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X.Org 6.8.2 is Out
ertz writes "The X.Org Foundation today announced the fourth release of the X Window System since the formation of the Foundation in January of 2004. The new X.Org release, called X Window System Version 11, Release 6.8.2 (X11R6.8.2) builds on the work of X.org X11R6.8.0 and X11R6.8.1 released in 2004. X11R6.8.2 combines the latest developments from many people and companies working with the X Window System and an open X.Org Foundation Release Team. All Official X.Org Releases are available for download from the ftp site and at mirror-sites world-wide."
It looks like its moslty a stability update than features:
The X11R6.8.2 release is intended to be a stable bug fix release ("Maintenance update") for the X11R6.8.0 and X11R6.8.1 X11 releases of the Xorg Foundation, containing bug fixes, security updates and a small set of new features, which include the following:
* ATI R100 video driver
* ATI "radeon" video driver
* ATI Rage128 video driver
* CYGWIN infrastructure update
* DMX Library updates
* Intel i810 video driver
* libXpm security update (CAN-2004-0914)
* Mesa (OpenGL) update to release 6.2
* Fixes to the pseudocolor emulation layer (currently only used by the Neomagic driver.)
* "nv" (Nvidia) video driver
* Postscript print driver
* Xprint infrastructure update
This is actually a little faster on my 500mhz intel system! And who said code get's slower as it ages?
I bought parts for a new PC which arrived on Monday, and while setting up SuSE 9.2 I discovered a slight ... incompatibility. If you're using a PCI-Express NVidia card on x86-64, things may prove somewhat problematic with X.org 6.8.1. In my case, the graphical installer simply wouldn't run, and after installing via VNC I couldn't get the proprietary NVidia driver to work without serious corruption of the mouse pointer, missing text and so on.
;-)
I had been concerned that I'd have to switch off stuff like dual-head, hardware acceleration etc., but it turns out it's a (now fixed) bug in X.org regarding PIC-Express and 64-bit Linux on AMD processors. I was downloading some semi-official 6.8.2 packages just before seeing this...
So, if you're having problems with X on a spangly new system, I hope this helps.
How about Xgl, the port of X to OpenGL HW/SW?
--
make install -not war
X.org is getting hammered by /. so here is the summary of changes:
2. Summary of new features in X11R6.8.2
This is a sampling of the new features in X11R6.8.2. A more complete list of changes can be found in the ChangeLog file that is part of the X source tree.
* Freetype was updated to version 2.1.8. But installing freetype from X distributions would often or usually result in the replacement or use of "stale" versions of freetype. On Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris 10, and SCO5, therefore, X11R6.8.2 will by default use the version of freetype2 that is installed on the system. If your system doesn't come with an installed freetype2 and you wish to use the version supplied with this distribution, please add: #define HasFreetype2 NO to config/cf/host.def.
* The XTT font module and FreeType1 have been retired because FreeType2 subsumes their functionality
* Retire old PS Type1 font rasterizer (except for CID font usage) since the FreeType2 rasterizer now handles PS Type1 (*.pfa, *.pfb)
* Render implementation fixes
* Updated x86emu and resynced with upstream at Scitech
* Updated SiS driver
* Updated Nvidia driver (opensource version)
* Render acceleration for ATI's R100 and R200-series cards
* Substantial speedups in the software implementation of the render extensions when compiled with gcc 3.4 on the i386 architecture.
* Infrastructure for rotation support in drivers
* New Trapezoid specification for the Render extension
o Respecify Render to include only 'normal' traps
o Allow backward compatibility but internally covert to new format
* Software mouse cursor is now based on the Damage extension
* A new keyboard driver is enabled by default. The old driver is disabled unless explicitly compiled in by defining the macro |USE_DEPRECATED_KEYBOARD_DRIVER|.
* All extensions (except Xserver-specific extensions "DMX" and "XpExtension") can now be enabled/disabled from the configuration file and from the command line.
* Mac OS X updates:
o Support dynamic screen configuration changes in rootless mode
o Added option to always use Mac command key equivalents
o Interpret scroll wheel mouse events correctly when shift is held down
o Added trivial Xinput support
o Fixed launch of X clients from Finder with a space in their path
o Fixed some GLX rendering problems on Mac OS X 10.2 and earlier
* Updated xterm version
2.1. New X extensions
X11R6.8.2 includes four new extensions:
XFixes
The XFixes extension is a collection of improvements for deficiencies in the core protocol, including
* Notification when a selection changes
* Server-side region objects
* Allow clients to track the cursor image
Damage
The Damage extension allows a client to be notified whenever something is drawn to a window. This feature is useful for VNC servers, for screen magnifiers, and for clients using the Composite extension to update the screen.
Composite (experimental)
The Composite extension allows a client to request that all drawing to window is redirected to off-screen buffer. Though the Damage extension the client, called a 'compositing manager', can know which areas of a window is modified and render the windows on screen. By making use of the drawing requests from both the core protocol and the RENDER extension, the compositing manager can create special effects, such as translucennt windows.
The Composite extension is considered experimental in X11R6.8.2 and is turned off by default.
XEvIE (X Event Interception Extension) (experimental)
XEvIE is an extension to intercept core keyboard and pointing device input It allows consumation, modification or synthesis of input events before these are sent to their final destination (i.e., interested clients). This feature is required by the GNOME accessibility project.
The XEvIE extension is considered experimental
>> I wonder when Linux users will stop buying hardware that doesn't have published interfaces.>>
I wonder when some Linux users will stop being so arrogant. Many people come to Linux AFTER they have purchased an ATI card with a desktop or notebook.
"Switch to Linux it's better."
"Okay. Reformat hard drive, install, configure. Hey, i can't get my ATI card to work."
"You are so stupid. Why didn't you buy a card that works with Linux?"
I believe Windows remote desktop does this
You believe entirely, 100% wrong. Windows does no such thing.
Remote desktop actually works very simply, much like VNC does. It's simpler than using a remote X server as well.
Take a look at the source code for rdesktop sometime. It handles mouse and keyboard redirection, audio streaming (two way), and a video protocol.
Remote desktop "feels fast" because of two things. For one, apparently it has some good kernel level hooks so that where other stuff has to "watch" the frame buffer to figure out changes, remote desktop is notified. It's a much more efficent method, and it means that the client is truly dumb. It doesn't have to know anything about fonts, or widgets, or windows, or anything.
X works quite a bit differently. It also doesn't have to know about widgets and all that stuff. Windows RDP goes "after" everything is drawn and takes a look at the end product - the compisited ready to draw images or portions of portions of the screen. X actually brings the primitives over the wire. Which can be sometimes much, much faster and more bandwidth effective. It depends on the application.
This is a good short inro on xlib programming.
http://necrotic.deadbeast.net/xsf/XFree86/trunk/de bian/local/FAQ.xhtml#debianplans