XorgOnTheEdge

Revision 102 as of 2008-04-10 21:33:15

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Hardy

Xorg 7.3 and xorg-server 1.4 have landed in Hardy Heron.

ati driver

The 6.8.0 version of the ati (radeon) driver is in Hardy and also works with R500 cards (no 3D yet). Newer test packages in https://launchpad.net/~tormodvolden/+archive

  • xserver-xorg-video-ati_6.8.0+git20080404.5f5e21bb-0ubuntu0tormod~hardy

NB: from 20080302, the -ati driver does not support mach64 and r128 cards any longer, they have their own drivers.

radeonhd driver

A newer test version of xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd can be found in https://launchpad.net/~tormodvolden/+archive

  • xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd_1.2.0+git20080410.9d131f90-0ubuntu0tormod

The diagnosis tool rhd_conntest is not included in the driver package, but an [attachment:rhd_conntest_20080401_i386 x86 executable] can be downloaded here.

savage driver

Some changes upstream can be tested in this version from https://launchpad.net/~tormodvolden/+archive

  • xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.1.3+git20080131.583051fc-0ubuntu0tormod

mesa libraries

Upgrading mesa libraries involves more dependencies on other libraries and kernel modules and is not so straight forward as a simple card driver package upgrade. See the [https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers "xorg crack testers" team PPA] for mesa upgrades.

Gutsy

Gutsy includes Xorg 7.2, and ships with xorg-server 1.3. Some packages are from Xorg 7.3.

xorg-server

Gutsy does not ship with version 1.4, but many fixes from 1.4 have been backported into the gutsy 1.3 version. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=490982 for more information and discussion.

ati driver (a.k.a radeon)

The ati driver pre-release of 6.8 (6.7.195) with support for RandR 1.2 display configuration is in Gutsy. See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3321087 for more information and discussion. The final 6.8.0 version, which even has 2D support for R500 cards, can be found in https://launchpad.net/~tormodvolden/+archive

  • xserver-xorg-video-ati_6.8.0+git20080404.5f5e21bb-0ubuntu0tormod

avivo and radeonhd drivers

The open-source, reverse-engineered avivo driver for ATI Radeon 1100-1900 cards (experimental) is in universe: xserver-xorg-video-avivo (2D only, does not work for all cards)

The new open-source, AMD-sponsored radeonhd driver for 1xxx-2xxx cards is also in universe: xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd (2D only)

A newer test version of xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd can be found in https://launchpad.net/~tormodvolden/+archive

  • xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd_1.2.0+git20080410.9d131f90-0ubuntu0tormod~gutsy

The diagnosis tool rhd_conntest is not included in the driver package, but an [attachment:rhd_conntest_20080401_i386 x86 executable] can be downloaded here.

savage driver

  • xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.1.3+git20080131.583051fc-0ubuntu0tormod~gutsy

Experimental Xorg packages for Feisty

Warning: This is for testing only! Expect to screw up your X if you try this out. This page is meant to help testing of new upstream versions, to see if they fix Ubuntu bugs. If they do, a fix might be backported to the official packages, or they will be available in the next Ubuntu release.

Ross Burton has a repository for new Xorg packages built for feisty: http://www.burtonini.com/debian/feisty/ You can either install the xorg-server 1.3 server packages one by one:

  • xserver-xorg-core_1.3....deb
  • xserver-xorg-core-dbg_1.3...deb

or, to avoid manual dependency and version tracking, add this to /etc/apt/sources.list 

deb http://www.burtonini.com/debian/ feisty/
deb-src http://www.burtonini.com/debian/ feisty/

and run sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

Update: Xorg 7.3 packages are now coming into Gutsy, and might be more up to date then the packages from Ross. However, you will have to install Gutsy, or rebuild the packages for Feisty (see below).

xorg-server

Many fixes from 1.4 have been backported into the latest Gutsy 1.3 version, and there are Feisty builds in http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/xorg-server-backports-feisty/

  • xserver-xorg-core_1.3.0.0.dfsg-12ubuntu4feisty_i386.deb
  • xserver-xorg-core-dbg_1.3.0.0.dfsg-12ubuntu4feisty_i386.deb

ati driver

For ATI cards, get a test build of 6.7.195 from http://tormod.webhop.org/linux/ati/

  • xserver-xorg-video-ati_6.7.195+git20071017tv

intel driver

Ross Burton's repository includes the intel driver xserver-xorg-video-intel 2.1.

savage driver

For S3 Savage cards, http://tormod.webhop.org/linux/savage/

  • xserver-xorg-video-savage_2.1.2-6pre_i386.deb

Note that 2.1.2-6 has been released in Gutsy.

vesa driver

For "all those other" cards and for "failsafe" mode, from http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/xorg-server-backports-feisty/

  • xserver-xorg-video-vesa_1.3.0-1ubuntu5feisty1_i386.deb

mesa libraries

Ross Burton's repository also includes the new mesa 7.0 libraries:

  • libgl1-mesa-dri...deb
  • libgl1-mesa-glx...deb
  • libglu1-mesa...deb
  • mesa-utils...deb

Uninstalling, reverting

Please keep track of which packages you install. The easiest way to revert to the standard versions, is to uninstall the packages sudo apt-get remove xserver-xorg-core etc, etc, and clean up /etc/apt/sources.list if you changed it, and reinstall from normal repositories: sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-core

Building drivers

The easiest is to grab the source from either Hardy or Debian experimental (or unstable) and build them on your own system. Example for an ati driver:

Find the experimental packages from http://packages.debian.org/xserver-xorg-video-ati and download the .orig.tar.gz, .diff.gz and .dsc files. 

sudo apt-get build-dep xserver-xorg-video-ati
dpkg-source -x xserver-xorg-video-ati_6.6.191-1.dsc
cd xserver-xorg-video-ati-6.6.191
debuild -b -us -uc
cd ..
sudo dpkg -i xserver-xorg-video-ati_6.6.191-1_i386.deb

In many cases this will build and install nicely without changes. Otherwise you'll have to patch them... The official Ubuntu source and patches (for older versions) can be found through for instance http://packages.ubuntu.com/xserver-xorg-video-ati Download and unpack them as for the Debian packages, and look at the patches in the debian/patches directory.

Latest drm kernel modules

If you would like to try the latest drm from git, you can use this script which will assist you in downloading, compiling and installing the latest drm modules from upstream: attachment:easy-drm-modules-installer.v4

The script should start by double-clicking on the downloaded file, however you might have to right-click on it -> Properties -> Permissions and enable "Execute" first.

If the latest version does not work, you can delete the drm-yyyymmdd directory which the script created, and download an older version and rename its "drm" directory to "drm-yyyymmdd" and put it in the same directory as the script. See [https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/88905 bug #88905] for the origin of this script.