---
name: "optirun"
section: "1"
platform: "linux"
package: "bumblebee"
version: "3.2.1-22"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/optirun"
---

# optirun(1)

run programs on the discrete video card

## NAME

optirun - run programs on the discrete video card

## SYNOPSIS

**optirun** \[*OPTION*\]... *command* \[*command options*...\]

## DESCRIPTION

Run an application using the discrete video card.

- **--failsafe**

  run a program even if the nvidia card is unavailable

- **--no-failsafe**

  do not run a program if the nvidia card is unavailable

- **--no-xorg**

  do not start secondary X server (implies **-b** none)

- **-b**, **--bridge** METHOD

  acceleration/displaying bridge to use. Valid values are auto, virtualgl and primus. The **--vgl-**\* options only make sense when using the virtualgl bridge, while the **--primus-**\* options apply only when using the primus bridge. Additionally, value none is recognized, and its effect is to add paths to driver libraries to LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH (useful for nvidia-settings and CUDA applications)

- **-c**, **--vgl-compress** METHOD

  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

- **--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. These OPTS override the settings from optirun so be careful with setting it

- **--primus-ldpath** PATH

  a colon-separated list of paths which are searched for the primus libGL.so.1

- **-q**, **--quiet**, **--silent**

  supresses all logging messages

- **-v**, **--verbose**

  increase the verbosity level of log messages. It can be specified up to two times (or five if **--quiet** is used)

- **--debug**

  show all logging messsages by setting the verbosity level to the maximum

- **-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. 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

- **-s**, **--socket** FILENAME

  use FILENAME for communication with the daemon

- **-h**, **--help**

  display this help and exit

- **--version**

  output version information and exit

## EXAMPLES

- optirun glxspheres

  Runs the graphics demo supplied with Virtual GL.

- optirun -c yuv glxspheres

  Runs a program with the yuv transport method for better performance.

- optirun firefox http://example.com

  Run a program with arguments.

## REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs on \<http://Bumblebee-Project.org/issues\>\
 Bumblebee homepage: \<http://Bumblebee-Project.org/\>

## COPYRIGHT

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.