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OpenSolaris Community: X Window System

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About the X Window System

The X Window System is the glue that holds together the desktop on Unix and Linux systems. It provides the layer between the hardware device drivers and the desktops such as CDE and GNOME. It has been developed by a variety of industry consortiums and open source projects over the last two decades. The current maintainer is the X.Org Foundation, a non-profit group organized to oversee the open source community of X developers.

X in Solaris

Solaris currently includes software from two implementations of the X Window System.

The older version was once part of Sun's OpenWindows software and is still installed into /usr/openwin. It has evolved along with the X open source releases over the years. The last full merge of an X open source release into this tree was for X11R6, though large portions of the later X11R6.4 and X11R6.6 releases, and selected portions of the XFree86 4.3 and X11R6.8 releases, have been merged in more recently. This tree provides the Xsun server and most of the X client libraries and core applications like xhost, xterm, xauth, and so on.

The newer tree is currently based on the X11R7.2 release from X.Org and is where Solaris gets the Xorg server and the new libraries and clients delivered in /usr/X11 that were not found in the older releases. Over time we are working to migrate the existing libraries and clients to build from the newer source base as well for future Solaris releases.

For shorthand, these are often referred to as the "Xsun" and "Xorg" trees, even though they are much more than just those X servers, but the X servers they build are the primary differentiator.

X in OpenSolaris

As explained in this "Opening Day" blog post, the initial phase of code release for OpenSolaris in June 2005 did not include either of the X source trees. We've now started releasing the already open source code from the X trees – you can find the list of which portions and the download links on our sources page. As we move more and more of the X components to being built out of this tree, the OpenSolaris X tree will cover more and more of the Solaris X packages.

Even though not all of the X source code isn't posted on the OpenSolaris.org web site yet, there are still ways to build your own version and even submit changes that could be incorporated into Solaris. You can download either the X11R7.2 release to get the same base Solaris is built on, or check out the X.Org git to get the base that will be used for future releases of Solaris. If you've got changes that are of general use, you can submit them to the X.Org community via the "xorg" product in the freedesktop.org bugzilla. Once there they can be pulled into the Solaris builds either as part of the next X.Org full release, or individually on an earlier schedule by one of Sun's X developers.

Announcements

20 Nov 2007 X open-source/modularization/modernization status page posted
10 Jul 2007 Fully Open X (FOX) Project sponsored
20 Feb 2007 Xorg 7.2 in Solaris Nevada Build 58
10 Apr 2006 marTux_0.1 LiveCD with Xorg for sparc
31 Mar 2006 X Consolidation sources posted to opensolaris.org

News

nVidia Graphics Driver 169.07 for Solaris x64/x86 released | nV News | 12/20/2007

Release Highlights: Fixed several X rendering issues. Improved support for interlaced DVI, HDMI, and HDTV modesetting. Improved RENDER performance. Added an interface to monitor PowerMizer state information. Improved usability of NVIDIA-settings at lower resolutions like 1024x768 and 800x600. Added experimental support for running the X server at Depth 30 (10 bits per component) on Quadro G8x and later GPUs.

X.org Makes X Hot | internetnews.com | 09/07/2007

With the X.Org 7.3 release, X now includes support for hot plugging input and output devices.

nVidia Graphics Driver 100.14.11 for Solaris x64/x86 released | nV News | 06/08/2007

Release Highlights: Added support for new GPUs: GeForce 7050 PV / NVIDIA nForce 630a, GeForce 7025 / NVIDIA nForce 630a. Fixed console restore problems in several different configurations: Quadro FX 4400 SLI, VESA console, Notebook LCD displays. Improved interaction with ATi RS480/482 based mainboards. Improved support for House Sync with G-Sync II.

X.Org community releases X11R7.2 | X.Org Foundation Press Release | 02/15/2007

The X.Org community is proud to announce the release of X11R7.2, the third modular release of the X Window System. X11R7.2 supports Linux, BSD, Solaris, Microsoft Windows and GNU Hurd systems. It incorporates significant stability and correctness fixes, including improved autoconfiguration heuristics, enhanced support for GL-based compositing managers such as Compiz and Beryl, and improved support for PCI systems with multiple domains. It also incorporates the new, more extensible XACE security policy framework.

nVidia Graphics Driver 1.0-9746 for Solaris x64/x86 released | nV News | 12/21/2006

Release Highlights: Added support for GeForce 8800 GTS and GeForce 8800 GTX boards. The 1.0-9746 NVIDIA Accelerated Solaris Quadro Graphics Driver Set for Solaris x64/x86 is available for download via HTTP and FTP. Please note: This NVIDIA Linux graphics driver release supports QuadroFX and newer NVIDIA Quadro GPUs, Quadro4 and older Quadro GPUs are supported through the 1.0-96xx NVIDIA legacy graphics driver.

Blogs

uejio - Another acronym for JAVA

May 4, 12:17 AM

I went to DC a couple of weeks ago and at the Cherry Blossom Festival , I saw sign that said "JAVA", but it wasn't from Sun:   Their website is at javadc.org .  From their about page: "This is an ...

Alan Coopersmith - Too many dry eyes in the house

Mar 26, 1:12 PM

I've been falling further and further behind on blogging for a while - maybe I'll catch up someday with the cache of posts I have stored in my brain half written (there's a new issue of the X11 ...

Ming Shu - vehicles VS computers

Mar 23, 7:32 AM

  Someone's wish is customers can assemble their own vehicles like computers.  Tough it is crazy,  you can find the similarities between vehicles and computers.    1) cpu vs engine Both of them are ...

Ming Shu - Golden rules in office

Mar 18, 6:57 AM

1. The worst thing is not you haven't done anying,  but it is your boss don't know you. 2. Try to make your boss look better to her/his boss will make you look better to your boss. 3. If you plan to ...

Ming Shu - 偶遇刘涛

Mar 4, 9:30 PM

今天天去美国大使馆签证处按指纹,刚刚要进签证大厅,出来一摩登女郎,看着非常眼熟。由于前两天老妈天天看<<女人花>>,一下子就认出来是刘涛了,可不是吗? ...