How come X seems insistent on managing my XF86Config now?

[Gregory Stark <gsstark@mit.edu>]

I've always managed my own XF86Config, and the debian packages have for the
most part stayed out of my way. How come now I can't upgrade without answering
dozens of questions about my graphics card and monitor etc. I've been stuck at
this version for a while since I always C-c the configuration and that dumps
me out of the install.

I seem to have 4.2.1-9 installed and am trying to install 4.2.1-12.1:

bash-2.05b# apt-get install xserver-xfree86 
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  xserver-common
Suggested packages:
  configlet-frontends
The following packages will be upgraded
  xserver-common xserver-xfree86
2 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 723 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/4639kB of archives.
After unpacking 901kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
Preconfiguring packages ...
Configuring Xserver-xfree86
---------------------------

For the X Window System graphical user interface to operate correctly, it is necessary to select a video card driver for the X
server.

Drivers are typically named for the video card or chipset manufacturer, or for a specific model or family of chipsets.

  1. apm    5. cirrus  9. glint  13. imstt    17. neomagic   21. s3             25. sis      29. tseng  33. vmware
  2. ark    6. cyrix   10. i128  14. mga      18. newport    22. s3virge        26. tdfx     30. v4l  
  3. ati    7. fbdev   11. i740  15. mga      19. nv         23. savage         27. tga      31. vesa 
  4. chips  8. glide   12. i810  16. mga_hal  20. rendition  24. siliconmotion  28. trident  32. vga  
:-) Select the desired X server driver. 
...


bash-2.05b# apt-cache show xserver-xfree86
Package: xserver-xfree86
Priority: optional
Section: x11
Installed-Size: 11728
Maintainer: Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org>
Architecture: i386
Source: xfree86
Version: 4.2.1-12.1
Replaces: xserver-common (<< 4.0), libxfont-xtt
Provides: xserver
Depends: xserver-common (>= 4.2.1-10), libc6 (>= 2.3.2-1), zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4), debconf (>= 0.5)
Suggests: discover, mdetect, read-edid, libglide2 (>> 2001.01.26)
Conflicts: libxfont-xtt
Filename: pool/main/x/xfree86/xserver-xfree86_4.2.1-12.1_i386.deb
Size: 4384006
MD5sum: 5bd227698938e9314fa9c802f20a7401
Description: the XFree86 X server
 ...

Package: xserver-xfree86
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: x11
Installed-Size: 10892
Maintainer: Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org>
Source: xfree86
Version: 4.2.1-9
Replaces: xserver-common (<< 4.0), libxfont-xtt
Provides: xserver
Depends: debconf (>> 0.5), xserver-common (>= 4.1.0-10), libc6 (>= 2.3.1-1), zlib1g (>= 1:1.1.4), debconf (>= 0.5)
Suggests: discover, mdetect, read-edid
Conflicts: libxfont-xtt
Description: the XFree86 X server
 ...


-- 
greg