Feel free reproduce this mail anywhere you like. Reply to the list
(debian-x@lists.debian.org). Do not send mail to me privately.
* To use DRI you need a proper kernel version. Unfortunately there is no
official Linux kernel with the proper support. Use the latest 2.2.18pre
2.4test-whatever.
* Yes, the shared memory extension is broken in recent phase2 packages.
This is a recent development in upstream CVS. If you'd like to help fix
it, subscribe to xpert@xfree86.org and pursue the issue there; please try
to submit helpful bug reports to upstream, they could use them.
* Where to send mails: this part is very important.
* DON'T MAIL ME DIRECTLY ABOUT PROBLEMS WITH X. This is not only
personally harassing since I've asked people thousands times (plus once
in nearly every message I send to the Debian lists), but it keeps other
people who may have seen the same problem, or know of a fix, from
helping you.
* debian-user@lists.debian.org is the proper support list for problems
with the officially released Debian XFree86 packages (3.3.6).
* debian-x@lists.debian.org is not in general a user support list at all;
only Debian-specific problems with my XFree86 4.x test packages should
be sent here.
* newbie@xfree86.org is the proper support list for problems with XFree86
from users who don't know much about the X Window System, diagnosing
problems, or fixing them. This includes most of the people who send me
private mail asking for help.
* xpert@xfree86.org is the proper support list for problems with XFree86
from people who knowledgeable and motivated enough to help fix them
(by, e.g., compiling X themselves from source, trying different versions
from CVS to try and narrow down problems, or hacking source code
themselves).
* THE PACKAGES I HAVE MADE AVAILABLE OF XFREE86 4.x ARE NOT OFFICIAL, AND
NOT STABLE. I DO NOT SUPPORT UPGRADES BETWEEN VERSIONS. If you have
problems, downgrade to 3.3.6 or purge the X packages before changing
versions.
* IMPATIENCE AND COMPLAING FROM PEOPLE NOT MOTIVATED TO CONTRIBUTE SOME
OF THEIR OWN EFFORT TO SOLVE PROBLEMS WILL DELAY, NOT SPEED, THE
PROCESS OF CREATING OFFICIAL DEBIAN PACKAGES FOR XFREE86 4.0. I'd like
to have stable packages of XFree86 4.x out myself. Life would be
hunky-dory. But they're just not ready yet.
* Here is a list of issues that are delaying official Debian XFree86 4.x
packages:
* This upstream SHM problem is a doozy. This has to be fixed, especially
for users who use ridiculous window managers like Enlightenment that
chew threw SHM segments like pirhana through cattle. Fortunately, I
expect this will fixed soon, although I did a CVS update a few minutes
ago and didn't see anything that looked like a fix for it to my
untrained eye. Perhaps xpert@xfree86.org could use some intelligent
bug reports.
* The Mesa problem (specifically, the lack of libGLU.so) really has to be
sorted out upstream if Debian is going to have a sensible handling of
Mesa in our distribution. Alternatively, I can stop shipping the Mesa
stuff altogether in the XFree86 packages until support is ready, but
this will pretty much leave DRI out of the picture. I'd appreciate
feedback on doing this. The XFree86 versions of the Mesa and OSMesa
libraries can be added into woody at a later date without causing any
real disruption. I'd appreciate feedback on the possibility of
releasing 4.0.1-1 (or 4.0.2-1, or whatever) without the XFree86 version
of Mesa.
* Another big issue is support for all of Debian's (released) architectures.
This really sucks right now because I can't get patches merged myself,
Dan Jacobowitz (PowerPC), and Ben Collins (SPARC) are both very busy
with other things, and I'm staying on bleeding edge CVS so it's
impossible for these guys to keep up. I really don't like being
i386-centric but upstream is really changing very rapidly right now,
and it's hard to pick a flag day for Debian. 4.0.1 is practically
ancient by now. Four and a half megs of patches have been applied
upstream since then.
* Finally, 3.3.6 has to be properly reconfigured for coexistence with 4.0
in the archive. Stephen Gore is working on this but is being stymied
by big problems with dpkg-shlibdeps. Apparently 3.3.6-10 doesn't even
rebuild these days. This puzzles and concerns me and I'd appreciate it
if someone could try building it on an i386 POTATO box. Do NOT try to
build it on a woody box, it is guaranteed to fail due to rearrangement
of the woody Tcl/Tk packages.
Thanks for listening.
--
G. Branden Robinson | Somewhere, there is a .sig so funny that
Debian GNU/Linux | reading it will cause an aneurysm. This
branden@debian.org | is not that .sig.
http://www.debian.org/~branden/ |
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