Remove from the archive: this legacy driver is unmaintained upstream

bumping priority, this will block some migrations

FTBFS dkms module with 4.15 kernel:

/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.c:3032:5: error: implicit declaration of function ‘init_timer’; did you mean ‘init_timers’? [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
     init_timer(&nvl->rc_timer);
     ^~~~~~~~~~
     init_timers
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.c:3033:28: error: assignment from incompatible pointer type [-Werror=incompatible-pointer-types]
     nvl->rc_timer.function = nv_kern_rc_timer;
                            ^
/var/lib/dkms/nvidia-304/304.137/build/nv.c:3034:18: error: ‘struct timer_list’ has no member named ‘data’
     nvl->rc_timer.data = (unsigned long) nv;
                  ^

Don't we need to cherrypick e.g.

https://devtalk.nvidia.com/default/topic/1026876/patch-for-387-34-and-linux-4-15-0-rc1/

into all of them? Note that we need to SRU this back to xenial too, due to hwe stack, no?

I'm not sure about shipping above mentioned patch, due to:
- MODULE_LICENSE("MIT");
+ MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");

But i guess GPL is a superset of MIT....

I provided a patch months ago on bug 1737750 if we want to fix it.

Removing packages from bionic:
 nvidia-graphics-drivers-304 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic
  libcuda1-304 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  libcuda1-304 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  libcuda1-304-updates 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  libcuda1-304-updates 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  nvidia-304 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-304 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  nvidia-304-dev 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-304-dev 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  nvidia-304-updates 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-304-updates 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  nvidia-304-updates-dev 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-304-updates-dev 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  nvidia-current 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-current 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  nvidia-current-dev 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-current-dev 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  nvidia-libopencl1-304 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-libopencl1-304 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  nvidia-libopencl1-304-updates 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-libopencl1-304-updates 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  nvidia-opencl-icd-304 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-opencl-icd-304 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
  nvidia-opencl-icd-304-updates 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-opencl-icd-304-updates 304.137-0ubuntu2 in bionic i386
 nvidia-graphics-drivers-304-updates 304.131-0ubuntu4 in bionic
  nvidia-current-updates 304.131-0ubuntu4 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-current-updates 304.131-0ubuntu4 in bionic i386
  nvidia-current-updates-dev 304.131-0ubuntu4 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-current-updates-dev 304.131-0ubuntu4 in bionic i386
  nvidia-experimental-304 304.131-0ubuntu4 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-experimental-304 304.131-0ubuntu4 in bionic i386
  nvidia-experimental-304-dev 304.131-0ubuntu4 in bionic amd64
  nvidia-experimental-304-dev 304.131-0ubuntu4 in bionic i386
Comment: Obsolete, unmaintained upstream, FTBFS; LP: #1748000
2 packages successfully removed.

Although unmaintained, it's the only driver that works correctly with my card... If there are ways to patch it so that it loads on Ubuntu 18.04, I think it's a bad decision removing it :(

I also think removing the nvidia-304 driver is a bad decision. I didn't know that they removed this driver from the repositories before I upgraded to Ubuntu 18.04 beta 2. I have a NVIDIA 7300 GT graphics card that is rendered almost useless because of the removal of this driver, on Ubuntu and its flavors (I use Xubuntu with this card). I have tried building and installing the driver from NVIDIAs website, which failed. I have finally tried installing this driver from the ppa "ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa", which failed because of conflicting packages. Uninstalling these conflicting packages uninstall very important packages, like the Xubuntu desktop. This is also the only driver that works properly with my card. Although it is unmaintained, it was still a very bad decision to remove this driver, as old cards still use it. :(

It's the only driver that manages the thermal load correctly on the video card in my old HP laptop :(

Unmaintained or not, it's the only driver that works correctly with my card... Please provide it in Ubuntu 18.04 again.

From
http://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/123709/en-us

Version: 304.137
Release Date: 2017.9.19

2017.9.19 isn't really far away, and Seth Forshee (sforshee) has already provided a patch months ago on bug 1737750 for it.

I think it's a bad decision removing it :(

I have a lot of computers in my office that needs this drive to work.
Neither Nouveau or VESA works with them.
If this decision persists I will have to move to another distribution (which I hope to avoid).

My office is full of HP workstations with nvidia quadro cards which need this driver. Like other respondents, I will have to move to another distribution if the 304 driver is not available for Ubuntu.

The joy of depending on proprietary drivers

If you need it so badly, then you can probably put it in a ppa and continue to use it as before, knowing that it won't get any security support any more. Or switch to another distro, threats like that won't bring it back.

I need this driver also. Nothing else works with my card.

Is there any official word from NVIDIA that this driver is now dead upstream?

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

it's an old post but they didn't lie