2. Summary of new features in X11R6.9 and X11R7.0

This is a sampling of the new features in X11R6.9/X11R7.0. A more complete list of changes can be found in the ChangeLog file that is part of the X source tree.

• EXA support included EXA is a new accleration architecture to replace XAA, the current architecture. It is largely based upon KAA in KDrive, and is far more efficient at accelerating typical workloads on modern hardware, particularly involving the RENDER extension.
• FreeType was updated to version 2.1.9. But installing FreeType from X distributions would often or usually result in the replacement or use of "stale" versions of FreeType. On Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris 10, and SCO5, therefore, X11R6.9 will by default use the version of FreeType2 that is installed on the system. If your system doesn't come with an installed FreeType2 and you wish to use the version supplied with this distribution, please add: #define HasFreetype2 NO to config/cf/host.def.
• Updated Mesa and DRI from upstream sources
  • More OpenGL extensions
  • Support for Radeon r3xx/r4xx and PCI-Express chips
  • Support for mixed 32-bit and 64-bit clients on 64-bit machines.
• Individual extensions may be enabled or disabled on the command line using the -extension flag
• Improved chipset probing for IA64
• SecureRPC enabled on Linux by default
• Updated XRX support
• Fixes to rootless mode for Cygwin and Darwin ports
• Numerous K&R-to-ANSI C conversions
• Many Darwin fixes
• Updated XvMC support, enabling generic loading of hardware-specific drivers
• Added wsfb video driver for OpenBSD and NetBSD framebuffer consoles
• Numerous ATI driver updates from the GATOS project, including TV input support
• Improved ProPolice support
• Improved module loader support for Alpha chips
• Added mingw port for native Win32 builds
• Updated PCI scanning
• Experimental DRI support for Radeon 9500 and above
• Updated xterm to #207 from Thomas Dickey's xterm project
• Added evdev input driver for generic input handling on Linux
• Switched to libdl-based module loader
• MMX blending routines for the Render extension
• Initial support for running the Xorg server without root privileges
• Add DragonFly BSD support
• SGI Altix support
• Support for FreeBSD/powerpc
• Enhanced software Render core
• Support for more than 12 buttons in the generic mouse driver
• Better support for DRI on 64-bit platforms
• Solaris support updates:
  • enhanced mouse driver
  • agpgart support
  • experimental AMD64 support
  • kbd support
  • /dev/audio keyboard bell option
• Output-only windows
• Non-rectangular mergedfb desktops
• Update bundled fontconfig to 2.3.2
• Added gradient, solid fill, and convolution filter operations to Render
• Support for XGI chipsets in SiS video driver
• Xft updated to 2.1.7
• Include stack backtraces in logfiles when server crashes on glibc and Solaris systems
• Multiseat support
• xload made compatible with 64-bit kernels on Solaris
• Bundled Mesa upgraded to 6.4.1
• CAN-2005-2495 security fixes
• Shared libraries now built for libXau and libXdmcp
• GNU/kFreeBSD support

2.1. Updated keyboard mappings

The requirement for XKB data can, in the modular tree, be satisfied either by the traditional data set (the 'xkbdata' module), or by the dataset from the xkeyboard-config project (the 'xkbdesc' module). xkbdesc has numerous improvements relative to xkbdata: layouts have been cleaned up for consistency and universal multi-layout support, some new layouts have added, and some layouts have changed names to be more straightforward and ISO compliant. Some setups will need adjustments in order to use xkbdesc.

2.2. New loader mechanism

The loader now uses the standard libdl-based loader, instead of implementing its own ELF loading and parsing mechanism. This extends loadable server support to many platforms where it was not previously possible, such as MIPS, Motorola 68000, HP PA/RISC, et al. The core loader itself has also been significantly optimised.

2.3. Video driver enhancements

• SiS driver updates include
  • Support for EXA acceleration
  • Support for non-rectangular MergedFB, including RandR
  • Support for XGI chipsets
• New sisusb driver for USB-attached video
• ATI driver updates
  • Mach64 TV out support
• Rage 128 driver updates
  • Added dualhead support
• Radeon driver updates
  • Support for non-rectangular MergedFB
  • Support for EXA acceleration
  • Full 3D support for r3xx/r4xx series, and PCI-Express
  • Support for RN50/ES1000 chips
  • VIVO support merged from the GATOS project
  • Hostdata blit support for Xv videos and RENDER images
  • BIOS hotkey support
  • Tiled framebuffer support
• MGA driver updates
  • New BIOS parsing
• i810 driver updates
  • i915GM, i945G and E7221 support
  • Linux power management support (ACPI)
  • BIOS hotkey support
  • ShadowFB support
  • Improved DDC support
• SunFFB driver updates
  • XAA acceleration
• Savage driver updates
  • Support for PCI Savages
  • Added dualhead and DRI support
• Newport driver updates
  • XAA acceleration
• VIA driver updates
  • Unichrome Pro support
  • DRI support
• NV driver updates
  • DPMS support for GeForce4 and greater laptops
• VMWare driver updates
  • RandR support