Every article tag can be clicked to get a list of all articles in that category. Every article tag also has an RSS feed! You can customize an RSS feed too!
We do often include affiliate links to earn us some pennies. See more here.

Nvidia Optimus with Ironhide

By - | Views: 13,064
So for those of you like me who have a laptop with Nvidia Optimus that want to game on Linux usually you would be quite stuck with Nvidia not supporting Optimus on Linux at all.

So you would either be lucky and have a BIOS option to turn off the integrated Intel graphics or like me be unlucky and have no BIOS option and be stuck using the Intel graphics (which in recent years aren't so bad and are starting to actually perform better - but then there's the S3TC issue which is a whole 'nother thing with open source graphics).

Thankfully there is now a semi-decent solution which upon my own testing in the last month has proven for me to work really well.

The Bumblebee Project & Ironhide
Okay so there are two choices both of which use something called VirtualGL (they install it for you though don't worry).

1) The Bumblebee Project is a "stable" but upon watching it for some time, it is a slowly developed solution which in my own testing didn't work with all games. One advantage is they support more than just Ubuntu.

2) Ironhide which is even more bleeding edge than the above but I have yet to find a game that doesn't work with it :), Ironhide is also much more configurable and just in my opinion overall a much better choice - one drawback is that it is near enough exclusive for Ubuntu.

Running Ironhide & The Bumblebee Project

Once installed all you do is run games (and whatever else you need) with the "optirun" command. Some games like Minecraft for example need a bit of trickery though and are not as simple;

To give an example, running Dungeons of Dredmor would be as simple as doing say
optirun desura_launch_Play.sh
(In the games folder - this example uses the game installed via Desura).

Where as Minecraft needs something along the lines of this:
optirun java -jar '/home/liam/Downloads/minecraft.jar'

In my tests it didn't work with OpenJDK only with Sun Java 6, you can check which is set to default on your system by doing:
java -version

You can replace of course the address with wherever your minecraft .jar file is located. Pop the above in a text file, rename to say "minecraft_launcher" or something and make it executable and voila an easy to use launcher to run it on your Nvidia chip!

To be fair you can do the exact same on anything just pop "optirun something" in a text file, make it executable and there you have a launcher.

I am actually shocked at how easy this makes using Optimus! Be sure to support the developer in any way you can for this amazing work!

I hope someone, somewhere finds it useful other than me, as i understand it - Optimus is a big problem with lots of manufacturers using it and like in my case not advertising it anywhere until the unit is turned on and setup so you cannot get a refund....but this saved my day! So this is a chance for me to give a little back :) Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Misc
0 Likes
About the author -
author picture
I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
See more from me
The comments on this article are closed.
7 comments

Spelling Goebbels Nov 13, 2011
Quoting: "liamdawe, post: 2624"Pop the above in a text file, rename to say "minecraft_launcher" or something and make it executable and wolla an easy to use launcher to run it on your Nvidia chip!



http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/voil%C3%A0
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/voil%C3%A0
Liam Dawe Nov 13, 2011
Thanks for pointing out the error but I still prefer my word :p

Ps. I am a brit so the correct way for me would be [URL='http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/voila']voila[/URL] ;)

Nice to know someone actually read the article though and well enough to nit pick :D
Geoffrey Whaite Nov 14, 2011
Congratulations on getting optimus to work. I tried bumblebee on a Dell XPS15 but had no luck getting it to work despite all the suggestions from the the developer and my own researches. The support issue was eventually closed with no resolution and the Dell has now been relegated to running Windows 7 (which it does quite well).

From now on I'm sticking with ATI. I've had a number of different ATI systems and they've all run with no problems using the propriety fglrx driver.
Liam Dawe Nov 14, 2011
I would suggest sometime giving Ironhide a go, Bumblebee is an old project which was forked into The Bumblebee Project and now Ironhide.
kednar Nov 27, 2011
Worked perfectly in a ThinkPad W520 with Ubuntu 11.10.

The only issue is that the lights in the game appears darker than in other OS... even with in-game brightness at maximum.

Any idea or similar case?
Liam Dawe Nov 27, 2011
What game?

I would submit a bug report to them directly. I personally don't have any issues with brightness.
kednar Nov 27, 2011
Oh, sorry! I was talking about Minecraft.

The issue is just that, the lighting is very dark even with in-game brightness at maximum.

Regards.
While you're here, please consider supporting GamingOnLinux on:

Reward Tiers: Patreon. Plain Donations: PayPal.

This ensures all of our main content remains totally free for everyone! Patreon supporters can also remove all adverts and sponsors! Supporting us helps bring good, fresh content. Without your continued support, we simply could not continue!

You can find even more ways to support us on this dedicated page any time. If you already are, thank you!
The comments on this article are closed.