NVIDIA video drivers for Ubuntu ============================ Further information can be found at http://www.nvidia.com/ -- look for the "Download Drivers" tab and follow links to the Linux drivers. This package is generated from the official NVIDIA driver installer that is available from the above homepage. DKMS ------------------------- Ubuntu includes support to build modules using a utility developed by Dell, called DKMS. It will automatically build your kernel module for you when you first boot into the kernel (or as necessary) See the DKMS man page for more information. Kernel patches ------------------------- If you need to provide a kernel patch (say for a kernel not formally supported yet by NVIDIA), you can add this patch in the debian/dkms/patches directory and mention the patch in the debian/dkms.conf.in file. It is usually a good idea to restrict the use of a patch to certain kernel versions with the PATCH_MATCH[n] variable. See the DKMS man page for more information. 32 bit libraries on 64 bit systems ------------------------- 32 bit libraries are provided on 64 bit systems for compatibility reasons. The following templates are merged together into the same file on amd64: debian/nvidia-current.links32.in debian/nvidia-current.links.in $ld_so_conf_path lets the system know where it should look for 32 bit libraries. Update procedure ------------------------- When a new NVIDIA is available, do the following to update #DRIVERNAME#: 0. On your build system, make sure you have the prerequisites installed: $ sudo apt-get build-dep #DRIVERNAME# 1. Download the NVIDIA installers i.e. the .run files. 2. dch -i to update the version in the debian/changelog so that it matches the new upstream version. Also make sure that the changelog includes both the changes you made (if any) to the files in debian/ changes and the changes from upstream (i.e. NVIDIA) which you can find in the release notes of the driver. 3. debclean to regenerate most of the files in debian/ from their templates. 4. Temporarily move the debian/ directory out of the source directory and compress it as $SOURCE_NAME _ $NEW_VERSION . orig . tar . gz e.g. #DRIVERSRCNAME#_#VERSION#.orig.tar.gz 5. Move the debian/ directory back to the source directory and type debuild -S -sa to produce a new .dsc 6. Verify the new .dsc produces valid .debs by running it through pbuilder, sbuild, etc. as usual. 7. Install and test the .debs, and then dput the .changes file IMPORTANT NOTE: If any changes to files in debian/ are needed, make sure to discuss your changes with the maintainer (Alberto aka tseliot) before you upload. -- Alberto Milone Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:36:15 +0100