Add package nvidia-experimental for tracking nvidia beta drivers

Hello Bryce, or anyone else affected,

Accepted nvidia-graphics-drivers-experimental-304 into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-experimental-304/304.48-0ubuntu0.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Hello Bryce, or anyone else affected,

Accepted nvidia-settings-experimental-304 into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-settings-experimental-304/304.48-0ubuntu0.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Hello Bryce, or anyone else affected,

Accepted jockey into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jockey/0.9.7-0ubuntu7.2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Hello Bryce, or anyone else affected,

Accepted nvidia-common into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-common/1:0.2.44.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

I have tested this on a precise-proposed box with a supported nvidia card.

nvidia-common and jockey install cleanly and do not crash or exhibit bugs when run. However I found one flaw that needs correction.

The nvidia-experimental-304 drivers support three Xserver ABI versions: 11, 12, and 13. However, jockey's oslib.py functionality isn't prepared to handle multiple ABI's; it just detects the last in the list. On quantal our Xserver is ABI 13, so that works fine. But on precise our ABI is 11, so 11 != 13, and so Jockey figures the experimental driver isn't valid and omits it from the list (with an error to this effect in the jockey log file).

Either we need to make jockey's logic smarter when encountering multiple supported ABIs, or simplify the nvidia-experimental-304 driver package to only advertise support for ABI 11. I prefer the former solution, as a better long term solution.

Couple more flaws:

1. The list of drivers is unsorted. This didn't matter when we had only 2-4 drivers, but with 4-6 drivers it becomes confusing. The order of the nvidia drivers is essentially random (the code is just getting dict.keys()) so sometimes the experimental driver appears first. This could be a problem if users accidentally just pick whatever's at the top of the list. The experimental drivers should sort towards the bottom of the list ideally. As we add more experimental drivers, this will become a bigger problem...

2. The description and rationale from the experimental driver is not getting populated from the control file, as per the plan. It just uses the standard nvidia driver description.

I have uploaded new nvidia-common and jockey packages for precise-proposed with fixes for the aforementioned issues.

I have also sent branches to the maintainers of these packages for review.

Hello Bryce, or anyone else affected,

Accepted nvidia-common into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-common/1:0.2.44.2 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Hello Bryce, or anyone else affected,

Accepted jockey into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jockey/0.9.7-0ubuntu7.3 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

1. Passed on my own hardware. I removed my local changes, downgraded to the versions of jockey-common jockey-gtk and nvidia-common currently in precise. Then I enabled -proposed, updated, upgraded the three packages, ran jockey-gtk and verified it works. The experimental driver is displayed correctly in the GUI. I then went ahead and installed it and rebooted, and verified it came up with that driver loaded and unity working normally.

2. Passed on independent verification. I solicited a random nvidia/precise user on #ubuntu-devel (thanks again ion!), had them repeat the above steps (except for the actual driver installation), and verify that the experimental driver was available for them as well.

Thus, verification passed.

The one caveat I should add for completeness is that if the user updates but does not upgrade, then running jockey won't work, because the jockey currently in precise can't cope with there being drivers named "experimental-NNN" in the archive. The fix is of course to do the upgrade, but I am a little worried some users may get caught by this. One way to minimize this might be to roll out the nvidia-common and jockey changes *now*, and hold off a few days on introducing the -experimental-304 packages, but maybe I'm being overcautious?

This bug was fixed in the package nvidia-common - 1:0.2.44.2

---------------
nvidia-common (1:0.2.44.2) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  * NvidiaDetector/nvidiadetector.py: When a package has multiple words
    separated with -'s, use only the last element as the driver version.
    (LP: #1047681)

nvidia-common (1:0.2.44.1) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  [Alberto Milone]
  * NvidiaDetector/nvidiadetector.py:
    - Add support for -experimental flavours (LP: #1047681).
  * Don't write to /usr/share for hybrid graphics
    detection, use /var/lib instead (LP: #976779).

  [Bryce Harrington]
  * nvidia-common.templates: Fix lintian error (trailing whitespace)
 -- Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> Thu, 27 Sep 2012 22:27:56 -0700

The verification of this Stable Release Update has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

This bug was fixed in the package jockey - 0.9.7-0ubuntu7.3

---------------
jockey (0.9.7-0ubuntu7.3) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  * Improve support for the nvidia-experimental-304 package
    (LP: #1047681)
    - When displaying list of video drivers, sort them alphabetically.
    - Allow experimental drivers to fallback to the description from debian/control
    - Insert spaces when appending lines from the control file description.
      Fixes bad formatting in jockey's package description.
    - Handle multiple abi versions. Fixes bug preventing experimental
      drivers from being displayed in jockey.

jockey (0.9.7-0ubuntu7.2) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  * data/handlers/nvidia.py:
    - Add support for the nvidia-experimental-304 package (LP: #1047681).
 -- Bryce Harrington <email address hidden> Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:01:40 -0700

Hello,

I've received this update while not being subscribed to precise-proposed, but I am subscribed to -updates per comment #12. I launched hardware drivers to look at the experimental driver, but it is not listed in my drivers list - see screenshot.

Is this expected?

@Vadim, totally expected and the intended behavior. In fact thanks for confirming things are working as designed.

We're just landing the infrastructure right now. You won't see new beta drivers listed here until NVIDIA publicly announces one.

(Well, we may push the 304 driver package out within a week or so, but that's a stable driver not a true beta driver.)

This bug was fixed in the package nvidia-graphics-drivers-experimental-304 - 304.48-0ubuntu0.1

---------------
nvidia-graphics-drivers-experimental-304 (304.48-0ubuntu0.1) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  * Initial release
    (LP: #1047681)
 -- Alberto Milone <email address hidden> Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:39:44 +0200

This bug was fixed in the package nvidia-settings-experimental-304 - 304.48-0ubuntu0.1

---------------
nvidia-settings-experimental-304 (304.48-0ubuntu0.1) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  * Initial release
    (LP: #1047681).
 -- Alberto Milone <email address hidden> Mon, 24 Sep 2012 16:39:08 +0200

setting the jockey quantal part to wontfix because jockey got deprecated there

Hello Bryce, or anyone else affected,

Accepted jockey into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/jockey/0.9.7-0ubuntu7.4 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please change the bug tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not, change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

Verified with the jockey update that nvidia-experimental-310 installs properly. System reboots into a working system.

(For full disclosure I did have a keyboard failure on boot, but that's not likely to be due to the video driver. Replugging it in restored its functionality. I am guessing it's due to some quirk of the KVM the keyboard is plugged into.)

Please update the 304 driver package, as 304.60 is released and stated as "Certified" by NVIDIA.

I believe no further work is required on this bug so closing out the last task. If this is incorrect please reopen with list of things we need to tend to still.

@eros2, file a separate bug report. This one is just for tracking the introduction of the experimental packages, not updates.

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.