Subject: Announcing the Release of XFree86-3.2A
To: None <port-i386@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Matthieu Herrb <matthieu@laas.fr>
List: port-i386
Date: 02/07/1997 09:32:39
		       Announcing the Release of
		     XFree86[TM] Beta Version 3.2A

		               05 Feb 1997

The XFree86 Project, Inc is proud to release its latest beta version,
XFree86-3.2A, for public beta testing. This is a binary-only release, 
binaries for many popular operating systems are available from 
ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/3.2A/, and its mirror sites.

For more details look at the excerpt from the release notes. Detailed 
information on how to install XFree86-3.2A can be found in the full 
release notes at http://www.xfree86.org/3.2A/RELNOTES.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Release Notes for XFree86[tm] 3.2A (beta version)



		      Release Notes for XFree86[tm] 3.2A


			   The XFree86 Project, Inc


				25 January 1997



				   Abstract

     This document describes the rationale and conditions of this beta
     release, what is new in the XFree86 beta version 3.2A compared with
     the current release version (3.2), and how to install this beta
     release.



1.  General Information about Beta Releases

This is a beta release of XFree86.  XFree86 beta releases are available to the
public in binary form only.  Source code is available only to registered mem-
bers of the XFree86 beta team.	The main reason for this is that XFree86 beta
versions often contain source code from other sources (such as the X Consor-
tium) which is not yet available for public release.  If you want to test or
work on these releases at the source code level, you can apply for membership
of the XFree86 beta team by sending email to XFree86@XFree86.org.

The X servers included in beta releases have a built-in expiry date.  The rea-
son for this is to try to prevent them from persisting beyond the date of the
next release, and to encourage people to test new beta releases.  The expiry
date for 3.2A is 15 June 1997.

The XFree86 binary beta releases may be freely redistributed providing that
they are not modified in any way, and providing that an unmodified version of
this document and the BetaReport document is included with the distribution.

The reasons for making this beta release publicly available are to give it the
widest possible testing, and also to make support for new hardware available.

The XFree86 Project encourages people to test this beta release, and to send us
a report.  We need both success and failure reports, and we also need people
using already supported hardware to test these beta releases to make sure that
we haven't broken anything while adding support for new hardware.  A template
for the Beta test reports can be found in the file ``BetaReport'' which should
be available from the same place you got this file.  It is also installed in
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/.  Beta test reports should be sent to
report@XFree86.org.  Please do not send these reports to our usual support
address.

The XFree86 FAQ <URL:http://www.xfree86.org/FAQ> contains a section about the
current beta version.  It includes a regularly updated list of known problems.
If you are having problems with the current beta version, please look here
first.

Note that much of the documentation provided with this release has not been
updated and still refers to 3.2.  If in doubt, check the date shown in the
file(s).


2.  Who are the XFree86 Beta Releases Targeted At?

The XFree86 beta releases are intended for people who are prepared to test
software which might be unstable and which might be buggy, and report the
results of the testing.  These beta releases are not intended for beginners,
but for people who have a basic knowledge of the OS so that they don't require
much support for issues like upgrading system libraries and obtaining necessary
packages.

If you are going to test this software, you should be prepared for the follow-
ing:

   o Installation problems.  The installation procedure for beta releases gets
     only very limited testing prior to release.  You should be prepared for
     problems here, and you should be prepared to upgrade other components of
     your system if it proves necessary.  You should also have facilities to
     backup a previous installation (and preferably your entire system) so that
     it can be restored in case of serious problems.

   o New bugs.	Since each beta version gets only a limited amount of pre-
     release testing, it is likely that a new version will contain new bugs.
     This is unavoidable, because any code change, be it fixing previous bugs
     or adding new features, brings with it the chance that new bugs have been
     introduced.  You should be prepared for the possibility that the new ver-
     sion will have problems with your hardware.  In this situation, you should
     first check the XFree86 FAQ <URL:http://www.xfree86.org/FAQ> to see if it
     is a known problem (possibly with a workaround), and then report the prob-
     lem in detail.

   o Expiry date.  The XFree86 beta servers have a limited lifetime.  Before
     using one, you should be aware of this and what the implications of this
     are.  If you have objections to software that has an expiry date, you
     shouldn't use this beta software.	It is possible that when one version
     expires you may find that the replacement version has problems, or perhaps
     binaries of the replacement are not available for your OS.  If you depend
     on a server for your work/school/etc, you shouldn't be relying on this
     beta software.


3.  XFree86 and X11R6.3

XFree86 releases starting with the this 3.2A beta are based on the X Consor-
tium's X11R6.3 (the final release from the X Consortium).

