Removal of legacy X.Org (aka non-WITH_NEW_XORG)

[Baptiste Daroussin]

On Fri, Oct 03, 2014 at 07:47:23AM -0700, Chris H wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > As you may know, the ports tree currently provides two versions of the
> > X.Org server and related pieces of software:
> >    1. xserver 1.7, Mesa 7.6 and libdrm 2.4.17
> >    2. xserver 1.12, Mesa 9.1 and libdrm 2.4.52
> >
> > We are about to remove the older set. The primary reason is the
> > maintenance cost. The Graphics team is small and it's a nightmare to
> > test changes. The consequence is infrequent updates to those packages
> > and, of course, way more work each time we decide to jump to a later
> > version. All this time spent on keeping the legacy stack in a working
> > state isn't invested on improving the current one and today's hardware
> > support.
> >
> > The recent update to Cairo is a good example of this unsustainable
> > situation: we tested what we could with the time we had and we sent a
> > "Call for testers" on freebsd-x11@ and freebsd-current@ mailing-lists as
> > well as asking for help on several Quarterly Status Reports. The benefit
> > (if not the requirement) of the update and the lack of failure reports
> > were instrumental in the final decision. Unfortunately, many users of
> > the old X.Org server on Intel GPUs are now having crashes with any Gtk+
> > applications or the X.Org server itself. This time, we won't revert
> > anything or spend more time on trying to fix the old stack.
> >
> > Now, what does it change for the community? What are the benefits of
> > this solution?
> >
> >     1. No more headache with WITH_NEW_XORG, alternate pkg(8) repository,
> >        mismatching ABI versions between xf86-input-* and xserver.
> >     2. More frequent and independant updates (ie. no need to update the
> >        whole stack in one pass).
> >     3. KDE and, in the near future, GNOME 3 available as packages in the
> >        main repository and on install medias.
> >
> > Great, but what does it break?
> >
> > The only regression is for users of Intel GPUs and FreeBSD 8.x and
> > 9.0. Those versions of FreeBSD lack the required kernel driver and
> > therefore xf86-video-intel won't work (the last UMS-aware version
> > doesn't work with xserver 1.12). Users can still use xf86-video-vesa if
> > they can't/don't want to update their FreeBSD workstation. To install
> > xf86-video-vesa, run:
> >     pkg install xf86-video-vesa
> > or
> >     portmaster x11-drivers/xf86-video-vesa
> >
> > There won't be any regression for owners of Radeon GPUs because
> > xf86-video-ati 6.14.6 (the last one with UMS support, which fortunately
> > works with xserver 1.12) is provided as a separate port. To install this
> > UMS driver:
> >     pkg install xf86-video-ati-ums
> > or
> >     portmaster x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati-ums
> >
> > In the longer term, we suggest you update to FreeBSD 10.x (10.1-RELEASE
> > is around the corner). For example, you can find instructions to update
> > to 10.0-RELEASE here:
> >     https://www.freebsd.org/releases/10.0R/installation.html
> >
> > Note that there's a know regression with syscons and kernel video
> > drivers: you can't switch back to a console once an X.Org session is
> > started. A new console driver called vt(4) fixes this issue while
> > bringing nice features. It's available in FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE and
> > 10.1-RELEASE but isn't enabled by default. To enable it, put the
> > following line in your /boot/loader.conf:
> >     kern.vty=vt
> Ugh. We've just spent the last 4 mos. tooling up for a migration of all our
> server farms from RELENG_8 --> RELENG 9. It would have only taken 1 mos.
> but for pkg(8) debacle. Now, if I understand correctly. The current release
> schedule has effectively become:
> 
> RELENG_8.4: June 30, 2015 ===> October 8, 2014
> 
> RELENG_9: December 31, 2016 ===> October 8, 2014
> 
> :(
> 
> FWIW I'm looking forward to the NEW_XORG. But testing 11-CURRENT
> indicates vt(4) isn't ready for prime time. Which makes it difficult
> to justify it's requirement in RELENG.
> 
> Sincerely,
>  disappointed.

No 8 is still supported and 9 as well, what you miss is that in any case the
graphic stack with old xorg on Intel it anyway broken right now, X server or gtk
application segfaulting all the time.

meaning that xorg 1.12 and xorg 1.7 makes pretty much no differences on intel on
FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9.

For all other drivers xorg 1.12 works pretty well on FreeBSD 8 and FreeBSD 9 as
long as you do use the ums driver for ATI, nvidia work normally, vesa as well.
No changes here, with the previous, you do not need kms neither vt.

regards,
Bapt
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