Ossama
Mike A. Harris wrote:
Well there isn't an easier solution. The i845 video hardware is first supported by XFree86 4.3.0, which was released on February 27th 2003, and makes it's debut in Red Hat Linux 9.
When Red Hat Linux 8.0 was being developed, I spent some of my
own personal time on the weekend trying to backport as much of the i845 support from XFree86 CVS at the time, even though it wasn't complete. I did this as a personal contribution in an attempt to give i845 users some form of working 2D video. Since it worked for some users in a very limited capacity, I left the patch in, so that some users would have something rather than nothing, however the i845 is officially unsupported in every way shape and form in Red Hat Linux 8.0 wether it works for someone or not.
The current driver in 4.3.0 is _not_ backportable to 4.2.x in any
feasible manner, and so no attempt will be made to do so. XFree86 4.3.0 will not ever be released for Red Hat Linux 8.0
either.
The bottom line, is that XFree86.org releases new XFree86 releases about once per year, and that is when new video hardware support becomes available for XFree86 users. When this happens, that new release of XFree86 will most likely be included in the *next* release of Red Hat Linux that comes out after XFree86.org releases their new release.
The amount of engineering that is required to backport every single driver to work in the infrastructure of the previous XFree86 release is massive, and there just are not the resources to both do so, quality test it on every piece of hardware out there, and then maintain it ourselves. As such, it just does not and will not happen - ever. Also, releasing new XFree86 major releases for existing distribution releases is generally not ever going to happen either. I was able to release 4.1.0 for Red Hat Linux 7.1 way back when due to the nature of the changes between 4.0.3 and 4.1.0 being non major from an integration and infrastructural point of view. Nonetheless, it dragged significant dependancies in along with kernel DRM changes, and it was a significant amount of effort to get the update out the door. That effort is time taken away from working on the next distribution release.
I've said it before to people, and I'll say it again:
1) Don't ever expect that when a new XFree86 major release comes out, that it will be released as an update for any existing Red Hat Linux releases. Expecting this to happen, is like expecting Red Hat to release a 2.6.0 kernel for existing Red Hat Linux distro releases when it comes out. It just is not the way that our distribution is maintained. Major new software releases come in new distributions, and users that want it will have to upgrade, or hack it into an existing release themselves.
2) Video hardware that is not supported in a Red Hat Linux release, generally speaking, will not ever be supproted in that distribution release. There are some exceptions, and when it is possible for me to backport driver support for newer hardware, or to write support myself, I generally do so as time permits. This can be seen in the plethora of driver update patches that appear in Red Hat Linux 8.0 over what was in 7.3. Any time new video hardware requires massive code changes, it wont be supported until a new distribution release comes out.
That may not be what everyone would like to see happen, but it is the reality of how things do happen. People have to accept certain realities of how XFree86 is developed, and realize that XFree86.org simply does not release driver updates for a given release, and that it is an enourmous amount of work for any vendor to try to do so themselves. So enormous that it just isn't feasible unless people want to start paying $300 a copy for Linux distributions so that enough engineers can be hired to maintain 15 different video driver trees for every distribution release that is released every 6 months.
People need to be realistic. If you have new hardware, then you need a new OS. That is ultimately just the way it is.
