[elrepo] RE driver update incompatibility issue

[Lamar Owen]

On 01/30/2013 08:12 AM, Phil Perry wrote:
>
> I may have jumped the gun here somewhat. Managing the kernel module is 
> probably the easy part. I forgot about the hard part, and that is 
> managing the many linked X11 libraries that are also version-specific. 

Ok, another track here.

Phil, how difficult do you think it would be to have all the packages be 
installable both individually and side-by-side?  That is, have multiple 
versions of the kmod and the X bits installed, into different 
nonconflicting directors?  Then, use alternatives to manage the 
different trains?  That way, I could install the legacy train with the 
mainline installed, switch to it with alternatives, and uninstall the 
mainline, which wouldn't break dependencies.  And, when/if I upgrade my 
video card I can install the mainline, switch to it, and uninstall the 
legacy, again without breaking deps or configs.  I have no idea how 
difficult that would be, either.

Then, an early warning 'system' of sorts with the next to last and last 
packages in the mainline (if possible) before another legacy train is 
forked from the mainline could give some sort of notice to the user; how 
this notice is given I don't know.  But if there were some way to 
gracefully regress to the vesa framebuffer or even noveau if the 
mainline driver can't load.....

Or maybe a check in %pre that can abort installation of the driver if 
the hardware isn't supported, leaving the old one in place?