Comment 13 for bug 1039916

Discussion with Adam Conrad on IRC #ubuntu-devel:

<TJ-> A recent change to the nvidia DKMS drivers package has broken another package such that it won't conceivably ever work again. What's the procedure in such cases?
<infinity> TJ-: That might need to be slightly less vague.
<TJ-> infinity: bug #1039916 ... look at the last comment
<ubottu> Launchpad bug 1039916 in nvclock (Ubuntu) "Nvidia driver causing SIGSEGV in nvclock and smartdimmer" [Medium,Triaged] https://launchpad.net/bugs/1039916
<infinity> TJ-: But if it's "some third-party tool relied on a feature that the upstream binary driver no longer provides", the solution would be to (A) remove the third-party tool from the archive, and (B) make the nvidia packages conflict with it.
<infinity> Oh, in precise, we wouldn't do the removal bit.
<infinity> But certainly, having the driver conflict with the tool, if there's really no way to fix the tool, would work.
<TJ-> OK... it'll affect Q too of course
<infinity> TJ-: You might also want to talk to Marc, since it was his patch that broke things (now that I've read the whole bug report).
<infinity> TJ-: But if it's a tradeoff between dimmer control and priviledge escalation, with no way to compromise on fixing both, I suspect security wins.
<TJ-> infinity: Yes, I was planning on emailing him. I think the patch is a good one - nvclock is using not-quite-approved hacks to do its thing, so I think nvclock has to give
<TJ-> infinity: There is an alternative project developing for an nvida backlight DKMS kernel module that - when/if it works - does things properly with a /sys/class/backlight/ interface... so I think that should be the preferred route
<infinity> TJ-: That does seem to be the saner way forward, yeah.
<TJ-> infinity: besides which I think nvclock has been abandoned by its creator since 2009/10
<TJ-> infinity: thanks; I'll figure out who to contact and what to do to let users of nvclock aware and remove it for Q
<infinity> TJ-: I can remove it from the archive for Q right now, if you think that's the Right Thing To Do, but it'll still need the nvidia-* packaging updated to conflict and force removal on upgrades.
<TJ-> infinity: Let me check first... if nvidia proprietary isn't used by nouveau or the old nv is, nvclock may still work
<TJ-> infinity: And all I really wanted was the backlight dimming *sigh* :p