How do I determine whether bumblebee is working as expected?

I followed the instructions at

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bumblebee/stable
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-x-swat/x-updates
sudo apt-get update

Instead of installing the proprietary nvidia drivers, via:

sudo apt-get install bumblebee bumblebee-nvidia linux-headers-generic

I did:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends bumblebee linux-headers-generic

How do I determine that power savings mode is active and that my dedicated GPU isn't running?

One thing that bugs me is that if I go to System Settings - Details - Graphics. Driver is shown as Unknown.

2 Answers

To get the graphics card model, install mesa-utils .Remember the graphics card model won't be nvidia one. It will be intel, because in nvidia optimus the nvidia card isn't exposed directly. Nvidia card is wired via the intel one

--no-install-recommends prevent certain packages from being installed, mainly the nvidia driver.

You need to follow the instruction for getting it worked. If you don't install the correct driver, it may fail while loading. What is the problem in installing the driver? the driver won't be used unless you use optirun

Regarding, 2nd question. I really don't know the exact answer.

After installation, my fan noise went down, battery life increased very much. I think that is the indication that powersaving is working.

You can use dmesg to know what is happening. On reboot try

dmesg | grep bbswitch

you will see somthing like below

[ 25.305974] bbswitch: version 0.4.2
[ 25.305983] bbswitch: Found integrated VGA device 0000:00:02.0: \_SB_.PCI0.GFX0
[ 25.305991] bbswitch: Found discrete VGA device 0000:01:00.0: \_SB_.PCI0.PEG0.PEGP
[ 25.306182] bbswitch: detected an Optimus _DSM function
[ 25.306192] bbswitch: Succesfully loaded. Discrete card 0000:01:00.0 is on
[ 25.325482] bbswitch: disabling discrete graphics
[ 25.325620] bbswitch: Result of Optimus _DSM call: 11000059

As I can see, in your previous question, Lekensteyn assures you about power management. He is the developer of bumblebee

You can check if bumblebee is working with glxgears. For instance, in my computer if I do:

$ glxgears -info
Running synchronized to the vertical refresh. The framerate should be
approximately the same as the monitor refresh rate.
GL_RENDERER = Mesa DRI Intel(R) Haswell Mobile
GL_VERSION = 3.0 Mesa 19.0.2
GL_VENDOR = Intel Open Source Technology Center
GL_EXTENSIONS = GL_ARB_mu...... [AND A LOT OF OUTPUT]

but if I do:

$ optirun glxgears -info
GL_RENDERER = GeForce GTX 960M/PCIe/SSE2
GL_VERSION = 4.6.0 NVIDIA 418.56
GL_VENDOR = NVIDIA Corporation
GL_EXTENSIONS = GL_AMD_multi_draw_indirect...... [AND A LOT OF OUTPUT]

So, it is clear that the nvidia card is only used when I use optirun.