Re: [gentoo-user] nvidia-drivers conflicts

[Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com>]

On Saturday 24 April 2010 01:08:46 meino.cramer@gmx.de wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> before getting into too much trouble better I aask:
> While updateing I got the following message:
> 
>         ('ebuild', '/', 'x11-base/xorg-server-1.8.0', 'merge') conflicts
> with <x11-base/xorg-server-1.7.99 required by ('installed', '/',
> 'x11-drivers/nvidia-drivers-195.36.15', 'nomerge')
> 
> 
>         !!! The following update(s) have been skipped due to unsatisfied
> dependencies !!! triggered by backtracking:
>         x11-apps/xinit:0
> 
> 
> The first one I understand what I wants to say, but: Is the conflict
> based on the limition of the nvidia-driver not to run with
> xorg-server-1.8.0 even when recompiled after the new xorg-server
> is reinstalled or does the latter help to circumvent the problem?

The former:

http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=315141#c3

> 
> What the second message wants to tell me is far beyond my knowledge ... :)

It's portage trying to tell you how those incompatible versions are in the 
list to be emerged. A backtrack is simply that - start with what you have, 
find out what pulled it in, and what pulled that in, till you come to the end 
(usually something in your world file).

Without digging into ebuilds, it looks like xinit pulls in xorg-x11 which 
pulls in xorg-server which conflicts with nvidia-drivers,.

This is a classic case of rule #1 of program output: never expose the 
underlying implementation in your output. That info is completely useless to 
most users and needs re-thinking. Decent programming practice says that output 
shout only be given if the user asks for it like that, with say a --debug 
option for example.

-- 
alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com