Saturday, January 11, 2014

Installing Linux Mint on a Asus UX32VD Laptop (or any laptop) PART 2 - Graphics Ubuntu Bumblebee

Hi,

This will be a short post today as my week has been busy. However, it's an important one.

To get the integrated graphics working with UX32VD or any other laptop with NVIDIA Optimus for that matter, you must use Bumblebee. It's officially supported by Ubuntu Saucy (13.10) or later, which includes Linux Mint Petra or higher.

See here for the details. (Note I am only giving instructiosn for 13.10, see Ubuntu documentation for earlier versions).

Basically you will need to do the following:

1. Add bumblebee PPA


sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable

2. Enable universe and multiverse 


sudo cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.backup

sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list  
 
Uncomment/add the following lines for universe and multiverse




deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy universe
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-updates universe
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-updates universe


deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy multiverse
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-updates multiverse
deb-src http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ saucy-updates multiverse 

3. Install Bumblebee including 32-bit support


sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia primus primus-libs-ia32 linux-headers-generic

4.  Install NVIDIA 319 Updates


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

5. Install nvidia-settings

sudo apt-get install nvidia-settings

5. Modify /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf file. Find the section [bumblebeed] and change Driver=nvidia .

Also find the section under [driver-nvidia] and also add Driver=nvidia (it is in two places).

Next under the [driver-nvidia] section modify the following:
  
Driver=nvidia
KernelDriver=nvidia-319-updates
LibraryPath=/usr/lib/nvidia-319-updates:/usr/lib32/nvidia-319-updates
XorgModulePath=/usr/lib/nvidia-319-updates/xorg,/usr/lib/xorg/modules 
 
Save the file  and restart the Bumblebee daemon with 
sudo restart bumblebeed
6. Finally, use the discrete graphics by testing optirun and comparing framerates


sudo apt-get install mesa-utils
optirun glxgears
glxgears


See the Ubuntu documentation on Bumblebee for more details including how to uninstall it and go back to the nouveau driver if you're unsatisfied.

Now, whenever you run a graphics intensive application (games and so on) start it with optirun.
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5 comments:

  1. UnknownFebruary 12, 2014 at 10:53 PM

    Hi Brian

    thanks for your post.

    I followed your instructions, however when i do optirun glxgears i get the following error:
    [ERROR]You've no permission to communicate with the Bumblebee daemon. Try adding yourself to the 'bumblebee' group
    [ 2260.490083] [ERROR]Could not connect to bumblebee daemon - is it running?

    then i tried with sudo and got the following error

    [ 2325.665978] [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU, secondary X is not active.

    [ 2325.666199] [ERROR]Aborting because fallback start is disabled.

    if you can help me i will apreciate it

    regards

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BrianLimFebruary 13, 2014 at 2:41 AM

      Hi Sorry,

      I missed the step to blacklist the Nouveau driver. Also I missed the step to remove existing NVIDIA driver.

      sudo apt-get purge nvidia-current

      And try my steps again

      Also try Driver=nvidia-current or Driver=
      (leave after = sign blank). There are several sections in bumblebee.conf that need to be changed I may have missed some I will post this file later in the week.

      To blacklist nouveau, modify grub as shown here http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/176 and let me know how it goes. Unfortunately I don't have time to clean my UX32VD and rewrite the tutorial for the next few weeks. I will rewrite with perfect steps once we are sure.

      If that does not work look at thread here http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2036010 .

      Also make sure you have access to second computer and everything is backed up because its possible to get black screen.

      Thanks for visiting my blog,
      Brian

      Delete
    2. UnknownFebruary 15, 2014 at 3:48 PM

      Hi brian

      i reboot the laptop and it worked
      however thanks for the idea about to eliminate the nvidia current driver

      thanks a lot and keep posting

      Delete
  2. UnknownFebruary 15, 2014 at 3:47 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. iteducationcentreJuly 12, 2024 at 10:20 PM

    Nice blog.
    also, check Linux course in Pune

    ReplyDelete

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