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Backports policy for squeeze
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============================
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Cyril Brulebois <kibi@debian.org>
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If one forgets about libraries and clients, a whole X stack boils down
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to: the server itself, input and video drivers, libdrm, and mesa.
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Since upgrading the server means upgrading all input and video drivers
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(more than 50 source packages), that’s certainly too much to backport,
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since we’re already trying to support `stable` (through stable
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updates), `testing`/`unstable`, and `experimental`. For example, in
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February 2011, that means `xorg-server` 1.7 in `stable`, 1.9 in
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`unstable` (and “soon” in `testing`), and 1.10 in `experimental`.
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So the plan is to keep `xorg-server` as it is in `squeeze` (possibly
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preparing/testing targeted fix if appropriate), and backporting
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drivers when possible. With API/ABI updates, the minimal server
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version required tend to get raised from time to time, but usually
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drivers can be built against a rather large range of server
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versions. In case a driver stop building against the server available
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in `stable`, we’ll likely stick to the highest version still building
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against it, and then tell people to upgrade the whole stack if they
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need something more recent (unless some trivial cherry-picking is
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The plan is to backport a few drivers on a possibly regular fashion,
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and other drivers upon request.
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* `evdev`: Linux-only keyboard & mouse/pointer driver.
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* `keyboard` and `mouse`: Needed for non-Linux ports.
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* `synaptics`: Better touchpad support than `evdev`.
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* `ati`: Drivers for ATI cards.
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* `intel`: Driver for Intel cards.
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* `nouveau`: Driver for NVidia cards. Not possible since upstream’s http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/driver/xserver-xorg-video-nouveau.git;a=commit;h=a4d580bf05d7aac1d486e5d1ba9a2201c026e5f5[a4d580bf05].
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* `fbdev` and `vesa`: Generic drivers.
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* `dummy`: Dummy driver, suitable when there’s no monitor connected.
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There are a few other drivers for ATI cards (`mach64`, `r128`), which
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are pulled by `ati`, but there are versions available in `squeeze`
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already, so backporting them isn’t required.
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The important libraries are `libdrm` and `mesa`. The former will
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likely get pulled at some point by a driver, so a backport will be
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needed for this library. The latter is under very heavy development,
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so one may want to try a new release or a snapshot without having to
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upgrade everything to `unstable`. It’s a huge package to build, so we
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link:../howto/build-mesa.html[documented how to build it] locally. But
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there’s some hope to make some weekly or daily builds available at
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Some of those drivers might need a more recent kernel version than
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the one in `squeeze`, but hopefully it’ll be available through
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`squeeze-backports` as well.
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To keep things simple, the idea is to backport all of those to
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`squeeze` through `squeeze-backports`, along with some of the
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additional packages which might be involved (like `libxfont` or
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`x11proto-fixes-dev`).
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The backports were prepared so that it’s possible to upgrade the
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`input-all` and `video-all` meta packages on `amd64` and `i386`. If
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specific drivers (maintained by the X Strike Force) are wanted,
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requesting them on the `debian-backports@` / `debian-x@` mailing lists
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should do the trick. For other drivers, please contact the relevant
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The usual link:http://backports-master.debian.org/[backports instructions]
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apply. But let’s gather everything in a single place.
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Add that to your `sources.list`:
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deb http://backports.debian.org/debian-backports squeeze-backports main
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If you’re interested in just upgrading the usual `mesa` packages:
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apt-get install -t squeeze-backports libgl1-mesa-dri libgl1-mesa-glx
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If you want the whole stack, we should distinguish between two
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In the usual case, both the `xserver-xorg-input-all` and
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`xserver-xorg-video-all` meta packages were installed, and pulled a
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lot of packages, which should work for most users. In that case, due
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to a bug in `apt`, one has to remove the `wacom` input package before
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proceeding to the upgrade (the `xserver-xorg-input-all` package might
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be scheduled for removal as a consequence, but that doesn’t
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hurt). Then specifying a few packages to upgrade should pull
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everything from `squeeze-backports`.
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apt-get purge xserver-xorg-input-wacom
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apt-get install -t squeeze-backports xorg xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-video-all
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In case only the needed packages were installed, like the `synaptics`
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input driver and the `intel` video driver, the following should be
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apt-get install -t squeeze-backports xorg xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-intel
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It is probably a very good idea to install the Linux kernel from
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`squeeze-backports` as well. It is even required for the `nouveau`