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XFree86 3.3.5 released 101

Posted by justin++ from the savage4+qnx-support dept.
DirkHohndel writes "The XFree86 Project has released XFree86-3.3.5. The release notes should be a good first place to start. It might take the mirrors a while to get updated, distribution specific packages for SuSE, Red Hat and Debian should be available at their web sites, soon. Dirk " Dirk was also kind enough to include a short list of importat features which can be viewed below.
  • Support for S3 Savage4 and Savage3D. Limited to Linux/x86 at this point.
  • Support for S3 Trio3D/2X.
  • Support for DGux.
  • Support for QNX.
  • Fix bug in Mach64 server on Rage LT and Rage LT Pro.
  • Fix SiS driver for 530 and 620.
  • Fix the spurious underline problem on NVidia Riva TNT cards.
  • Fix the PS/2 mouse problem with later Linux kernels.
  • Misc updates and bugfixes in Rendition driver.
  • Updates from SuSE and Red Hat, including more keyboards, PAM support, ARM and AXP fixes, security fixes.
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XFree86 3.3.5 released More

XFree86 3.3.5 released

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  • Sync on Green working on G200? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Has anyone gotten Sync on Green working on
    a Matrox G200?

    I have a RedHat 6.0 system on an AMD K6-2,
    and I was counting on having the Matrox
    output Sync on Green. When I set the
    Sync on Green option I get Combined Sync :(

    I've tried 3.3.3.4 to no avail...

    Any suggestions welcome

    Michiel Toneman
    toneman@phil.uu.nl

  • The latest skinny is the same as the old skinny. The X Window System, and applications that use it, assume that a rendered font will be in monochrome (one bit per pixel). Anti-aliasing requires multiple bits per pixel. Implementing anti-aliased fonts at the X Windows level is unmanagably difficult.

    There are widget libraries that do their own text rendering with anti-aliasing, and Berlin does anti-aliasing for fonts. I don't see X11 ever supporting it directly.

    ----
  • Yes it is, and that's in the FAQ:

    XFree86 Faq, Q.F12 [noguska.net].

    ----
  • > Install one of the available TrueType font servers (Or wait for 4.0 which will, barring patent lawsuits, incorporate TrueType support) and some decent TrueType fonts and you'll immediately notice a HUGE increase in your X font quality.

    Since MS's TrueType fonts aren't free, does anyone know where I can get free/gpl versions of the common TrueType fonts (arial, times new roman, etc) ?

    Alex Bischoff
    ---

  • Don't all go at once, now... [wtower.com]

    - A.P.
    --


    "One World, one Web, one Program" - Microsoft promotional ad

  • It makes fonts look scary-ugly crappy.
    Turn it off and things look an order of
    magnitude better.

  • I have heard that people are having problems with X recognizing all the memory on the some video cards. Try adding a VideoRam line to your Device section with the correct amount of memory.
  • I'd have to disagree with that assessment. I've found anti-alised fonts to be extremely useful, especially when you want to incorporate fonts into graphic design work. 9 point Verdana on my 800x600 monitor looks fine when anti-aliased =)
  • Does anyone know if the new keyboard support includes the Logitech Internet Keyboard?
  • Any of the special buttons in the upper right corner.
  • Do you mean xmodmap? Does it have some sort of interactive mode? I've tried xev, and nothing shows up when I press the keys.
  • every now and then when I switched from X to the console and back, the console would freeze and I would only be able to get back in via telnet.

    If this sort of thing happens, you may benefit from the Magic SysRq kernel feature. Read about it at /usr/src/linux/Documentation/sysrq.txt

    Quoth the text file:

    * Okay, so what can I use them for?
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Well, un'R'aw is very handy when your X server or a svgalib program crashes.

    And, there's lots more listed where came from. :)

  • Yes, I believe starting with 3.3.4, the TNT2 is supported using the SVGA server. In fact, I have it running at home on my Creative Labs 3D Blaster TNT2 Ultra. Although it does still have some problems, like I can't get any resolution better than 1024x768.

    All I need now is to get Mesa working correctly so I can get Quake3 to run! Woo hoo!

  • Could be, could be... although under Windows it does 1280x1024 without a problem.

    I only have a 15" monitor, so getting those higher resolutions isn't *really* a problem anyway. I can play Civ:CTP just fine at 1024x768. :)

  • What I've noticed it do a couple of times, is actually put the VideoRam line in, but it comments it. So it has the correct amount, it's just commented out. That could be what my problem is, unfortunately I'm at work, not at home so I can't check it out :)

    I usually check to make sure that it hasn't done this, but I might have forgotten this time. If this is the problem then I'm going to feel really stupid :)

  • When I used a PS/2 mouse, every now and then when I switched from X to the console and back, the console would freeze and I would only be able to get back in via telnet. I've got my fingers crossed hoping that's the bug they fixed :-)
  • Damn, and I thought I knew a lot about Linux... I always wondered what that kernel option did. :-)
  • Here, here!

