[ubuntu-x] -nvidia and -fglrx auto-building for Hardy

[Rob Hughes]

On Thu, 2007-09-20 at 15:08 -0700, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> Hi all,
> 
> Several people have asked about having more up-to-date versions of
> binary graphics drivers (i.e. -nvidia and -fglrx) both for the
> development release, and backports.
> 
> In fact, while browsing through bug reports a while back I found this
> one that describes this problem:
> 
>   https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UpToDateAtiNvidiaDrivers
> 
> Essentially it suggests establishing a testing repository with the
> drivers, that folks can pull from.
> 
> Unfortunately it's quite sketchy on details, so I'd love to open this
> for discussion so we can flesh the blueprint out more.
> 
> One thing to note is that l-r-m is a hefty package and takes
> considerable time to build and upload.  I think this is one of the main
> reasons why historically Ubuntu hasn't been good about staying up to
> date with the latest.  However, I've been wondering if it would be
> possible to (semi-)automate this work, which could make this more
> feasible.
> 
> I doubt anyone would think this is a bad idea.  The question though is
> *how* to achieve this?  How should the scripts work?  Where should the
> .debs be posted to?  How should the testing be structured?  How should
> feedback be captured?
> 
> Thanks for any ideas on this!
> Bryce
> 
> 
> 

Hi Bryce and all,

I'm all for this. However, his example, the Fedora Livna repository, is
a poor one, as Livna is a repository run by an independent 3rd party.
But in general, I think all he's suggesting is that a repository be set
up for the newest drivers, and when a consensus is reached on stability,
the new drivers be moved to the official repositories. I think before we
go too far down this road, we should talk to Canonical or whoever, and
ensure that this is something they'd be willing to entertain. If they
nix the idea of allowing newer driver versions to be added to the
repository, then it seems pointless to spend a lot of time figuring out
how to make this work.

Regards,
Rob