Today's updates remove Nvidia driver

[GeneC]

Todays updates (xorg) wants to remove Nvidia driver for me.  Anyone else confirm this?

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The following packages will be REMOVED:
  nvidia-driver xserver-xorg-video-nvidia
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libepoxy0 libx265-25
The following packages will be upgraded:
  accountsservice apt apt-utils ffmpeg geoip-database krb5-locales libaccountsservice0 libapt-inst1.5 libapt-pkg4.12 libavcodec55 libavdevice55 libavfilter4 libavformat55
  libavresample1 libavutil52 libgssapi-krb5-2 libjpeg62 libk5crypto3 libkrb5-3 libkrb5support0 libmpc3 libpostproc52 libswresample0 libswscale2 libtalloc2 libxmmsclient6
  pm-utils python-apsw python-talloc xserver-common xserver-xephyr xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-evdev xserver-xorg-input-mouse xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
  xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-fbdev xserver-xorg-video-mach64
  xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-modesetting xserver-xorg-video-neomagic xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
  xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-trident
  xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
55 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 2 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 24.4 MB of archives.
After this operation, 14.8 MB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] N


[pavroo]

This two packages have been removed from Debian testing repository, so just let the apt to remove theme.
If any problem after rebooting, activate sid repository and install the package back from unstable.

[GeneC]

Hi pavroo.
I am going to wait a day or so on DU.  Its been my experience tracking Debian Testing that some xorg packages do not get into the repos all the same day.  A partial install of them breaks Nvidia. (Its happened to me several times with LMDE tracking testing), the trick is usually just to wait on DU's a day or two for all the xorg pkgs to be there for upgrade.  I believe that might be the case here again..  Then Nvidia will not be removed.
I'll just sit and wait on DU and see what happens.. ;)
Will post back with results.

PS
We (the LMDE community) have a thread on our forum with Issues dealing specifically with Debian Testing upgrade issues, if anyone might be interested...
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=198&t=132747

PPS
Ita ppears that LMDE will change from UP's snapshots of Debian Testing to Debian Stable in the near future.  You may be getting some new members dissatisfied with this move....
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Future-Linux-Mint-Debian-Releases-to-Be-Based-on-the-Stable-Branch-450795.shtml

[GeneC]

Hmm!

You are right Nvidia has been removed from Debian Testing... :P
https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=all&section=all&arch=any&searchon=names&keywords=nvidia

I am still going to wait a day or two on DU to see what's up.  If Nvidia is still removed on DU I will let it and install from SID as you suggest. 
OR, Perhaps the SID packages (Nvidia 331.79-1: amd64 i386 ) will move to testing with all these xorg changes and allow an upgrade rather than a more drastic removal...
We shall see.. ;)

[pavroo]

It's a good idea to wait a few days :)

[GeneC]

Update on my status with Nvidia removal on DU.  It seems there are issues with the Nvidia driver now in SID.
https://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvidia-graphics-drivers.html

I installed SMXI
http://smxi.org/
I purged current Nvidia (old debian testing ver.).  DU'ed with new xorg packages.
Used SMXI to install their current Nvidia (340.24).
That did it.  All is fully updated and latest Nvidia installed.  It seems it will be a while before Debian proper released a working Nvidia, so use Nouveau or install and use SMXI to install latest Nvidia..

[jordan]

It seems it will be a while before Debian proper released a working Nvidia, so use Nouveau or install and use SMXI to install latest Nvidia..

During my first time ever installation of Sparky yesterday, I ran DDM to see what drivers it would offer me. I was surprised that Nvidia wasn't listed and now I know why. SMXI has worked well for me in the past but the Nouveau driver (the DDM recommended graphics driver) should be fine for my purposes.

Also, for some reason, DDM seemed to think I was using the live CD when I wasn't. I had to add the --force argument to get it to run.

[GeneC]

Hey Jordan...

Clem had removed DDM from LMDE some time past as they had many issues with it.  LMDE now uses sgfxi as well.  Perhaps Sparky should consider the same for driver installs?

