nvidia optimus, ubuntu 12.04, No device detected

Question

I have a Dell XPS. I followed this tutorial to get NVidia working: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport/Machines/Laptops/Dell/XPS/15z

I try to run the glxspheres and it fails with the message below:

optirun -vv -debug glxspheres
[   29.736785] [DEBUG]Reading file: /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
[   29.737854] [DEBUG]optirun version 3.2.1 starting...
[   29.737895] [DEBUG]Active configuration:
[   29.737906] [DEBUG] bumblebeed config file: /etc/bumblebee/bumblebee.conf
[   29.737916] [DEBUG] X display: ebug
[   29.737925] [DEBUG] LD_LIBRARY_PATH: /usr/lib/nvidia-304:/usr/lib32/nvidia-304
[   29.737935] [DEBUG] Socket path: /var/run/bumblebee.socket
[   29.737944] [DEBUG] Accel/display bridge: auto
[   29.737953] [DEBUG] VGL Compression: proxy
[   29.737962] [DEBUG] VGLrun extra options: 
[   29.737972] [DEBUG] Primus LD Path: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/primus:/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/primus
[   29.738223] [DEBUG]Using auto-detected bridge virtualgl
[   30.336829] [INFO]Response: No - error: [XORG] (EE) No devices detected.

[   30.336882] [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU - error: [XORG] (EE) No devices detected.

[   30.336902] [DEBUG]Socket closed.
[   30.336945] [ERROR]Aborting because fallback start is disabled.
[   30.336964] [DEBUG]Killing all remaining processes.

Answer 1

about bumblebee, I suggest you to reintall it at the rule write in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee.

Answer 2

I had the same problem with a Pavilion and manage to fix it by setting the BusID manually (as stated in https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bumblebee).

Those are the steps you need to follow:

1. Find the correct BusID using lspci | egrep 'VGA|3D' (example output):

   $ lspci | egrep 'VGA|3D'
   00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller (rev 09)
   01:00.0 3D controller: NVIDIA Corporation GF117M [GeForce 610M/710M / GT 620M/625M/630M/720M] (rev ff)
   

   As you can see, here the correct BusID is 01:00.0.

2. Add the correct BusID to /etc/bumblebee/xorg.nvidia. You may find there already a line commented, just uncomment it and replace the BusID with the right one.

   $ cat /etc/bumblebee/xorg.nvidia
   ...
   BusID "PCI:01:00:0"
   ...
   

   NOTE: you will need to replace the last colon with a dot, or it will not work!

3. Restart Bumblebee

   $ sudo service bumblebeed restart
   

Restarting Bumblebee should be enough. If you get the same error restart your machine and you are ready to go.