Questions about the nvidia packages.

[Christoph Anton Mitterer <cam@mathematica.scientia.net>]

Hi.

First of all. Until now (I've just switched from i386 to a amd64 Debian)
I've always used the vanilla files from nvidia.com (and their installer).

The problem of course is that this passes the package systems,
overwrites Xlibs etc. etc.

So I'd like to use the Debian way now :-)

However, I must admit that I have problems to understand how to
correctly do so.

1) I'm using my own kernel created with make-kpkg.
With my old i386 system I've always used the vanilla sources but now
I'll give the debian sources a try.
So I've installed linux-tree-something.

First of all is there documentation about how the "Debian-kernel-way
works"? I mean there is the linux-source-xx package and the
linux-patch-debian-xxx.

The source package already says, that it's a patched version (from
vanilla). (btw: How can I find out what changes have been applied to
each source-xxx?)

Which patches does the patch pagage contain?

(I've read all the /usr/share/doc/ stuff but it didn't become clear to me).

Ok, when I use make-kpkg are the patches from the patch-debian package
automatically applied? If not, should I apply them?

And whats the designated way to apply own patches (e.g. reiser4, or so
=> the deb-package for it is totally out of date)?
E.g. should they be copied to the directories from the patch-debian-package?

2) back to nvidia problems:
What are the different packages for?
(nvidia-kernel-common, nvidia-kernel-source, nvidia-glx)

One must contain the binary-only libs (for X), another the binary only
module ("nvidia"), and one must contain the hooks and interface for the
kernel.

3) About the same as 1) (-> patches): Whats the Debian-way of creating
external (not from the vanilla sources) modules? Is there some good
document or so (for the whole Debian-way in kernel/patches/modules
matters?).

4) Last but not least:
My graphic card requires one of the newer drivers from nvidia (it does
not work correctly with the 7147). Why are the packages for newer
versions in i386 but not amd64?

Thanks and best wishes,
Chris.