[jordan]

An idea worth considering Gene as sgfxi (without the "-d") downloads from Nvidia or ATI, and therefore doesn't depend upon the repository packages.

Personally, I'm content with Nouveau unless I notice some tearing or weird display issues at which point I will install Nvidia.

[GeneC]

Yep!  I'd noticed that Nouveau works real well now.

[MoroS]

Pavroo: things like that should be announced far and wide! Right now I'm hanging here with an installation that will break after the reboot. It's been 8 days since you guys started talking about it and I only found out after going through DU (figured some packages want the nVidia binaries gone and I'll resolve the conflict after DU).

Anyway: the packages has been removed from Testing due to incompatibility with xorg-server 1.16. It's still unresolved and that means we'll wait a while before the package returns.

Announcement: https://tracker.debian.org/news/558502
Package tracker: https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nvidia-graphics-drivers

Using Nouveau is not possible for me, as the system hangs on boot due to problems with KMS (yep, one of those nVidia cards...). That leaves me hanging dry as I retain a unmodified system (without any additional scripting) to make it possible for recreate the problems that people may have. Right now I'm still working, but tomorrow the machine will be practically unusable for most tasks.

The 32-bit EFI development will take a hit, but luckily it won't get stalled. I can do that in CLI without problems, but I won't be able to test it on VirtualBox, which leaves me with testing on the ASUS T100.

EDIT: Just to b clear: marking this as SOLVED is plain sloppy. Nothing is solved until the package returns and users won't have any environment breakages.

[GeneC]

Moros

Just to be clear.  Pavroo did not mark it solved.  I did, an end user.  Its not an official announcement, it just my personal post (I am the OP).  Its solved for me.

Just to stop confusion (if there is some?)  I will change the OP from solved.

Its been a common custom on forums that if the OP issue is solved for the OP, then to mark it solved.  I am not familiar with the custom here.

[MoroS]

No, leave it solved in the forums. The customs here are the same. I was writing about the issue itself, but as I read it now it really does look like I'm writing about the post. Sorry. :P

I just want this to be escalated, so that the nVidia part of the community know that DU is not safe for the time being (unless they use Nouveau). The G+ community has already been alerted (8 days too late!!) about this. I don't know about the others as I only manage G+.

[GeneC]

Yes, big mess in Testing... :-\
Clem from LMDE had removed DDM (that Sparky uses) and included sgfxi in the latest LMDE iso's.  It installs the latest drivers (Nvidia, et) directly from the source, and by-passes the Debian repos, and any issues such as we have now.
Switching from DDM to sgfxi might be an option that Sparky might consider..?.. ;)

http://smxi.org/

http://smxi.org/site/faqs-sgfxi.htm

http://smxi.org/docs/sgfxi-manual.htm

[MoroS]

Switching from DDM to sgfxi might be an option that Sparky might consider..?.. ;)

That would be reasonable, would save a lot of work and probably would allow to re-include some more "exotic" kernel configurations (like Liquorix) into the distro, especially if sgfxi can also install or at least suggest the needed kernel headers. Pavroo, maybe we should do some tests on this?

EDIT: Although smxi got the job done and installed the nVidia drivers, I can see a few negative things about it:
1. Source install - instant breakage when kernel upgrades happen.
2. smxi annoys the hell out of me with all those questions and it's not something easy to use for someone without at least some Linux knowledge.
3. It requires the user to go down to CLI to run (won't run in a X terminal). A big no-no in our case.

EDIT 2:

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moros@sparky-dev:~$ uname -a
Linux sparky-dev 3.15-6.dmz.2-liquorix-amd64 #1 ZEN SMP PREEMPT Tue Jul 22 13:29:57 UTC 2014 x86_64 GNU/Linux
...with nVidia binary drivers. :)
As I said: it gets the job done, but it's too loud and asks too many questions. However... we could base our GUI solutions on those scripts. ;)