I just wanted to provide you all with an update on this hardware since I've been getting a _LOT_ of emails asking about it, bug reports of it not working (because people don't realize it is unsupported, and go out and buy the hardware first, then find out it isn't supported, rather than finding out first, and _THEN_ making hardware purchase). By providing this information here and now, I hope that people will share it around, and it will quell the incoming storm of email that I don't have time to answer individually. XFree86.org just commited improved 2D support to the i810 driver and added 3D support for this hardware as well. Of course, it is untested at this point in time. I just wanted to let you all know that the work is aparently done, so XFree86 4.3.0 will have 3D support for this hardware. Many further i810 driver improvements were just committed as well, including a big driver cleanup. The support also requires Mesa 4.x which is also in XFree86 CVS now too. Since I've decided to share this information, I realize it may spawn some questions, so I'll try to answer them first. ;o) Q) Will this new code be backported to XFree86 4.2.0 and appear in the new release of Red Hat Linux? A) No. Q) Will an updated XFree86 be made available for any release of Red Hat Linux containing this new support? A) No. Q) When will this new driver code be available to Red Hat Linux users? A) The new i8x0 driver code improved support will be in XFree86 4.3.0 when it is released near the end of the year. XFree86 4.3.0 will be included in the release of Red Hat Linux that follows the official XFree86 release. Q) When XFree86 4.3.0 is released, and is packaged in RPM format, will Red Hat release errata update of it for any existing Red Hat Linux release? A) Very very unlikely. It will greatly depend on how intrusive the new X release is to previous releases in terms of actual engineering, and a million other factors. If pushed to provide a yes/no answer, based on what information I know about XFree86 4.3.0 at this point in time, I would say "no". Q) When will XFree86 4.3.0 RPM packages, or "test" packages of prereleases of XFree86 4.3.0 start appearing in Rawhide, so that users can test this stuff out? A) I've no idea officially as it depends on a great many factors. On a purely "awesome chocolaty goodness" factor, I would like to do that 2 months ago however, it takes a great amount of engineering work to bump a stable RPM package like our current 4.2.0 up to XFree86 CVS, go over all 110 patches and remove, update, fix them all, and send patches back upstream, fix build problems, architectural problems, etc. and get the package into a state where I'm confident it is safe enough for the craziest guinea pigs to fry their systems. ;o) The short answer is "as soon as I can possibly do so, but no idea when that will be, so no guarantees. However, I hope this information does provide you all with a warm sense of "wow, my hardware will eventually work!" ;o) Also... please do not email me to ask me the status on things like this... If it isn't in rawhide, it isn't ready yet, and asking me only slows me down from making things happen. My answer to such quesitions is almost always a variant of "When it's done.". ;o) Also, please do not write me back with $random reason why any of this should be included in Red Hat Linux earlier than what I said above. My decisions are well thought out, and 110% final - it wont be included until it is properly ready for public usage and has undergone proper public beta testing, QA testing, etc. I urge people to share this with anyone who has i845 hardware and wants to know when it will be supported. Also tell them to not email me. ;o) Here's to hoping that 4.3.0 is a solid release when it arrives later this year. Take care all, TTYL -- Mike A. Harris ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris OS Systems Engineer XFree86 maintainer Red Hat Inc. _______________________________________________ Testers-list mailing list Testers-list@redhat.com _______________________________________________ xfree86-list mailing list xfree86-list@redhat.com https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/xfree86-list IRC: #xfree86 on irc.redhat.com
