Do I have to install and config bbswitch in addition to bumblebee?

emonhaque · 2019-07-18 13:38:20

I don't know what bbswitch does really, looks like nvidia-smi beheaves the same with or without bbswitch on my system.

If I run obs-studio with NVENC and watch nvidia-smi, with or without bbswitch, I get same output! Is it safe to remove bbswitch or it does something else behind the scene?

seth · 2019-07-18 14:41:18

bbswitch can (depending on configuration or invocation) disable the dedicated GPU when it's not used, powersavingwise.

emonhaque · 2019-07-18 15:12:19

Somewhere in Archwiki I read that it does so by default. If I run lsmod immediately after the system boots up, I see atleast one nvidia there always:

nvidia                   18833408  9
ipmi_msghandler        65536  2 ipmi_devintf,nvidia

and If I use obs-studio with NVENC and then run lsmod again, I see one more modules:

nvidia_uvm               950272  2
nvidia                 18833408  22 nvidia_uvm
ipmi_msghandler        65536  2 ipmi_devintf,nvidia

and nvidia_uvm remains there until I reboot the system. Can bbswitch do anything here?

All linux distros probably consume more power than windows 10. As far as I remember, I could watch videos on this laptop on battery for more than an hour on windows 10 BUT on KDE neon and Arch with Plasma I can't! Sometimes Plasma's powerdevil shows misleading information about battery capacity. Last time, while I was watching videos on battery, after 20/30 mins it showed that 50% remaining and (1:10), maybe 1 hour 10 mins, but within a few minutes after that, system was turned off automatically without any notice! It also takes lot longer to recharge battery fully!

To save power, I've already blacklisted these:

blacklist iTCO_wdt
blacklist iTCO_vendor_support
blacklist btusb
blacklist bluetooth
blacklist uvcvideo

modules, added these:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="audit=0 loglevel=3 quiet nowatchdog i915.i915_enable_rc6=1 i915.i915_enable_fbc=1 i915.lvds_downclock=1"

parameters and updated grub BUT I think those didn't help the battery that much! What can I do with bbswitch for a longer battery life?

Last edited by emonhaque (2019-07-18 15:28:26)

seth · 2019-07-18 20:10:17

You're not gonna power down the nvidia GPU as long as the kernel module is loaded (that'S the bumblebee idea)
You can (at least i think for most cards) power them down directly via acpi calls, but bbswitch is simpler and integrated in bumblebee.
If you do not care about power saving, you don't absolutely need bbswitch, but its still nice to have.
If your system cannot power down the nvidia chip (eg. because it's not actually an optimus system or you're using an output wired to the nvidia GPU) you don't need bbswitch.

Since you apparently not have read it: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NVIDIA_Optimus

emonhaque · 2019-07-18 20:53:34

Sometimes those Arch wiki things seems outdated and simply doesn't make sense for a particular type of hardware (e.g. my last post regarding fancontrol)!

I did read most of those related to my hardware specs even before giving Arch a try on real machine, including the one you pointed at and thereby I've been aware of that I've an Intel HD 530 and NVIDIA GTX 950M and I've to use bumblebee and bbswitch for automatic switch between cards and powersaving BUT I didn't notice any difference with or without bbswitch, that's why my question arose and I posted it here!

I do care about powersaving and that's the reason I've blacklisted all those modules and added those boot parameters I mentioned above according to the prescriptions available on one or more Archwiki pages!

loqs · 2019-07-18 20:56:49

Why if you have bumblebee installed on the system is the nvidia module loaded at boot?
What is the contents of /usr/lib/modprobe.d/bumblebee.conf ?

seth · 2019-07-18 21:01:56

Sometimes the news are wrong, that's why I now only trust random guys on facebook…

Fancontrol and Optimus are not the same thing, one's a pretty specified design, the other a messy vendor wildlife.
The involved chips are not signifying.

See loqs comment and *read the wiki*.

emonhaque · 2019-07-18 21:11:35

blacklist nvidia
blacklist nvidia-drm
blacklist nvidia-modeset
blacklist nvidia-uvm
blacklist nouveau

Arch Linux

#1 2019-07-18 13:38:20

Do I have to install and config bbswitch in addition to bumblebee?

#2 2019-07-18 14:41:18

Re: Do I have to install and config bbswitch in addition to bumblebee?

#3 2019-07-18 15:12:19

Re: Do I have to install and config bbswitch in addition to bumblebee?

#4 2019-07-18 20:10:17

Re: Do I have to install and config bbswitch in addition to bumblebee?

#5 2019-07-18 20:53:34

Re: Do I have to install and config bbswitch in addition to bumblebee?

#6 2019-07-18 20:56:49

Re: Do I have to install and config bbswitch in addition to bumblebee?

#7 2019-07-18 21:01:56

Re: Do I have to install and config bbswitch in addition to bumblebee?

#8 2019-07-18 21:11:35

Re: Do I have to install and config bbswitch in addition to bumblebee?

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