Release Notes for recent uploads

New entries are now added to Brice's blog and available through planet.debian.org.

The recent upload of Xserver 1.3 (xserver-xorg-core >= 2:1.3) and of the Intel driver 2.0 (xserver-xorg-video-intel >= 2:2.0) might cause some trouble but also brings nice features. See below.

1) The system is very slow on the free ATI driver with xserver-xorg-core 1.3

If you have a ATI board with AccelMethod set to EXA, you will get a very slow X server. Reverting to the default acceleration method (XAA) will fix it.

EXA has been supposed to bring many improvements for a while, but it is still not mature enough to surpass the old XAA in all cases. EXA is designed towards compositing (Compiz, Beryl, ...). But, under some circumstances, EXA is even slower than no acceleration at all. It seems to depend a lot on the driver, and the ATI one does not look very good (while the Intel one looks good).

Fortunately, unless you want to use Compiz or so, there's probably no absolute reason to use EXA for now. So reverting to XAA (and adding XAANoOffScreenPixmap for Compiz) should be fine for most people.

2) Dual-Head config breakage with xserver-xorg-video-intel

The Intel driver 2.0 brings XRandR 1.2 support, enabling dynamic multiple heads configuration. Some old Xinerama/dual-head config causes the server to crash at startup.

To solve this problem, you need to update your xorg.conf:

drop dual Device/Screen/Monitor sections from
drop MonitorLayout option and Screen lines from the remaining Device section
drop dual Screen lines from the ServerLayout section
drop RightOf/LeftOf indication to the remaining Screen line in ServerLayout section
add a "Virtual 2048 2048" line in SubSection "Display" to create a large virtual screen where physical monitor will be placed (note that boards < i945 will disable DRI if you use more than 2048 in one direction)
use xrandr --output VGA --right-of LVDS to place you VGA screen on the right of your internal LCD (see xrandr manpage for details)

See this bug for an example for configuration update.

See this upstream bug discussing a workaround this crash.

3) Modesetting improvements with xserver-xorg-video-intel 2.0

Modesettings should be able to detect resolutions and modelines very well. The xorg.conf may be simplified a lot:

drop HorizSync and VertRefresh from the Monitor section
drop Modes line from the Display subsection

Also the i915resolution package should not be needed anymore.

Also note that the driver name is now as "intel" instead of "i810" (but there's an alias).

4) Intel driver 2.0 does not find my nice mode/resolution

The way to choose a resolution in xorg.conf changed with randr-1.2. Earlier, you add a line such as

  Modes "800x600" "1024x768"

in SubSection "Display" in Section "Screen"

Now, the driver/server will detect all modes and choose the preferred one if it exists. Use xrandr to see these modes. If it doesn't choose the right one, you may change after X startup with:

  xrandr --output VGA --mode 1280x1024

This may be done automatically at startup with something like your .xsession file.

To do it in the server configuration: Assuming you want a 1280x1024 mode at 75Hz, get a modeline using:

  $ gtf 1280 1024 75
  Modeline "1280x1024_75.00"  138.54  1280 1368 1504 1728  1024 1025 1028 1069  -HSync +Vsync

Add this line and the following to the "Monitor" section of your xorg.conf

  Option "PreferredMode" "1280x1024_75.00"

See this bug for an example.

5) Testing a new upstream git snapshot of a driver

Intel driver 2.1 still has various problems, testing a new upstream git snapshot may help. It happens for some other drivers too. Instead of waiting for us to package a new version, people can easily test development drivers without having to build a new package or so. Since there is a single (or very few files) file to install, we can just build the upstream source and install manually.

Here's what to do for the intel driver, replace "intel" with your favorite driver.

You'll need some development headers/libs:

    $ apt-get build-dep xserver-xorg-video-intel

Then you can grab the git tree with:

    $ git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/driver/xf86-video-intel

Then you enter it and build with

    $ ./autogen.sh
    $ make

If it complains about some macros being undef, you might need to install xutils-dev or so.

Once it is built, copy src/.libs/*_drv.so in /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/ and restart X (logout/login is usually not enough, ctrl-alt-backspace or xdm/gdm restart is ok).

To revert to your old driver, just reinstall its package with aptitude reinstall xserver-xorg-video-intel or dpkg -i xserver-xorg-video-intel_foo.deb.

6) X.org autoconfiguration with xserver-xorg-core 1.3

Very few lines are required in xorg.conf now, only the following might be required:

keyboard InputDevice section to choose your keymap (unless american qwerty is ok for you)
Extensions section to enable Composite (for AIGLX stuff such as compiz or beryl)
Device section if you really a specific option such as EXA, ...
Module section if the default modules are not ok with you
Screen section with Display subsection for a Virtual line for xrandr multiple heads
Screen section to change the default depth
DRI section if you don't want DRI devices to be available to all users (default mode is 666 now)

7) Compiz does nothing

Most plugins are disabled by default, they should be enabled using gconf, in key /apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options/active_plugins

At least "png", "cube", "rotate", "place", "plane", "wobbly", "scale" are usually interesting.

Note that there are dependencies between plugins, so you need to place them in a correct order in the list. Each plugin has a "require" option which tells you which other plugins should be loaded earlier.

One correct config is

  $ gconftool --get /apps/compiz/general/allscreens/options/active_plugins
  [gconf,decoration,wobbly,fade,minimize,cube,rotate,zoom,scale,move,place,switcher,screenshot,water,resize]

Graphical configurators are supposed to arrive in the near future.