[ANNOUNCE] xf86-video-intel 2.2.0.90

[Alan W. Irwin]

On 2008-02-08 12:11-0800 Alan W. Irwin wrote:

> On 2008-02-05 17:50-0800 Jesse Barnes wrote:
>
>> Here's the first of what I hope will be very few 2.2.1 pre-releases.  We've
>> fixed lots of bugs since 2.2.0, including some nasty regressions.  Please give
>> it a try, especially if you have open bugs, since several are in need of
>> re-verification with the latest bits.
>
> For my g33 chipset and X server software from Debian unstable, this version
> allows me to startx without problems (a big step forward from 2.2.0), and
> X/KDE seems reliable thereafter for both 2D and 3D with one exception.
> X/KDE becomes unreliable if I switch to the console with ctrl-alt-F1 (which
> works fine) and then attempt to switch back to X/KDE with alt-F7.
>
> Details at https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14430.
>
> My thanks to the Intel driver development team for the progress they have
> made so far since 2.2.0.

All the above was with the traditional XAA.acceleration method set by

        Option          "AccelMethod" "XAA"

in the xorg.conf file.  I tried the experiment of commenting that out (to
obtain the "default" EXA acceleration method), and the above bug persisted
with exactly the same symptoms.  Furthermore, if I avoided that bug by not
attempting to switch to the console after "startx" then after an hour of
light desktop use X locked up completely with EXA.  Details at
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14464 since apparently that
is a separate problem from the above bug.

In sum, at least for my g33 hardware the 2.2.1 pre-release needs more work
for at least two issues.  Until those issues are fixed, I can still use X if
I avoid switching to a console, and if I avoid EXA (i.e., use XAA).  I am
bringing this up on list to inform other g33 users of these Intel 2.2.x
driver issues and just in case similar issues with these latest Intel
drivers show up for other Intel hardware.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Astronomical research affiliation with Department of Physics and Astronomy,
University of Victoria (astrowww.phys.uvic.ca).

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state implementation
for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting software
package (plplot.org); the libLASi project (unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of
Linux Links project (loll.sf.net); and the Linux Brochure Project
(lbproject.sf.net).
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