OPTIRUN(1)

📦
version 3.2.1 · 6 versions
, in ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

🌸 NAME 🌸

optirun — run programs on the discrete video card 💅

okay so yes, this page is optirun(1), and bestie we are going to get you running apps on the shiny dedicated GPU and not the little integrated one that's fighting for its life ✨

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

optirun [OPTION]... command [command options...]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

Run an application using the discrete video card. that's it, that's the whole arc 🫶 you hand it a command, it hands that command the nvidia card, everybody wins.

here's every single flag, no skips, no "you get the idea", all of it 💖

  • --failsafe — run a program even if the nvidia card is unavailable. card's missing? she doesn't care, she's still sending it 🔥
  • --no-failsafe — do not run a program if the nvidia card is unavailable. no card, no party 🚫
  • --no-xorg — do not start secondary X server (implies -b none).
  • -b, --bridge METHOD — the acceleration/displaying bridge to use. valid values are auto, virtualgl and primus. the --vgl-* options only make sense when you're using the virtualgl bridge, while the --primus-* options apply only when you're using the primus bridge. plot twist: the value none is also recognized, and its whole thing is adding paths to driver libraries to LD_LIBRARY_PATH — which is useful for nvidia-settings and CUDA applications 👑
  • -c, --vgl-compress METHOD — the image compression or transport to use with VirtualGL. valid values for METHOD are proxy, jpeg, rgb, xv and yuv. changing this setting may affect performance, CPU usage and image quality, so it's giving tradeoffs, not free lunch 😭
  • --vgl-options OPTS — a space-separated list of command options to be passed to vglrun. useful for debugging virtualgl by passing options to it like +tr.
bestie listen: these OPTS override the settings from optirun so be careful with setting it. do not play with this one casually 💀
  • --primus-ldpath PATH — a colon-separated list of paths which are searched for the primus libGL.so.1.
  • -q, --quiet, --silent — suppresses all logging messages. silence, gorgeous, no notes 🤫
  • -v, --verbose — increase the verbosity level of log messages. it can be specified up to two times (or five if --quiet is used). yes, five. log girlies stay winning 💅
  • --debug — show all logging messages by setting the verbosity level to the maximum. everything. all of it. the whole firehose.
  • -C, --config FILE — retrieve settings for Bumblebee from FILE.
  • -d, --display VDISPLAY — find the Bumblebee X server on VDISPLAY. do not confuse this option with the DISPLAY environment variable, they are two different girls, do not mix them up 🙈 by default, PATH is queried from the daemon.
  • -l, --ldpath PATH — libraries like libGL.so are searched in PATH (useful for the nvidia driver). by default, PATH is queried from the… and yes the sentence just ends there 😭 iconic honestly, we respect the cliffhanger.
  • -s, --socket FILENAME — use FILENAME for communication with the daemon.
  • -h, --help — display this help and exit.
  • --version — output version information and exit.

🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

  1. optirun glxspheres runs the graphics demo supplied with Virtual GL. the classic starter pack 🌀
  2. optirun -c yuv glxspheres runs a program with the yuv transport method for better performance. glow up via flag ⚡
  3. optirun firefox http://example.com run a program with arguments. yes you can just throw a URL at the end like that 🌐

💜 REPORTING BUGS 💜

found something cursed? tell the devs, gently:

Copyright © 2011 The Bumblebee Project License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

and that's the whole page bestie 🦋 this was optirun(1) from Bumblebee 3.2.1, dated February 2026 — she ate, she left no crumbs, run your apps on the good card periodt 💖✨🎀

📦 where this page comes from