Bug#588946: ITP: wacom-source -- Wacom kernel driver in DKMS format
To whoever might read this far into this bug report,
Since somebody has asked again about doing this in #d-d today,
despite all the reasons already recorded here for not doing it,
here's some more context for the next person who may be tempted
down this path ...
More than a decade ago, we did have a separate package in the distro
for the wacom kernel modules. More than half a decade ago, it was
removed from the distro again since it had become fairly convincingly
unnecessary [1], and in fact had become actively harmful, since people
who didn't need it at all were confused into thinking they did, even
when it was the thing that was actually most out of date.
When the X driver and tools were later split from the rest of the
upstream source we even stopped shipping the kernel code as a build
it yourself thing in the source. Mostly because upstream had become
very active with getting new changes directly into the mainline kernel
and new devices were generally only ever a matter of weeks away from
being supported there after the code for them existed.
I'm not aware of that close collaboration having broken down, so there
really isn't any reason at all to re-add a package to the distro that
nobody will care about just a couple of weeks after they add it. If
you you have shiny new hardware that isn't supported yet, go and work
through the normal channels to get it mainlined. That's the best and
fastest way to get what you Really Want here.
I'd close this bug, but someone will just open another one, so it's
probably best to keep this recorded on the off chance they might see
it and be enlightened. You should consider it flagged "Don't fix" :)
hth,
Ron
[1] http://bugs.debian.org/434935
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