Arch Linux

foxcub

Member

From: California

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 36

Xorg 7.1

Is there a way to easily upgrade to Xorg 7.1? Alternatively, what's the ETA for Xorg 7.1 appearing in testing and/or current?

Xorg 7.1 contains a crucial update to the i810 driver, which would make my life a lot easier, hence, the interest.

Thanks in advance.

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Xorg 7.1

The server might be in sometime around August or September.

The drivers... Well, AFAIK those don't break if you use the old server (don't take my word on that though), so I reopened my request on bugs.archlinux.org with a question about updating to the latest versions of the input and video drivers... That would probably also require updates to various libraries, but I don't think that would break anything.

foxcub

Member

From: California

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 36

Re: Xorg 7.1

Why so long?

What's the URL of the bugreport?

Thanks for your response.

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Xorg 7.1

Why so long? Because the current nVidia drivers aren't compatible with XOrg 7.1, and nVidia is probably scrambling to make their drivers compatible or something like that... And ATI might never release an updated version of their fglrx driver (also incompatible), knowing their support for Linux, so for all I know XOrg 7.1 might never be shipped by any Linux distro.

Anyway, the feature request is here, awaiting reopening.

(You know, I am starting to realize why the OpenBSD guys hate proprietary blobs so much...)

russianpirate

Member

Registered: 2006-05-17

Posts: 161

Re: Xorg 7.1

Phew.. and I was happy that X7.1 is coming out.. if it breaks my nVidia driver, I will blow the part of the harddrive that holds X 7.1 lol

Besides bad support (and some new good support).. what is so special about 7.1?

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foxcub

Member

From: California

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 36

Re: Xorg 7.1

Got you. Then a different question. Are there any repositories (user-maintained naturally) that like to keep Xorg updated to the latest version available? I'm new to ArchLinux, so I don't feel that I can pull such a task off on my own.

JGC

Developer

Registered: 2003-12-03

Posts: 1,664

Re: Xorg 7.1

Drivers for Xorg 7.1 won't work with 7.0, as the ABI is different. Some drivers do work, but most of them fail at compile time because Xorg 7.0 doesn't have the required EXA interface.
Also, I talked about an Xorg developer at the X.org booth at linuxtag. He advised to use the parts of X.Org released together and not mix stuff between releases. We've seen with fixesproto what happens then.

foxcub

Member

From: California

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 36

Re: Xorg 7.1

JGC, do you maintain the xorg packages? Would it be possible to create a separate repository with the new Xorg 7.1 packages? I realize that it's more work, but it's the kind of work that will have to be done in the future anyway.

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Xorg 7.1

Drivers for Xorg 7.1 won't work with 7.0, as the ABI is different. Some drivers do work, but most of them fail at compile time because Xorg 7.0 doesn't have the required EXA interface.
Also, I talked about an Xorg developer at the X.org booth at linuxtag. He advised to use the parts of X.Org released together and not mix stuff between releases. We've seen with fixesproto what happens then.

Wait a minute, 7.0 doesn't have the required EXA interface? Did they make big changes to EXA or something?

JGC

Developer

Registered: 2003-12-03

Posts: 1,664

Re: Xorg 7.1

EXA is still quite in prerelease state, things can change between two X.Org releases, what happened to X.Org 7.1 because EXA from 7.0 wasn't sufficiant in API. This is only a small piece of the ABI incompatibilities. The main things that changed are things that are related to Render acceleration. Though nvidia works with 7.1, you have to disable all acceleration to get any visible fonts for example.

About the repository: yes, there will be such a repository when I get time to create those packages.

foxcub

Member

From: California

Registered: 2006-06-10

Posts: 36

Re: Xorg 7.1

Great! Thanks, JGC.

Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Xorg 7.1

Ditto... Thanks, JGC.

niqo

Member

From: Paris

Registered: 2005-11-04

Posts: 29

Re: Xorg 7.1

Nice ! It would be great to test aiglx on arch. Tanks JGC !

patroclo7

Member

From: Bassano del Grappa, ITALY

Registered: 2006-01-11

Posts: 915

Re: Xorg 7.1

Any news? Any possibility that xorg 7.1 hits testing? It should be good for anyone except people with nvidia cards and people with ati cards who insist to use the proprietary drivers. This people could use current.

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Gullible Jones

Member

Registered: 2004-12-29

Posts: 4,863

Re: Xorg 7.1

It won't be in Testing, it will be in a separate repo, apparently. Just wait for it... It shouldn't be incredibly long, now that the big upgrades are done with.