R6.3 is an update to R6.1, and is intended to be compatible with R6.1 and R6 at
the source and protocol levels.  Binaries should be upward-compatible.	X11R6.3
includes some new Xserver extensions: SECURITY, XC-APPGROUP, XpExtension (print
extension), and an updated, and standardised version of LBX.  X11R6.3 also has
new standards, including RX (X Remote Execution MIME type), and a proxy manage-
ment protocol.	X11R6.3 includes support for gzipped fonts.

R6.1 is an update to R6, and is intended to be compatible with R6 at the source
and protocol levels.  Binaries should be upward-compatible.  X11R6.1 includes
some new Xserver extensions: DOUBLE-BUFFER, XKEYBOARD and RECORD.

What about R6.2?  X11R6.2 is the name given to a subset of X11R6.3, which has
only the print extension and the Xlib implementation of vertical writing and
user-defined character support in addition to those features included in R6.1.


4.  OS issues

Always check the OS specific README files for special requirements or caveats.

Users running Linux/Elf (on Intel platforms) should note that they will need
ld.so-1.7.14.  This can be found at tsx-11.mit.edu:pub/linux/packages/GCC
<URL:ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/packages/GCC>.

Note: Elf is now the only binary type supported for Linux OSs.	This means that
binaries for ix86/a.out and AXP/ECOFF are not available with this release.


5.  New Features in 3.2A

5.1  General

   o XFree86 3.2A includes the X Consortium's X11R6.3.

5.2  General X server changes

   o The X servers include a new DPMS extension, which was donated by Digital
     Equipment Corporation.  Not all DPMS modes have been implemented by all
     servers yet, but this should improve in the next release.	See the
     XF86Config(4/5) and xset(1) man pages for further details.

   o The LBX extension is included in all the X servers, as part of the update
     to R6.3.

   o A print-only server (Xprt) is included as part of the update to R6.3.

5.3  XF86Setup

   o Some bugs have been fixed, but no major changes have been made to this
     version.

5.4  PC98 Support

   o The XF98_TGUI server includes XAA support, but there are some problems
     with this at the moment.  It can be disabled with the "noaccel" option.

5.5  Alpha (AXP) platform support

   o Support for the S3 ViRGE and ViRGE/VX is now available.

   o Support for "newmmio" is now available for the S3 868/968/Trio64V+.

   o Support for the Matrox Millennium (in the SVGA server) is included.

   o Some problems that showed up with Netscape on some servers have been
     fixed.

   o Various alignment problems have been fixed.

   o NOTE: A recent Linux kernel version is required for most of these servers
     (essential for the Matrox driver).

5.6  XInput Extension

   o Multiple input devices can share the core pointer.

5.7  SVGA server

   o A new general graphics acceleration interface (XFree86 Acceleration Archi-
     tecture - XAA) has been implemented.  It is used to provide relatively
     complete acceleration, at different colour depths, for several chips in
     the SVGA server.  Chips currently making use of this include the Matrox
     Millennium, Tseng ET4000/W32p and ET6000, and several chips from ARK
     Logic, Chips and Technologies, Cirrus, Trident and SiS.

5.8  S3 server

   o Some further S3 968 hardware bugs for lines/text have been worked around.

   o Cursor/pointer pixmaps larger than 64x64 are now supported without the
     need to use the "sw_cursor" option.

   o Preliminary detection/support for the Trio64UV+, Trio64V2 and Aurora64V+
     (86CM65 used in notebooks) is now included.  This support is very new and
     hasn't had much testing, so please send us success/failure reports.

   o Support is now included for the ELSA Winner 2000PRO/X-8.  Please refer to
     the notes for this card in README.S3.

5.9  S3V (ViRGE) server

   o Problems with the Diamond Stealth 3D 3000 are now fixed.

   o The line drawing code has been improved.

   o Preliminary packed 24bpp support is include, but it currently.  has some
     known problems (See README.S3V for details.

   o 32bpp is not supported.

5.10  Mach64 server

   o Support for 3D Rage II based Mach64 cards is included.

   o Various problems with support for some revisions of CT, VT and GT chipsets
     have been fixed.

   o It is strongly recommended that all users with CT, VT, GT and 3D Rage II
     based Mach64 cards upgrade to the 3.2A release due to the problems that
     were fixed.

5.11  Mach32 server

   o A bug that causes problems when running XF86Setup with cards with less
     than 2MB of video memory has been fixed.

