> > It appears that adding a snippet of Xorg.conf in /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/ > > (e.g. 99-nvidia-glx.conf) makes X aware of this other driver. > > Unfortunately this breaks the X configuration if nvidia-glx is installed > but no hardware/kernel module is available.
I'm sure you will consider this idea out of whack, but what if there was a simple init.d script that checked if nvidia driver as well as the hardware are all present, and if so, created the appropriate, namespaced xorg.conf file. Alternatively, it would remove it. Something roughly like: xorgconf="/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nvidia-glx-nvidia-driver.conf" if ! nvidia_conditions_met; then rm $xorgconf; exit 0; fi 2>/dev/null mkdir -p /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d echo -e "# This file is deleted if CONDITIONS. # Don't rely on it, don't modify. Create new one, warning, yadda yadda. Section \"Device\" Identifier \"My GPU\" Driver \"nvidia\" EndSection # Other convenient, gracefully-fallbacking config (like TwinView etc.)! " > $xorgconf And this init.d script conveniently provided by this (or a more appropriate) package, with debconf option to disable it. ?