Bug#923488: nvidia-xconfig: package should not be deprecated

[Steve Newcomb]

Package: nvidia-xconfig
Version: 390.87-1~deb9u1
Severity: minor

Dear Maintainer,

I had to install nvidia-xconfig as suggested in
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/585014/how-to-configure-x-server-to-work-headless-as-well-with-any-monitor-connected-/
and in
https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/808916/linux/nvidia-nvs-295-x11-headless/
.
Each link provided information I needed and used successfully.  Without nvidia-xconfig, I could not reboot a host by remote control because the monitor(s) might be off.  Now the nvidia-using hosts boot regardless of whether their monitors are powered up and/or connected.  Such functionality is essential for us.

The nvidia-xconfig package's description says it is deprecated, which normally means that something is about to go away.  But I know of no reasonable alternative to nvidia-config, other than to personally master the arcana of /etc/X11/xorg.conf, a file of perhaps mostly but not entirely historical interest which the package description says is no longer necessary.  But AFAIK it *is* necessary, at least in this particular situation, which is a commonplace for us.

It appears that the deprecation notice may have resulted from a misunderstanding of the nvidia-xconfig source code at github, where the word "deprecated" appears several times, referring to deprecated *features* of nvidia-xconfig, but not, AFAIK, with respect to the package itself.


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.8
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (990, 'stable'), (500, 'stable-updates')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-8-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages nvidia-xconfig depends on:
ii  libc6                     2.24-11+deb9u4
ii  nvidia-installer-cleanup  20151021+4

Versions of packages nvidia-xconfig recommends:
ii  libgl1-nvidia-glvnd-glx [libgl1-nvidia-glx-any]  390.87-8~deb9u1

nvidia-xconfig suggests no packages.

-- no debconf information