Query about apparent superfluous package in system update

[Ralf Mardorf]

On Thu, 2023-09-21 at 18:17 +0800, Bret Busby wrote:
> xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu

Hi,

https://packages.ubuntu.com/jammy/xserver-xorg

suggests

https://packages.ubuntu.com/jammy/xserver-xorg-video-all

this depends on

xserver-xorg-video-amdgpu [not s390x]
    X.Org X server -- AMDGPU display driver 

xserver-xorg-video-ati [not s390x]
    X.Org X server -- AMD/ATI display driver wrapper 

xserver-xorg-video-dummy [s390x]
    X.Org X server -- dummy display driver 

xserver-xorg-video-fbdev [not s390x]
    X.Org X server -- fbdev display driver 

xserver-xorg-video-nouveau [amd64, arm64, armhf]
    X.Org X server -- Nouveau display driver 

xserver-xorg-video-vesa [not s390x]
    X.Org X server -- VESA display driver 

xserver-xorg-video-vmware [amd64]
    X.Org X server -- VMware display driver 

This makes sense, since you also have countless kernel modules for
hardware you don't own, this is the way a user-friendly Linux
distribution does work, to ensure that nothing is missing. You might
argue that the installer could check in the first place what GPU or GPUs
are available. Consider that such a hardware check has got pitfalls,
hence it's better to install the drivers, even if they are unneeded. 

If you want a slim install, then don't install the suggested metapackage
package and only install the needed package/s.

Regards,
Ralf