Releasing the next maintenance releases of X Server 1.19 and older

[Kevin Brace]

Hi,

Now that the new year has started, I can finally send out this posting.
I will like to see a new maintenance release of X Server 1.19 and even older versions over the next two months.
    Over the past month, I have finally poured in significant time resources to figure out why Xfce desktop manager crashes with SiS 6326 graphics chip (released in 1998) when EXA is utilized.
It turns out EXA is missing one line of code to handle 24-bit color mode inside exaGetPixmapFirstPixel (/exa/exa_unaccel.c).
I did post a patch to fix this issue back in December 2018 to this mailing list. [1]
I compiled X Server 1.19.6 with this fix, and I can confirm that the crash bug is indeed fixed.
I can now run SiS 6326 at 24-bit color mode with Xfce.
SiS DDX does still suffer from some rendering bugs (artifacts), but this appears to be buggy DDX code related.
Adam Jackson, who has been the release manager of several past X Servers, has indicated that he is not interested in getting involved in releasing older versions of X Servers. [2]
Since I specialize in fixing underserved graphics hardware, can I be the release manager of X Server 1.19.7?
I have never done this and other more experienced people may have to hold my hands, but I will really will like to see the EXA 24-bit color bug fixed.
Note that this bug has existed since X Server 1.7.
How far back can I backport the fix and release maintenance version for even older X Servers (i.e., X Server 1.18 and older up to 1.7)?

Regards,

Kevin Brace
Brace Computer Laboratory blog
https://bracecomputerlab.com


[1] https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-devel/2018-December/057794.html
[2] https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-devel/2018-December/057813.html