Bug#1024852: nvidia-driver in bullseye (470.141.03-1~deb11u1) and bullseye-backports (470.103.01-1~bpo11+1) do not support Linux kernel 6.0 or later

[Michael Tokarev]

On Sat, 26 Nov 2022 12:43:12 -0800 Alex Relis <talktome at alexrelis.net> wrote:
> Package: nvidia-driver
> Version: 470.103.01-1~bpo11+1
> Severity: grave
> Justification: renders package unusable
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> About a week ago, linux-image-6.0.0-0.deb11.2-amd64 was introduced in bullseye-backports. The problem is that the nvidia-driver version in both bullseye (470.141.03-1~deb11u1) and bullseye-backports (470.103.01-1~bpo11+1) (for some reason, the version in bullseye is newer which is strange) DO NOT support Linux kernel 6.0.
> When a user who uses a backported linux kernel and nvidia-driver upgrades their system, they will get an error message that looks like this https://imgur.com/sEVx1vc (sorry if I couldn't give you the text output; I am reporting this on behalf of a friend)
> 
> This issue is reproducable and happened on two of my friends' machines. We found a current workaround that involves booting to kernel 5.1x in the Grub menu, running sudo apt purge linux-image-6.0.0-0.deb11.2-amd64 && sudo apt install -t bullseye-backports nvidia-driver && sudo reboot now.

So what is the proposal there?

Just do not install 6.0 kernel from backports if you need nvidia driver?

> According to this Phoronix article ( https://www.phoronix.com/news/NVIDIA-515.76-Linux-Driver ), nvidia-driver 515.76 or newer support Linux kernel 6.0. I believe the solution is to upgrade nvidia-driver to 515.76 or newer in bullseye-backports so that users can use their graphics card on kernel 6.0.

As you state yourself, this bug is already fixed in the more recent version
of the package.

Why are you
a) filing a bug which is already fixed in Debian, and
b) why are you filing it against the bpo version of the package?

It is like installing this version of driver breaks system.
(especially since apt will not install this version, since a more
recent version is available in bullseye already).

It is a very questionable bug report, and for me as a maintainer
(not of this package though) it discourages me from doing more
backports (just a personal opinion/feeling).

/mjt