    The work that those guys do is very, very appreciated.

    Thank you. And I mean that, dammit.
  • Well, if you want anti-aliased fonts under X, you can use something like GNOME's Canvas to draw using anti-aliasing.

    It's worth pointing out that they way MS has anti-aliased fonts in Windows is totally wrong. What's the point of anti-aliasing a 72-point font? It's small fonts that have the most to gain from anti-aliasing. For an example, look at how Acorn's RISC OS implemented anti-aliased fonts: they applied it to small ones, making it perfectly possible to edit 10-point Times on a 640x256 screen.

    Furthermore, I don't believe that anti-aliasing is much use, except for intricate fonts such as Zapf Chancery. I use Verdana and xfsft for pretty much everything. Verdana is wonderfully readable down to about 9 points on my 1152x896 display, mainly because of the hinting logic that is in most Truetype fonts, as opposed to Type1 fonts, which have to rely on the generic hinting logic in the rasteriser.

    Anti-aliased fonts are more of a "tick-box" feature than a real advance.

    Paul.
  • Does anyone have more info about the DG/UX support? Is this for Intel based DG/UX machines only (which tend to use Cirrus chips)? I'm more interested in the old m88k based machines, 'coz I've got two of them! They're stuck with the standard Xdg server, which deosn't support MITSHM, for example (although it does have a DG-specific DG-SHM extension).

    On a completely different note, my G400 works just fine with the XSVGA server from 3.3.4, but hangs completely when using the VGA16 server (e.g., when trying to use XF86Setup). Still, I managed to hand tweak the config file (reminds me of the good old days!), and it works just fine now -- 1600x1200 at 32bpp :-)

  • i would like to take this opportunity to publically thank Branden Robinson, Adam Heath, and others for their diligent, super-fast work in creating .debs for the new releases of XFree. great work, everyone, and keep it up! it is much appreciated. 8)

    Debian X Strike Force [debian.org]

  • Where are the debs for this?

    oh, i'm sorry, i didn't mean to imply that they were already out! i was just showing my appreciation for the promptness in the past. i am sure new .debs'll be arriving soon enough.. i'd guess if they do they'll first show up in

    http://samosa.debian.org/~bran den/xfree86-334-slink/ [debian.org]

    but if you really want to know i suggest you ask someone who's actually an authority on the subject.. 8)

  • What's the latest skinny on anti-aliased screen fonts under X?

    thx,
    kent

  • Where are the debs for this? They're not on my local mirror, ftp.debian.org, or ftp.us.debian.org. I mean I can probably wait a day or two, but when I ran apt-get upgrade I was hoping for the new Xserver.
  • Check it out first though.

    LINUX stands for: Linux Inux Nux Ux X

  • Ditto... (Score:2)

    by luge ( 4808 )
    The X group, despite having one of the most complex support tasks of any debian maintainer, is also consistently one of the fastest to respond when upstream upgrades. More power to them... (and, of course, more power to the upstream guys who provide stuff to keep the Debian maintainers busy...)
    -luge
  • The release notes say that this fixes a spurious underline problem with the TNT cards. Has anyone tried it out yet? Does it fix the emacs problem where you can't see the cursor?
  • I got it installed last night. You only need the server. And, yes, it fixed the emacs problem for me.

  • Since MS's TrueType fonts aren't free, does anyone know where I can get free/gpl versions of the common TrueType fonts (arial, times new roman, etc)?

    If you mean free as in beer, then you ought to check out http://www.microsoft.com/t ypography/fontpack/default.htm [microsoft.com]. You can use infozip on the self-extracting archives. Work quite nicely with xfstt.


    Berlin-- http://www.berlin-consortium.org [berlin-consortium.org]
  • I have a problem where the cursor occasionally gets 'stuck' in the upper right hand corner of the screen and I have to kill X to get it back. This started happening right after the PS/2 code was merged with the keyboard driver.

    I HOPE this is what they fixed... :)

    jf

  • Because the equivalent function in WTS costs even more? Thank you drive through.
  • I'll second that question.

    I've got a Thinkpad i1450 (an AWESOME Linux machine by the way. 11th commandment: Thou shalt lust after no other laptop other than a Thinkpad - heh heh.

    Anyway, the Track Point stopped working for me, even when I don't run X (plain old gpm). Under Windows it works perfectly. I've been using Linux with an external mouse. That's OK, but I prefer the Track Point.

    Is this the bug that this version of X fixes? I sure hope so. I was going to send my laptop in to have the hardware checked.
  • I have a problem with the built-in PS/2 mouse / touchpad of my laptop as well, with all the 2.2.x and 2.3.x kernels. The mouse just plain doesn't work: the kernel refuses to detect it.

