Originally published on eve.gd on 30 December 2012, last updated 6 September 2026.
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Getting this to work has been the bane of my morning, so here's what I did to eventually get it working:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia linux-headers-generic sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r) sudo apt-get install nvidia-current
Edit /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf (as root). Change:
Driver=
to
Driver=nvidia
and
KernelDriver=nvidia-current
to
KernelDriver=nvidia
Edit /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia (as root). Change:
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP"
to
Option "ConnectedMonitor" "CRT"
A reboot now should enable you to do: "optirun glxgears" without any problems. If it isn't working, make sure that bumblebee-nvidia is actually installed. Also, when the nvidia-current package was installed, make sure it can find the kernel source and isn't giving an error showing that it didn't actually build the module.
My next step is to verify that bbswitch is actually working to give the power saving.
This reference list has been generated, in many cases, through an automated process and may therefore contain errors or incomplete metadata. It is provided purely as assistance for finding the items mentioned within this post.
1. ‘Troubleshooting’, GitHub <https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/Troubleshooting>
https://github.com/Bumblebee-Project/Bumblebee/wiki/Troubleshooting