2

Problem:
I have a window of Firefox or of Chrome opened via the launcher in the menu and now I want to run another instance of the program that take advantages of my dedicated Nvidia card, via 

optirun firefox

or

primusrum firefox

What I expect:
Like in any other program, the already opened one stays there and continue using the integrated graphinc card, while another window opens and take advantages of the dedicated card.

What I obtain:
The new window somehow uses something of the old one and does not take advantage of the Optimus technology.

IMPORTANT NOTE 1: If I run

optirun firefox

or

optirun google-chrome

when the program is not previously running, the expected behaviour matches what happens, i.e. the browser uses the dedicated GPU.

IMPORTANT NOTE 2: It is NOT a problem of profiles. Running Firefox with another profile (as suggested here) does not change the wrong behaviour.

So, any hint on how to solve this problem?
Is there any parameter that one should pass to the program to make it ignore the other instance and obtain the expected behaviour?

Many thanks in advance.

Less relevant informations on system configuration
Ubuntu version: Kubuntu 13.10
Firefox Version: 26.0
Chrome Version: 31.0.1650.63

Community
  • 1
dadexix86
  • 6,616

1 Answers1

2

Try

firefox -P different_profile --no-remote

where different_profile differs from the running FF profile, so

optirun firefox -P different_profile --no-remote

For chromium switching simply the profiles should be enough:

optirun chromium-browser --user-data-dir=/path/to/another/profile/dir
falconer
  • 15,026
  • 3
  • 48
  • 68
  • The first opritun works but partially, because it does not work with the same profile, saying that I first should close the already opened Firefox. – dadexix86 Dec 27 '13 at 21:16
  • The option with the " " does not work at all, saying that it does not find the exec. – dadexix86 Dec 27 '13 at 21:17
  • Do you know of some similar option for Chrome/Chromium? – dadexix86 Dec 27 '13 at 21:18
  • @dadexix86 You can't get it work with the same profile, it is not possible. Firefox must run in a separate process to make it possible to use optirun, but as a separate process it can't control the same profile which is under control by another process, or the profile will become corrupted. Your best chance is to make a copy of your profile before you launch FF with opritun, and use that profile. – falconer Dec 27 '13 at 21:40
  • Ok, do you know of any way to sync these profiles?
    I mean, if am using Gmail in one window and Google Maps (with WebGL) on the other, I want that the second recognize that I am already logged in and if I put a bookmark in one window I want it to show up on the other.     – dadexix86 Dec 27 '13 at 23:11
  • Maybe it can work with the sync feature, if I have to get back to Firefox from Chrome for some other reason I will give it a try :) – dadexix86 Dec 27 '13 at 23:14
  • @dadexix86 Syncing in live will be hard. Maybe you can try firefox sync for the bookmark thing. Regarding the google account, I guess google allows multiple logins, so you just login from both browsers. – falconer Dec 27 '13 at 23:17
  • I found a solution for Chrome, I'll post it down here, so maybe someone can think of something similar for Firefox – dadexix86 Dec 27 '13 at 23:25
  • I did not see the second part of your answer, I'm sorry! I delete my answer and accept yours, thank you very much! :) – dadexix86 Dec 27 '13 at 23:52