    However, there's a workaround for that by modifying a line in your kernel source code to fake the detection of the mouse; if you don't feel like editing the kernel code and recompiling it you have to fall back on the 2.0.x kernel for now.

    I have seen other mouse problems like the ones mentioned here, but not anymore since I started using gpm for the mouse, and set up X to use the gpmdata device instead of the straight mouse device. Since gpm manages all my mouse stuff now in both console and X, there's no problems and no conflicts, and gpm is better at getting my 3 button mouse to actually be 3 button :-)

    Anyway, the patch to the 2.2 kernel to get your PS/2 mouse working if it doesn't work at all, is:

    --- drivers/char/pc_keyb.c~ Tue Aug 10 22:17:55 1999
    +++ drivers/char/pc_keyb.c Wed Aug 18 21:52:22 1999
    @@ -966,7 +966,7 @@

    static int __init psaux_init(void)
    {
    - if (!detect_auxiliary_port())
    + if (1 || !detect_auxiliary_port())
    return -EIO;

    misc_register(&psaux_mouse);


    This should work against all 2.2 kernels.

    --Tim
  • For some reason, on my TNT Vanta card, cursor --not the hardware one: I already used Option "sw_cursor" -- but the regular rectangular cursor in Emacs, does not show up over the plain (black) text. I have identical configuration with a machine using Matrox card, and that box shows cursor just fine.
    Running emacs with -cr Red option, chaneges the color of the selected letter, but does not show cursor over white space. I tried all emacs configurations from working setups to no success.
    I am puzzled and annoyed.
  • For some reason Xconfigurator does not offer 1600x1200. Going into XF86Config and adding it
    manually works just fine.
    xf86config selects the 1600x1200 mode, but screws up font server and wheel mouse configuration.
  • Edit XF86Config manually...
  • Colored as well. That plenty sucks. Is it a TNT server problem? Bad bug: should be fixed..

  • Tried.. (Score:1)

    by Axe ( 11122 )
    ..still do not show over white space.. ;(
  • .. it breaks in all different modes, when it uses mode-default faces.
    If 3.3.5 does not fix it, I am trading in my TNT...
  • : cat - > foo.c // code here ^D :-)

    Still better than vi ;)

  • all i gotta say is about F'N TIME!

    now i can convert my network over..

  • The correct url is http://www.0wned.org/~cain/ragefury.htm thats a zero ( 0 ) not an oh ( o )
  • When I switch from X to console and back I get mouse trouble in X. The first mouse movement after this typically makes it jump to a corner and execute some randome keypresses while doing this. Then it becomes normal until the next console switch.

    Not so fun when it ends up pasting 60 lines into a root xterm. Trouble is avoidable by pressing a mouse butten 3-4 times before attempting any movement.
  • Wasn't this out at the same time as the Pre 4.0 snapshot? It was on the XFree86 web page when I first saw the 3.9.16 story ...
  • Try running Xmodmap and see what the keys show up as when pressed. Try and map them to something useful then...
  • its about time for me to upgrade, I think. I've been running whichever version of XF comes with RedHat 5.2. Hasn't given me any problems. But maybe now is the time. I never had a problem with my PS/2 mouse but I don't want to, either.
  • Can someone please clue me in about the "PS/2 mouse problem in later Linux kernels" that is fixed in this release?

  • You mean it's not a problem with emacs? I've been trying to fix that in my emacs settings for a long time now....Do you have any more information on that?

    Thanks...
  • Hmm... I have a Diamond V770 TNT2 and Mine runs 1600x1200 just dandy..


    maybee it's your monitor?
  • This I agree with, xfstt and others are outstanding in this respect! however, netscape doesn't have truedoc support under linux. I suppose it would be more accurate to say that linux doesn't have a truedoc library..

    Maybe sometime soon then..
  • 11th commandment: Thou shalt lust after no other laptop other than a Thinkpad - heh heh.


    have been since they first came out in 1994 or so.
  • The problem is probably that the keys generate 2-byte sequences. The special keys on my HP Pavilion do. X won't recognize them at all. Read the Keyboard HOWTO. You can probably get them to work at the console, but I haven't gotten them to work in X. I'm hoping for a little more documentation on XKB in the new release so I can figure out how to use them in X.
  • The release notes say that this fixes a spurious underline problem with the TNT cards. Has anyone tried it out yet? Does it fix the emacs problem where you can't see the cursor?

