Since XFree86 4.4.0 is nearing release soon, I have started to get an increase in the number of questions asked about it, and about my XFree86 plans for Fedora Core and future development. Rather than answer them over and over again in IRC, mailing lists, and direct email, I thought it would be a better idea to post this brief summary publically on a few of our lists, in hopes that you all can help me to get the message around to the masses. ;o) Please DO NOT directly email me or ask me in IRC when it will be ready. Keep this FAQ handy instead, and reread it every few days. ;o) Q) What release of XFree86 will Fedora Core 2 be shipping? A) XFree86 4.3.0 is what will ship in Fedora Core 2. It will contain a number of bug fixes, Radeon driver fixes and other improvements to further stabilize the 4.3.0 series, and give Fedora Core a relatively mature XFree86 base. I would also like to update the "via" driver to Alan Cox's new DRI enabled via driver, so that VIA EPIA users can enjoy 3D acceleration. I'm probably going to do a number of other video driver updates and scan bugzilla for the most critical issues to spend some time on. Any large-risk issues will likely not be addressed until 4.4.0 is integrated into the distro however if I believe the risk of regression to be too great to be worth taking for a given problem. I've considered a great number of technical and other issues/factors in coming to this decision. Q) When will XFree86 4.4.0 be officially released? A) XFree86 4.4.0 is still under development, and it's official release date is not known. XFree86 releases generally miss their originally projected release dates by anywhere from 1 month to 6 months or greater. XFree86 4.4.0 was planned to be released originally on Dec 15, 2003 or so, however it is still under development, and a new release candidate was announced earlier today or yesterday. Any release date predictions are generally unreliable, as there are countless factors that can delay a release from occuring when developers originally intended to release the new release. Generally, this means that many more bug fixes are being worked on, and it's better to have an XFree86 release that is less buggy and released later on at an unpredictable time, than earlier and contain many bugs that might not get fixed for another year or so. So the best answer to this question is the one people so hate to hear - "When XFree86.org thinks it is ready." Q) Why isn't XFree86 4.4.0 going to be in Fedora Core 2? A) The simple answer, is that XFree86 4.4.0 has not been released yet, and the release date is not known or 100% predictable. There is a good chance it will be released prior to the release of Fedora Core, however, in order for it to be integrated and into the distribution properly, and some of the other changes I plan on making for 4.4.0, it needs to be done early enough in the cycle that there is time to work out any major stop-ship problems that arise, and fix them. I prefer to ship something known to be relatively stable, with additional bug fixes, than to ship something of unknown stability as a rush job, late in the cycle without having enough proper beta testing occur. Fedora Core is intended to be more cutting edge, but I don't want bloody fingers from rushed packages. <grin> Besides, users who really want to use 4.4.0 on Fedora Core 2 (and possibly Fedora Core 1 and older releases also) will be able to do so very easily when I do make my 4.4.0 rpms available (see next question). This will allow those who want the bleeding edge, to have it and use it, while those who want the more stable and mature release to get that by default. I think this is the best overall solution, especially since we have no idea when 4.4.0 might be released. ;o) Q) When will XFree86 4.4.0 rpm packages become available, and for what Red Hat operating systems will they be available for? A) I have been working on 4.4.0 packaging for a while now, and will be releasing rpms sometime soon, but no specific date. I want the initial publically posted packages to be in a certain state, and they're not quite there yet. They will be available on ftp://people.redhat.com accessible via FTP and yum, and I will send out an announcement to xfree86-list@xxxxxxxxxx and fedora-devel-list@xxxxxxxxxx to announce it with more detailed instructions. The initial builds will be provided as 'rawhide' built rpms (but not put into rawhide itself). At some point, if I have enough time, I might also provide Fedora Core 1 rpms, and perhaps RHL 9 and RHL 8.0 rpms. No promises, however if and when I make any releases, I will announce them on the two mailing lists mentioned above. RPMS will be available for whatever architectures happen to compile through to completion. Q) What are the major new improvements and benefits of XFree86 4.4.0 over previous releases? A) The largest user-visible improvements in XFree86 4.4.0 are updated video drivers which support most newer video hardware to some degree or another, IPv6 support for the X server, (hopefully) saner default settings for the server/drivers. There are many other things, but I can't remember it all. Read the XFree86 CHANGELOG document for details. ;o) Q) Will there be Radeon IGP DRI support? A) No. Use DRI-CVS for Radeon IGP DRI support. Q) Will there be Radeon 9500/9600/9700/9800 DRI support? A) No. The specifications for the 3D engine of that hardware is not available, and nobody is working on it currently or planning on doing so to the best of my knowledge. If the specifications were to become available, it would probably be anywhere from 6 to 12 months for stable DRI support to become available, and require funding to develop. For further details, please search the DRI project's mailing list archives for this very frequently asked question, as the answer doesn't change over time. ;o) Q) Will you ship the Radeon merged framebuffer support from DRI-CVS, so people can use pseudo-Xinerama with DRI? A) No, it is in experimental CVS for a reason. Once it is integrated into XFree86.org it will become part of a future OS release sometime down the road. Users wanting to test this experimental support before then can build DRI-CVS or download prebuild drivers from the DRI project directly. Q) What is the freedesktop.org kdrive xserver? A) kdrive xserver, also known to many as "The freedesktop.org X server" has some nice eye candy which Keith Packard has whipped up. This X server is not intended for general purpose usage, but is instead an experimental X server intended for developing new X technology and testing it out. It currently caters more to active X developers, and those interested in hacking on the server itself, however others do play with it as well. It does not support all of the video hardware XFree86's X server supports, and it does not have DRI support and other fancy features. It was originally designed years ago for PDAs and embedded systems, so it is quite small. Search google for "tinyx" and "kdrive" to learn more, as well as visiting the freedesktop.org xserver pages. Q) Do you plan on shipping it in Fedora Core? A) Not as a "supported" X server intended for general purpose usage, no. I do think that it has some cool geek factor though, and that it would be cool to include it in Fedora Core as a more or less "as-is" unsupported thing for people to play with who are interested in doing so. Fedora-Extras/fedora.us might be a better place for it though. If it does not end up there, I'll probably have unofficial rpms on people.redhat.com for people to play with at some point, and make an announcement here. Q) Do you plan on using freedesktop.org X libraries? A) I am currently exploring the possiblity of using the freedesktop.org X libraries, or at least some of them, however I have not yet reviewed them all, nor investigated the integrational issues widely enough to draw any conclusions or make any commitments at this point. I do however like the idea of a less monolithic, more modular X11 build, and I believe modularized libraries have a number of good benefits both for development, maintenance, and for end users. I'm enthusiastic about the project, and would like to find the time to contribute more directly to it in the future. We'll have to wait and see how things come along. Q) What do you think about the recent news of X.org and XFree86.org merging? A) I read the Newsforge article, and think that it is encouraging to see related projects collaborating together more closely. Hopefully this will benefit future development of X11 and related technology. I think that pretty much summarizes the majority of questions I've been getting lately. If there is something that I have overlooked, PLEASE DO NOT email me or IRC me directly, but instead, post a message to xfree86-list, so that myself or someone else who knows the answer can reply and multiple people can benefit from the answer. Of course, please be sure to check the mailing list archives first, in case the question has been answered already. Take care, TTYL -- Mike A. Harris ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris OS Systems Engineer - XFree86 maintainer - Red Hat _______________________________________________ xfree86-list mailing list xfree86-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/xfree86-list IRC: #xfree86 on irc.redhat.com
