[mythtvnz] 18.04.1 upgrade and old Nvidia drivers

[markk at kc.net.nz]

-----Original Message-----
From: mythtvnz <mythtvnz-bounces at lists.ourshack.com> On Behalf Of Stephen Worthington
Sent: Wednesday, 15 August 2018 5:06 PM
To: mythtvnz at lists.linuxnut.co.nz
Subject: [mythtvnz] 18.04.1 upgrade and old Nvidia drivers

I just got the notification today that I can upgrade my MythTV box from Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.04.1.  But in researching and testing the upgrade, I have come across a serious problem for boxes that are using old Nvidia drivers, like my mother's.  Her box needs the Nvidia 304 series drivers, which are no longer supported by Nvidia:

https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3142/~/support-timeframes-for-unix-legacy-gpu-releases

As a result of the support having been dropped, the 304 drivers apparently do not compile against the 4.15 series kernels used in 18.04.1, and as a result of that, Ubuntu has dropped the Nvidia 304 driver packages.  There are web pages that tell you how to install the
304 drivers by downloading them from Nvidia and patching them before installing.  I have not tried this yet, and it will certainly complicate doing kernel updates, unless I can work out how to automate it using DKMS.

The implications for doing an 18.04.1 upgrade are also nasty.  You will probably need to remove the Nvidia drivers and switch back to the Nouveau drivers before doing the upgrade.  The Nouveau drivers have now got VDPAU support, but I have not tried using them with MythTV.
Last I heard, a couple of years ago, Nouveau+VDPAU did not work as well with MythTV as it should.  But it would be worth trying again now to see if it was OK - if so, that might be the best path forwards for MythTV boxes with old Nvidia cards.

This same problem will hit users of Nvidia cards using the 340 drivers (such as my GT 220 cards) at the end of 2019 when Nvidia stops support for them also.  Nvidia seems to be thinking that all its older GPUs are no longer being used.  That may well be the case for video cards with fans, but my fanless ones, and my mother's motherboard builtin GPU, are still going just fine after more than 8 years 24/7.

_______________________________________________

Damn, looks like our primary TV box with its old ION chipset will be caught up in the 2019 support drop.