    YES! Finally, it does. I'm getting sick of using emacs -nw in order to run it in an xterm... I hate not being able to use my mouse :-p

    On another note, does anybody know if I need to download all the files on the mirror, or can I just download the server? I just downloaded the server, and it seems to be working fine, but I don't know for sure. Please let me know at spong@glue.umd.edu [mailto]

    thanks
    Matt

    "Software is like sex- the best is for free"
  • apt still gives 3.3.4 as someone else said.
    Are we expecting it in a day or so? If so, I'll
    wait for the .deb rather than compile from source.
    Work computer has a Trio 3D card that's practically
    worthless 'til I get this installed
  • Yeah, pity it's still the most horribly designed, bug ridden, crash prone piece of shit ever called an operating system and spoon fed to an unsuspecting unknowing computer illiterate populace so used to it that they don't even suspect there could be something better...

    er, was that out loud? :)

    seriously 'though, linux is still quite lacking in that respect, imho. the fonts in my Netscape are always screwy.

    i've heard word that XFree86 will be handling fonts differently in later releases. anyone have any info on that? i'm probably talking out my ass

    i must need coffee.

    anthony
  • I just downloaded intlfonts-1.2, and it includes some nice free ttf fonts in the distro. Go search filewatcher for it. I've always said that the one thing that Micros~1 did well was fonts (must be their Mac group...), but their font license sucks rocks. Good thing we have free alternatives.

    actually that would be a good free project to package and enhance 100% free ttf fonts that are hinted better than the Micros~1 fonts. Someone @ xfree86 is probably already on it...


    Next dependency on Micros~1 that we can eliminate...?
  • i had a rage fury for a while... good card in windows... just traded it to a friend for his old pci-tnt and $70us. i bought a tnt2, and it is very worth it... ati seems very un-interested in getting rage128 working in linux, so screw them, i'm an nvidia man from now on out.
  • I've had similar problems on a Gateway Solo 2300 laptop. After I added an external PS/2 trackball (I absolutely HATE the touchpad!!!), the pointer would freeze up at random intervals. Most of the time I was able to get control back by toggling to a virtual console, but sometimes not. Once I totally disabled the (built-in) touchpad via the BIOS, I have never lost pointer control.
  • Hi. I had this problem with Emacs too, but found it only affected text written in the foreground text colour (I use RedHat's default colour scheme). To fix it, just change the colour setting for normal text to a similar colour, but different name (I think I settled on Peach or something like that) - that might save a big download.

    The spurious underline problem is still there, if that means occasionally single characters have a black underline...

    Daniel.
  • What doesn't work about it?
  • Well, the PCI G200 (I have one) works fine too.
  • Lets go 4.0!!!
    The beta server sucks for playing Q3
  • Another reason why X should die. C'mon folk, do we need compatibility with a 15 year old protocol? XBill is cool and all that, but it could easily be ported to a new window system!
  • Do you have the PCI or AGP G200? I have the AGP and it works fine at 1600x1200x32bit.
  • That was a close one!...

    Thank goodness it hasn't hit us yet. Grrrrr.
  • ati seems very un-interested in getting rage128 working in linux

    I worked for a long ass time getting my ATIRage Fury to play nicely in Windows and let other cards act as secondary displays. While I waited and waited for my Windows to reboot over and over, I chatted with the techie about linux and device support. He said he was surpised that the driver wasn't out yet, and that the linux support was growing.

    I don't know if he was force-feeding me horse-shit or not, but I liked what I heard.

    Course, the guy couldn't fix my card, either...
  • I have the same problem. Under Winbloze 95 I can get 1280x1024, but under Linux I get only 1024x768.
  • There are FAQs because people don't read. If they read anything at all there would be no need for FAQs. FAQs are just more documentation which people cheerfully ignore. I think it's a prefectly airtight system. Imagine the confusion there would be if tomorrow everyone instead of just being stupid actually became informed! I'd sure confuse the heck out of me if suddenly people began sounding like they actually knew what was really going on. What a nightmare.
  • We will have an XFCom_Rage128 server next week.

    It should show up at the XSuSE website [www.suse.de] around Sept. 7 or so.


    Dirk

  • Re:Upgrade, "strongly reccomended" ? (Score:3)

    by absolute ( 71745 ) on Wednesday September 01, 1999 @10:44AM (#1711244)
    When I upgraded from 3.3.3 to 3.3.4 I noticed a slight speed increase using my V3 3000.

    Using Xengine as a benchmark :), i went from 1000RPM to about 3000RPM...

    Hopefully the debian team will have it out in a day or so in .debs for potato (I love bleeding edge).
  • I'm having the same problem. I've set up RH 6.0 on about 6 machines with V770 TNT2 cards in the last month and have had the same problem on each of them. I've tried all kinds of things to no avail.

    I'm also having problems with XEmacs. The buttons don't have the correct graphics (they are black and white) and most of them (along with some of the menu functions) don't work. Missing library perhaps?

    I'm getting tired of pico.
  • Looks like they're just trying to fill the time until 4 comes out so the masses don't get too adjitated.

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