5.12  W32 server

   o In this version, the separate W32 server (XF86_W32) has not undergone any
     significant changes. In fact, it is not being developed further. Instead,
     the SVGA server (XF86_SVGA) is now the main focus of new developments. See
     the W32 (SVGA) description.

5.13  I128 server

   o Some preliminary acceleration (for bitblts) is included.  This code is
     very new, and hasn't been extensively tested yet.

5.14  TGA server

   o Preliminary acceleration support is included, using XAA.

   o Various bugs have been fixed.

5.15  Trident driver (SVGA server)

   o Acceleration support has been added for the 9320, 9440 and 96xx chips.

   o Support for the Cyber series of laptop chips has been improved.

5.16  Ark driver (SVGA server)

   o More complete acceleration has been implemented using XAA, including line
     draw, fill, and text acceleration, at different colour depths.

5.17  W32 driver (SVGA server)

   o The SVGA server now supports acceleration for the most recent ET4000W32
     chips. In 3.2A, the ET4000W32p chips are now fully accelerated, and the
     W32p rev C and D also support the higher performing linear memory layout.
     This is the basis for adding hicolor and truecolor support in the future.

5.18  ET6000 driver (SVGA server)

   o The ET6000 driver in the separate W32 server (XF86_W32) has not changed
     significantly.

   o On the other hand, the ET6000 driver in the SVGA server, which already
     existed in XFree 3.2 for all color depths, is now fully accelerated for
     all those color depths. It builds upon the new XAA architecture, which is
     the cornerstone of a new acceleration framework within the XFree86
     servers. It is responsible for the outstanding acceleration performance of
     this release. Of course, since this is a first release of the server using
     this framework, be prepared for some minor problems.

   o Many small problems which existed in the initial 3.2 release have been
     solved. Screen noise, flicker or instability at higher pixel clocks are
     mostly fixed. Some detection problems are gone. Weird behaviour (jumping
     and screen wrap) when panning through large virtual desktops has been
     fixed.

5.19  Alliance ProMotion driver (SVGA server)

   o The driver now recognises the AT24 chipset, but it is treated the same way
     as the AP6422.

5.20  Matrox Millennium driver (SVGA server)

   o More complete acceleration for the MGA2064W.

   o 24 bpp mode tiled pattern problems still present.

   o Support for supports DGA, Sync-on-Green, and DPMS.

   o The "nolinear" option is no longer available.

5.21  Cirrus driver (SVGA server)

   o More complete acceleration for all chips with a BitBLT engine (CL-GD5426,
     5428, 5429, 5430, 5434, 5436, 5440, 5446, 7541, 7543, and 7548).

   o More complete acceleration for Laguna series chips (CL-GD546X).

   o The support for the 754x series of laptop controllers has been improved.

   o The 24bpp mode on the CL-GD5430/40 has been fixed.

5.22  SiS driver (SVGA server)

   o Significant updates have been made to the SiS driver (see README.SiS for
     further details).

   o Acceleration support is included, making use of XAA.

   o Linear addressing is supported.

   o Support has been added for 15/16/24bpp.

   o Support has been added for programmable clocks.

   o HW cursor support is included.

5.23  Chips and Technologies driver (SVGA server)

   o Support has been included for the 65525, 65535, 64200 and 64300

   o Problems relating to blank screen at start-up and text mode restoration
     with the 65550 and 65554 should now be fixed

   o Acceleration support for all chips has improved due to the new XAA archi-
     tecture.

   o Many additional minor fixes and documentation updates (see README.chips
     for further details).

5.24  WD90C24 driver (SVGA server)

   o DPMS support is included (only for "off" mode so far).

5.25  Hercules mono driver

   o The problems with the Hercules mono driver in previous releases has now
     been fixed, and the driver is included in this release.

5.26  Client/Library changes

   o The libraries have been updated to R6.3.  The shared lib version numbers
     for libXext and libICE have been bumped to 6.3.  The others remain the
     same.

   o VT52 emulation has been added to xterm.

   o Some xterm bugs have been fixed, including coloured background exposure
     while selection is active, and missing state changes in the VT100 emula-
     tion.

   o Xterm's memory requirements for colour have been reduced.

   o Emulation of VT220 soft-reset, and non-DEC REP (repeat) control sequence
     has been added to xterm.

   o xset includes support for the DPMS extension.

5.27  SuperProbe

   o Add detection of Alliance Pro Motion chips.

   o Add detection of I128-2.

   o Add detection of S3 Trio64UV+ and Aurora64V+.

   o Add detection of newer Trident chips, including the Cyber series.

5.28  Fonts

   o Gzipped fonts are now supported.