review request for the debconf templates used by the nvidia graphics driver [non-free]

[Jonathan Nieder]

Justin B Rye wrote:
> Andreas Beckmann wrote:

>> Template: nvidia-support/removed-but-enabled-in-xorg-conf
>> Type: note
>> #flag:translate!:3
>> Description: Nvidia driver is still enabled in xorg.conf
>>  The Nvidia driver was just removed, but it is still enabled in the
>>  Xorg configuration. X cannot be (re-)started successfully until Nvidia
>>  is disabled in the following config file(s):
>>  .
>>  ${config-files}
>>  .
>>  Note that switching to the free Nouveau driver requires the
>>  nvidia-kernel-common package to be purged (not just removed).
>
> No extra complaints other than the standard one for "Type: note";
> could this one perhaps be promoted to "Type: error"?

Actually, couldn't this end up popping up during a normal uninstall?
if I do

	apt-get --purge remove nvidia-support nvidia-kernel-common

then since neither depends on the other, if I understand correctly
the order of removal is undefined.

One crazy possibility: would it make sense for nvidia-kernel-common to
depend on nvidia-support to prevent that?

>>  This driver is therefore no longer usable.  For graphics adapters that are
>>  not supported by a newer Nvidia driver generation the only possibility is to
>>  use the free Nouveau driver.
>
> (I would say "the only option"; less logical but more idiomatic.)

Small side note: There are some other options:

 - use the vesa driver
 - use the nouveau kernel driver with the xserver-xorg-video-fbdev DDX

I mention this because on an old (now dead) machine I used, the latter
would run cooler than using xserver-xorg-video-nouveau.  But I don't
think it's important to advertise these other options.

[...]
>    .
>    To switch to the Nouveau driver, please uninstall all Nvidia driver
>    packages, remove all Nvidia-specific configuration from
>    /etc/X11/xorg.conf (and xorg.conf.d/), and *purge* the
>    nvidia-kernel-common package - just removing it is insufficient.

By the way, what configuration interferes that this purge avoids?  It
sounds like a bug.

Thanks,
Jonathan