Xorg-server 1.4.2

Ok, I have taken kirk's advice and moved up to xorg-server 1.4.2, the last version of Xorg 7.3.

I had to upgrade a couple of the Xlib packages, plus recompile all the xf86-input-* and xf86-video-* packages -- which I did manually, sat up for most of the night.

I am using libdrm 2.4.17, which is a very recent version. We need this to compile some recent video drivers. Also mesa 7.6 which is recent.

Other than that, I got most of the source packages from the Debian Lenny repository.

I am using xf86-video-intel 2.7.0, which seems to work ok (it is one of the drivers that needs that recent libdrm).

However I also wanted to compile xf86-video-intel 2.3.2 as used in Lenny -- but that requires an older libdrm. I solved this by compiling libdrm 2.3.1 (from Lenny) statically.

The same problem with the old xf86-video-i810 (from Xorg 7.2). I also solved this by compiling libdrm 2.2.0 statically.

Now this is really interesting -- the old i810 driver works fine on my laptop, and Xorg starts just about instantly. Later drivers do so much stuff at startup, the screen flickers and there is this pregnant pause then you get a desktop. Now with KMS they are talking about getting quick start back!

...this is the price they pay, the desire of the developers to add more and more complexity, which slows everything down and causes all sorts of compatibility problems and side-effects, then they have to bolt on solutions to fix the slowness.

Anyway, when I bring out this next pup, I will be very interested to get feedback on what Intel hardware this old i810 works on. My laptop has "Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller"

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Comments

windows?
Username: DC
quote ...this is the price they pay, the desire of the developers to add more and more complexity, which slows everything down and causes all sorts of compatibility problems and side-effects, then they have to bolt on solutions to fix the slowness. for a minute there I thought you were writing about MS :-) DC

just about
Username: f00-
"Puppy=priceless .. bolt-on/strip-off ^·^ No idea if it may be a viable option for mainline pups, but the link in this article http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=403863&sid=9d4c58e13639e52d1f4cf8701c97a8ad#403863 caught my imagination for thinking a bit 'outside the box'. Sure there's a good variety of Intel in the testing kennel...

intel
Username: shankargopal
"May have mentioned this in an earlier comment somewhere as well, but I've been having a lot of problems with screen blanking happening with the intel driver in Dpup (all of the versions from 477 beta 1 onwards, I hadn't used the previous ones). Gerry on the forums has also reported similar problems. I can't figure out if this is the i810 driver or not, but the machine I'm sitting on (not my own, but I've had this problem on it) has a "82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphics Controller". My Eee 701, which I think has the same chip as Barry's, has also had this problem. For more on the problem (including attached xerrs.log files) see: For initial description: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=350726#350726 For xerrs.log files: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=353312#353312 http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=374075#374075

Intel 2.7.1
Username: BarryK
"Some extra bits of information... Running the Xorg 7.3 libs and xorg-server 1.4.2, I reported testing different versions of xf86-video-intel, the Intel driver. I tried post-Xorg-7.3 drivers, with a recent libdrm (2.4.17) and I got screen flicker with all of them. With the 2.7.0 driver, I thought it was ok, but do get occasional flicker. The 2.7.1 Intel driver is the highest version that works with the 1.4.2 server, except that it doesn't -- I just got a black screen. Higher versions of the driver state that they need a server >= 1.6. So, right now I'm doing a test build of Quirky with the Intel 2.3.2 driver, with patches from Debian Lenny. The build will also offer the alternative old i810 driver. If it looks ok, I'll upload it for testing.

Dpup screen blanking
Username: BarryK
"shankargopal, Dpup is based on Debian Lenny, and I'm using the Xorg server and Intel driver patched sources from the Lenny repo. So please do test the next Quirky when I upload it, let me know if you still get the problem. You will be able to switch between the Xorg 7.3 Intel driver and the older i810 driver from Xorg 7.2, so you can try both.

Mesa
Username: kirk
"Xorg and Mesa usually synchronize their releases due to how much they interact. It may be fine to use the newer Mesa with the older Xorg. I really don't know. When I built 1.4.2 the latest Mesa, I think it was 7.2, didn't want to build against it.

quirky and intel
Username: shankargopal
"Hi Barry, It happens somewhat rarely and I have yet to find a combination of circumstances that triggers it, excepting that it seems to happen most often in low memory situations. So can never be sure that it's fixed even if it doesn't occur, but will definitely give Quirky a spin for some time and report back.

quirky and intel
Username: shankargopal
"Hi Barry, It happens somewhat rarely and I have yet to find a combination of circumstances that triggers it, excepting that it seems to happen most often in low memory situations. So can never be sure that it's fixed even if it doesn't occur, but will definitely give Quirky a spin for some time and report back.

Mesa 7.6
Username: BarryK
"Kirk, Mesa 7.6 compiled ok in T2, against xorg-server 1.3.0.0. I later manually compiled xorg-server 1.4.2. There is already a Mesa PET that I created before when I was using Xorg 7.5, I wonder if that will work? ...we shall find out.

Which xorg'server version?
Username: clarf
"Hi BarryK, How could I know which Xorg and xorg-server combo are installed in my Puppy. I have Puppy 214X when I execute "X -version" or read the log file in /var/log it say "X Winow System version 7.0.0" but I don´t know wich xorg-server is installed. Could you guide me? Thank you, clarf

Xorg version
Username: BarryK
"clarf, Yes, 'Xorg -version' will give you the version of xorg-server. I don't know why you are getting "7.0.0". Right now I'm running Quirky with Xorg 7.5, and 'Xorg -version' gives: [i]X.Org X Server 1.7.6[/i] On Quirky 013 it reports "1.4.2". I think that 214X must have an older Xorg that does not return that information.

ftp.x.org
Username: clarf
"Hi Barry, Thanks for reply. Seems that 214X Xorg version don´t have this information. Anyway I think I found a way to know the xorg-server version in 214X... At x sources archives, the directory ftp://ftp.x.org/pub/X11R7.0/individual/ list each individual package for X Window 7 (included xserver), in the xserver directory I found xorg-server-1.0.1.tar.gz only, then I could assume that I have Xorg 7.0 with xorg-server 1.0.1 (more or less because that is the only one xorg-server listed for X11 release 7.0). I could be wrong, but at least I know this xorg-server version is the minimum required for Xorg 7. Greetings, clarf

Tags: quirky