Bumblebee can't load gpu driver (SOLVED)

[mr_scientific]

Forgive me if there are duplicates but I couldn't seem to find any. My issue is Bumblebee refuses to load my nvidia graphics card and gives the following error message:

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$ primusrun glxgears
primus: fatal: Bumblebee daemon reported: error: Could not load GPU driver

I tried following the help from an ubuntu forum https://askubuntu.com/questions/476681/ ... gpu-driver but had no luck. This is the output from trying that

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$ primusrun glxgears
primus: fatal: failed to connect to Bumblebee daemon: No such file or directory

The following is the output from 'lspci | grep -i --color 'vga\|3d\|2d'' output if that helps.

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$ lspci | grep -i --color 'vga\|3d\|2d'
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation UHD Graphics 630 (Mobile)
01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile] (rev a1)

Let me know if you need more information.

[SMG]

Welcome to the forum, mr_scientific.

Are you using Linux Mint? Bumblebee is not supported in Mint. Mint installs nvidia-prime and nvidia-prime-applet by default for switching between Intel and Nvidia.

What were you trying to accomplish with Bumblebee?

Section 5 of READ: How To Get Help! explains the data we need to be able to help you. Please provide that system data so we know how Mint sees your hardware.

[mr_scientific]

Yes I'm using Linux mint. I used to use Ubuntu but switched because I wanted to try out a different distro. I planned on using bumblebee to switch to the nvidia gpu when gaming for better performance (my intel gpu is not as good as the nvidia one) but I'll check out nvidia-prime since bumblebee isn't supported. Here's the data from running the 'inxi -Fxxxrz' command:

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$ inxi -Fxxxrz
System:
  Kernel: 5.4.0-72-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 9.3.0 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 4.8.6 wm: muffin 4.8.1 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.1 Ulyssa base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Dell product: G3 3579 v: N/A serial: <filter> 
  Chassis: type: 10 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Dell model: 03TF0Y v: A00 serial: <filter> UEFI: Dell v: 1.13.0 
  date: 07/03/2020 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 18.0 Wh condition: 18.0/56.0 Wh (32%) volts: 16.8/15.2 
  model: Samsung SDI DELL W7NKD88 type: Li-ion serial: <filter> status: Full 
  Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech Wireless Mouse M325 
  serial: <filter> charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes 
  status: Discharging 
CPU:
  Topology: 6-Core model: Intel Core i7-8750H bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Kaby Lake rev: A L2 cache: 9216 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 52799 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/4100 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 854 2: 801 
  3: 800 4: 800 5: 804 6: 800 7: 800 8: 800 9: 800 10: 801 11: 800 12: 801 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel UHD Graphics 630 vendor: Dell driver: i915 v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:3e9b 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107M [GeForce GTX 1050 Ti Mobile] driver: N/A 
  bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:1c8c 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.9 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel UHD Graphics 630 (CFL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 20.2.6 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH cAVS vendor: Dell driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:a348 
  Device-2: NVIDIA GP107GL High Definition Audio driver: snd_hda_intel 
  v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.1 chip ID: 10de:0fb9 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-72-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wireless-AC 9560 [Jefferson Peak] driver: iwlwifi 
  v: kernel port: 5000 bus ID: 00:14.3 chip ID: 8086:a370 
  IF: wlo1 state: up mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: Dell driver: r8169 v: kernel port: 3000 bus ID: 02:00.0 
  chip ID: 10ec:8168 
  IF: enp2s0 state: down mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 1.03 TiB used: 18.89 GiB (1.8%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Seagate model: ST1000LM035-1RK172 size: 931.51 GiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s rotation: 5400 rpm serial: <filter> rev: SDM3 scheme: GPT 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: LITE-ON model: CV8-8E128-11 SATA 128GB 
  size: 119.24 GiB speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 10B scheme: GPT 
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci 
  v: 3.0 port: 5060 bus ID: 00:17.0 chip ID: 8086.282a rev: 10 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 458.11 GiB used: 18.87 GiB (4.1%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 36.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list 
  1: deb https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb/ stable main
  2: deb https://repo.protonvpn.com/debian unstable main
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://packages.linuxmint.com ulyssa main upstream import backport #id:linuxmint_main
  2: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi.list 
  1: deb http://repo.vivaldi.com/stable/deb/ stable main
Info:
  Processes: 348 Uptime: 5h 36m Memory: 7.64 GiB used: 1.59 GiB (20.8%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 

[SMG]

You can use this command to make sure all of Bumblebee is removed: sudo apt-get purge bumblebee* primus*
The presence of those files have been known to interfere with nvidia-prime and nvidia-prime-applet.

Do you see the nvidia-prime-applet in your panel? There have been some bugs/glitches in some of the files related to switching and you may not see it.

If not, most people have used the fix in the fourth post in this thread Disappearing Nvidia drivers :Prime the prime suspect?. It describes a one line code fix (editing line 34) for a know bug with some of the graphics files related to Nvidia.

[mr_scientific]

I removed all of bumblebee and I do see the applet after a reboot. Unfortunately the performance of my computer has not really improved so it might just be that I can't get more performance through Linux. Anyways, thanks a lot for helping out!

[SMG]

I removed all of bumblebee and I do see the applet after a reboot. Unfortunately the performance of my computer has not really improved so I guess that wasn't the problem.

I suggest you try the 5.8 kernel which is available in Update Manager. Many people with 8th gen Intel have found they get better performance with it.

If you would like to try it, open Update Manager. Select View > Linux Kernels and click Continue. Make sure 5.8 is selected on the left panel and then click the top-most option on the right panel. An "Install" button will appear. Install the kernel and then reboot for it to become active.

[mr_scientific]

Thanks for the tip! That did help a bit. Not as good as windows but better than before