make sure you have bumblebee up and running, write:
optirun glxgears -info
You should see some gears rotating, and in the terminal you should see "GL_VENDOR = NVIDIA Corporation" or something similar.
Primus
For speed imrovements you can use primus. Primus is a shared library that provides OpenGL and GLX APIs and implements low-overhead local-only client-side OpenGL offloading via GLX forking, similar to VirtualGL. It intercepts GLX calls and redirects GL rendering to a secondary X display, presumably driven by a faster GPU. On swapping buffers, rendered contents are read back using a PBO and copied onto the drawable it was supposed to be rendered on in the first place. Currently primus requires the NVIDIA proprietary drivers.
Install primus:
yum install primus
If you want to run 32 bit apps on your 64 bit system, then also install:
yum install primus.i686
Testing primus
Open up a terminal and run:
PRIMUS_VERBOSE=2 primusrun glxgears
If primus is working properly, you should see "primus: profiling:" messages every so often in the terminal you ran it from.
How to use bumblebee
General Usage:
optirun [options] <application> [application-parameters]
If you installed primus, then you can use the following command to take advantage of it:
optirun -b primus <application> [application-parameters]
Start Windows applications:
optirun wine <windows application>.exe
with primus:
optirun -b primus wine <windows application>.exe
By default, primus renders up to 60 fps. To render more frames per second:
vblank_mode=0 optirun -b primus <application> [application-parameters]
In practice this will probably only waste power, as most screens do not display more than 60 frames per second.
You can always run "man optirun" for more information.