Bumblebee Setup on an Asus N56VM w/ Nvidia GT630M and Intel cards

Question

My computer is an Asus N56VM - 64bit, EFI boot computer with hybrid graphics. The output of "lspci | grep VGA" is
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF108 [GeForce GT 630M] (rev a1)
I have had the computer for a while without considering actually configuring the graphics fully, but I recently discovered bumblebee, and followed the instructions on the archwiki to install it for use with the intel and nouveau drivers (no nvidia drivers because of EFI, though if anybody want to tell me the easiest way to get those proprietary drivers working on my system even if it means making my computer boot from BIOS again, that'd be nice, ha). However, after installing it, and doing 'systemctl enable bumblebeed.service' successfully and rebooting, I cannot use optirun. When I try:
$ optirun -vv glxgears
[ 2003.553898] [DEBUG]Reading file: /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
[ 2003.554287] [INFO]Configured driver: nouveau
[ 2003.710327] [DEBUG]optirun version 3.0.1 starting...
[ 2003.710366] [DEBUG]Active configuration:
[ 2003.710374] [DEBUG] bumblebeed config file: /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
[ 2003.710381] [DEBUG] X display: :8
[ 2003.710387] [DEBUG] LD_LIBRARY_PATH:
[ 2003.710394] [DEBUG] Socket path: /var/run/bumblebee.socket
[ 2003.710400] [DEBUG] VGL Compression: proxy
[ 2003.819499] [INFO]Response: No - error: [XORG] (EE) Failed to load module "mouse" (module does not exist, 0)
[ 2003.819515] [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU - error: [XORG] (EE) Failed to load module "mouse" (module does not exist, 0)
[ 2003.819520] [DEBUG]Socket closed.
[ 2003.819531] [ERROR]Aborting because fallback start is disabled.
[ 2003.819536] [DEBUG]Killing all remaining processes.
I've looked for solutions related to the error message, but they have all involved getting rid of a section in the xorg confs which doesn't exist on my machines (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=141729). I have these packages installed which are related to bumblebee or my video drivers:
bumblebee 3.0.1.4
nouveau-dri 9.0.1-1
xf86-video-nouveau 1.0.4-1
lib32-nouveau-dri 9.0.1-1
xf86-video-intel 2.20.16-1
intel-dri 9.0.1-1
lib32-intel-dri 9.0.1-1
bbswitch-git 20120116-1
mesa 9.0.1-1
Perhaps unrelated is the fact that I don't believe the Nvidia card is powered off at boot. The wiki seems to imply that when bbswitch is installed, bumblebeed will turn the card off at boot, but the nouveau module is still loaded at start up ('lsmod | grep nouveau' still has entries and 'echo OFF >> /proc/acpi/bbswitch' doesn't work). I haven't been able to find much useful information about where to go from here, so I've tried to throw up as much information as I can that might be related. I understand trying to deal with hybrid graphics is a hassle, but I appreciate any help in getting it configured correctly so that optirun and power management work. I'll be happy to provide any more information that might help. Thanks!
Last edited by gwaar (2012-12-23 23:33:15)

Answer 1

Apply the below patch to your /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nouveau (from bumblebee git)
diff --git a/conf/xorg.conf.nouveau b/conf/xorg.conf.nouveau
index 9bf92fc..506d150 100644
--- a/conf/xorg.conf.nouveau
+++ b/conf/xorg.conf.nouveau
@@ -2,6 +2,8 @@ Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Layout0"
Screen "Screen0"
Option "AutoAddDevices" "false"
+ # Prevent device detection from failing in Xorg 1.13
+ Option "AutoAddGPU" "false"
EndSection
Section "Device"