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I have two video cards, one Intel the other NVIDIA. I was trying to see if I could have specific programs use the NVIDIA card, so after reading that Bumblebee could do that, I installed Bumblebee. Well, that was a mistake because now, even after uninstalling Bumblebee, I no longer can switch to the NVIDIA card using prime-select.

I've tried reinstalling nvidia-prime and the nvidia drivers. That did not fix the problem though.

My machine is a Dell Precision M3800

prime-select query

Is returning "unknown"

Contents of /var/log/gpu-manager.log:

log_file: /var/log/gpu-manager.log
last_boot_file: /var/lib/ubuntu-drivers-common/last_gfx_boot
new_boot_file: /var/lib/ubuntu-drivers-common/last_gfx_boot
grep dmesg status 256
dmesg status 256 == 0? No
grep dmesg status 256
dmesg status 256 == 0? No
Is nvidia loaded? no
Was nvidia unloaded? no
Is nvidia blacklisted? yes
Is fglrx loaded? no
Was fglrx unloaded? no
Is fglrx blacklisted? no
Is intel loaded? yes
Is radeon loaded? no
Is radeon blacklisted? no
Is nouveau loaded? no
Is nouveau blacklisted? yes
Is fglrx kernel module available? no
Is nvidia kernel module available? yes
Vendor/Device Id: 8086:416
BusID "PCI:0@0:2:0"
Is boot vga? yes
Vendor/Device Id: 10de:ff6
BusID "PCI:2@0:0:0"
Is boot vga? no
Error: can't access /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:02:00.0/driver
The device is not bound to any driver. Skipping...
Skipping "/dev/dri/card0", driven by "i915"
Skipping "/dev/dri/card0", driven by "i915"
Found "/dev/dri/card0", driven by "i915"
output 0:
    eDP connector
Number of connected outputs for /dev/dri/card0: 1
Does it require offloading? yes
last cards number = 1
Has amd? no
Has intel? yes
Has nvidia? no
How many cards? 1
Has the system changed? No
main_arch_path x86_64-linux-gnu, other_arch_path i386-linux-gnu
Current alternative: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/mesa/ld.so.conf
Current core alternative: (null)
Is nvidia enabled? no
Is fglrx enabled? no
Is mesa enabled? yes
Is pxpress enabled? no
Is prime enabled? no
Is nvidia available? yes
Is fglrx available? no
Is fglrx-core available? no
Is mesa available? yes
Is pxpress available? no
Is prime available? yes
Single card detected
Nothing to do
No change - nothing to do

Output of ubuntu-drivers list:

nvidia-352
nvidia-340
nvidia-340-updates
nvidia-352-updates
bcmwl-kernel-source

Output of ubuntu-drivers devices:

== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:02:00.0 ==
model    : GK107GLM [Quadro K1100M]
modalias : pci:v000010DEd00000FF6sv00001028sd0000060Dbc03sc02i00
vendor   : NVIDIA Corporation
driver   : nvidia-340 - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-340-updates - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-352-updates - distro non-free
driver   : nvidia-352 - distro non-free recommended
driver   : xserver-xorg-video-nouveau - distro free builtin

== cpu-microcode.py ==
driver   : intel-microcode - distro non-free

== /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.2/0000:06:00.0 ==
model    : BCM4352 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
modalias : pci:v000014E4d000043B1sv00001028sd00000019bc02sc80i00
vendor   : Broadcom Corporation
driver   : bcmwl-kernel-source - distro non-free

/var/log/apt/history.log:

Start-Date: 2015-11-25  11:41:00
Commandline: apt-get install bumblebee
Install: primus-libs-ia32:i386 (0~20150328-1, automatic), primus-libs:amd64 (0~20150328-1, automatic), primus-libs:i386 (0~20150328-1, automatic), bumblebee:amd64 (3.2.1-9), primus:amd64 (0~20150328-1, automatic)
End-Date: 2015-11-25  11:41:19

Start-Date: 2015-11-25  11:52:16
Commandline: apt-get remove bumblebee primus primus-libs primus-libs:i386 primus-libs-ia32:i386
Remove: primus-libs-ia32:i386 (0~20150328-1), primus-libs:amd64 (0~20150328-1), primus-libs:i386 (0~20150328-1), bumblebee:amd64 (3.2.1-9), primus:amd64 (0~20150328-1)
End-Date: 2015-11-25  11:52:24

Thanks for any help you can give!

Edit: My machine seems to be running hotter than normal with the Intel card, and my battery life is half of what it normally is. It would seem that the NVIDIA card is being constantly powered, even though it isn't being used.

2 Answers 2

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Actually bumblebee is common solution when you install it correctly you can use it with optirun command like optirun gimp. I suggest to you try again bumblebee.

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  • Thanks, but at this point I would just like to know how to go back to nvidia-prime. Oddly enough, it would seem that the NVIDIA card is still being powered, even though it's the Intel card that's being used.
    – Isaac
    Nov 27, 2015 at 16:35
  • When you installing bumblebee you have to send nvidia to blacklist, it can cause nvidia-prime problem. Remove nvidia from blacklist.
    – user476512
    Nov 27, 2015 at 18:38
  • The thing is, bumblebee isn't working for me. I run the optirun command and I get the error [ERROR]Cannot access secondary GPU - error: Could not load GPU driver
    – Isaac
    Nov 27, 2015 at 19:18
  • I suggest it for nvidia-prime. When you installed bumblebee you changed some config on your system. You have to remove them for using nvidia stand alone again. Because of that try to remove nvidia from blacklist. You can find your blacklist in /etc/modprobe.d/. But leave nouveau in blacklist
    – user476512
    Nov 27, 2015 at 19:32
  • Yay! I figured it out. Your last comment lead me to realize that some configuration files were left behind. I've created a new answer that shows how to make nvidia-prime work again. Perhaps sometime in the future I'll do some more research on bumblebee to see if I can get it to work, but for now I at least can use prime-select.
    – Isaac
    Nov 28, 2015 at 17:30
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I've figured it out. Turns out some configuration files were left over when uninstalling bumblebee. To remove them, simply purge the packages using apt-get:

sudo apt-get purge bumblebee-nvidia primus-libs-ia32:i386 primus-libs:amd64 primus-libs:i386 bumblebee primus

Now prime-select works again.

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