backports of nvidia-graphics-drivers-legacy-{173, 96}xx [non-free]

[Andreas Beckmann]

Hi,

let me reopen that discussion...

On 2012-03-04 17:09, Andreas Beckmann wrote:
> Dear backports team,
> 
> I'm considering having backports of nvidia-graphics-drivers-legacy-173xx
> and nvidia-graphics-drivers-legacy-96xx uploaded to squeeze-backports.

> These packages are not available in testing because they do not support
> the X version there, but they work fine with X from stable.
> Therefore I'm asking for an exception to backport the versions from
> unstable.

legacy-173xx has been updated by Nvidia to support Xserver 1.12 and
173.14.34 has been backported already, backport will be updated once
173.14.35 reaches unstable.

For 96xx the situation has not changed, it does not support the Xserver
in wheezy.

> Changes compared to the version currently in stable:
> 
> * support for kernel 3.2
> * a few upstream fixes
> * new diversion/alternatives handling (via glx-alternatives, already
> backported and used by the nvidia-graphics-drivers backport)

I would really like to backport the current legacy-96xx from sid to
squeeze-backports. There may be a small userbase, although noone from
the Debian NVIDIA Maintainers has the opportunity to test these legacy
drivers - but in this respect the situation was not different for the
legacy-96xx drivers packages that are in squeeze now.

> There have been questions about these backports on IRC, usually
> assisting the users to do their own backport.

>From the packaging point the package is not different from
nvidia-graphics-drivers and -legacy-173xx (both backported without
problems, there are just two switches to be turned), it's all the same
codebase.

For wheezy my plans are to replace 96xx with some transitional packages
that present a debconf note(error?) that this driver is no longer
supported and instructions how to remove nvidia driver and switch to
nouveau.
That should allow for smooth upgrades (package-wise).

Therefore I'd really like to have the last "functional" (as in
contains-a-driver) package available in backports. (snapshot.d.o is not
really an option as the package in sid has been multiarchfied.)


Andreas