New git snapshot required for xorg 7.2/feisty

[John Dong]

Binary package hint: xserver-xgl

X.org 7.2 causes Xgl to glitch like crazy in Feisty's official repositories. A rebuild of it is required to restore operation, but the current version FTBFS'es against Feisty xorg 7.2....

I've just confirmed that a new xserver-xgl git snapshot fixes this issue and restores the correct operation of Xgl (i.e. bug 86841 for Xgl users only). To make it compile with Ubuntu debdiff I had to remove the one and only patch (Xinerama support)... could not port it to new Xorg.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

File an upstream version freeze (UVF) exception request.

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-motu/2007-February/001256.html

[John Dong (jdong)]

New Source Package:

[dsc] http://buntudot.org/people/~jdong/xgl/xserver-xgl_7.2.0.git.20070224-0ubuntu1.dsc

Debdiff attached. (Large -- 8MB uncompressed). Only changes I made to packaging were:
 (1) Change mjg59's e-mail to @ubuntu.com to make lintian work
 (2) Drop the xinerama patch.

Changelog is pretty large (all git revisions between previous and current snapshot) but given that the current Feisty Xgl is totally broken the situation cannot possibly exacerbate :)

I have tested on Feisty and assert that it builds cleanly in a clean Feisty pbuilder and have tested it for about 12 hours running Beryl now.

[John Dong (jdong)]

Does not install with latest xserver-xorg-core upload -- manpage conflict. I am resolving this and posting a debdiff to the above proposed sources.

[John Dong (jdong)]

Attached debdiff from 0ubuntu1 to 0ubuntu2

Full dsc: http://buntudot.org/people/~jdong/xgl/xserver-xgl_7.2.0.git.20070224-0ubuntu2.dsc

Changes:
(1) Prevent Xserver.1 manpage from installing -- provided by xserver-xorg-core
(2) Applied patch http://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xgl-git/xgl-git/compalloc.patch. Patch recommended by Compiz and Beryl folks, has been being tested in Arch without issue. It dramatically speeds up resize and scrolling performance and reduces video tearage.

Diffstat:
 debian/patches/00list | 1
 debian/patches/01-compalloc-faster.dpatch | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++++
 xserver-xgl-7.2.0.git.20070224/debian/changelog | 7 ++++
 xserver-xgl-7.2.0.git.20070224/debian/rules | 1
 4 files changed, 43 insertions(+)

[Andrew Mitchell (ajmitch)]

Fine, but it'd be better to use a single changelog entry for the update.

[Davim (davim)]

without this version of xserver-xgl I'm unable to run beryl or conpiz in feisty. Please include it in universe packages, it's very important for the unfortunate fglrx dependents like myselfe.

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

Patrice, please check https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FreezeExceptionProcess#head-9523bc4076ff011324d67cddc97969ec609618d6 - that's the process for motu-uvf bugs - confirmed means 'approved by motu-uvf team'.

Setting back to 'Unconfirmed'.

[John Dong (jdong)]

Could another MOTU UVF member please spare some time to take a look at this?

[Reinhard Tartler (siretart)]

as just said on irc, I cannot approve this UVF request with good concience. The changes are IMO way too big, and I don't really know how xserver-xgl works and what changes have been done. To me this is update could mean a totally other set of bugs, with former existing cards not working any longer.

TTBMOK, xgl is only necessary for the 'restricted' drivers, and there in particular, for fglrx, since nvidia can do AIGLX these days. Therefore it might make sense to approve it anyway, since jdong obviously has an fglrx driven card, and confirms that it works.

As said, I'm still not really convinced about this update, but if some fglrx/xgl guru has a good feeling with the new release, I'd be inclined to agree.

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

Some fact gathered in a small IRC discussion:
 * John wants to take care of the package as a bug contact.
 * The package does not work at all at the moment.
 * This update completely changes the codebase, which means a different set of bugs too.
 * fglrx and nvidia-legacy need xserver-xgl
 * John also wants to update the patch to indicate bugs that are fixed by the update.

I can only agree on this update if we get good maintenance with it: forwarding bugs upstream, asking for more info, etc etc. Hopefully the desktop-effects team can help with this.

[giacomoi (giacomoi)]

I also have an ATI card (FireGL V5250), and could get compiz/beryl to work only with the fglrx driver (unfortunatelly) over XGL.
I installed jdong's patch more than a week ago.
I had problems with Beryl now and then (famous white screen, white borders, and content of windows not refreshed bugs). But since I switched to compiz, its been rock solid. I'm no fglrx guru, but by now I spent tens of hours configuring xorg.conf options, installing SVN snapshots of beryl, switching between Xorg7.1.1 and Xorg7.2, etc.
The configuration that is the most stable on my system (Thinkpad T60p, Feisty) is:
xserver-xorg 1:7.2-0ubuntu2
xserver-xgl 7.2.0.git.20070224-0ubuntu2 (jdong's)
compiz 1:0.3.6-1ubuntu7

the xorg.conf file is attached.

I hope this can help you in making your decision.

[Sebastian Dröge (slomo)]

I'm fine with the update if John cares for any possible regressions. Another point why this is necessary is, that the current version doesn't work at all with our current Xorg...

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

John just said that it's too hard to work on the bugs of xserver-xgl.

[John Dong (jdong)]

xserver-xgl is just one of the MANY programs that got shafted by the Xorg 7.2 update. It is simply unfair that Xorg 7.2 got in after UVF and the packages it broke do not g et the same privilege.

A quick search around reveals several other packages suffering the same fate:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.searchtext=xlib+assertion&orderby=-importance&search=Search&field.status%3Alist=Unconfirmed&field.status%3Alist=Confirmed&field.status%3Alist=In+Progress&field.status%3Alist=Needs+Info&field.status%3Alist=Fix+Committed&field.assignee=&field.owner=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package=
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bugs?field.searchtext=xlib.lock&orderby=-importance&search=Search&field.status%3Alist=Unconfirmed&field.status%3Alist=Confirmed&field.status%3Alist=In+Progress&field.status%3Alist=Needs+Info&field.status%3Alist=Fix+Committed&field.assignee=&field.owner=&field.omit_dupes=on&field.has_patch=&field.has_no_package=

Something has to be done about this half-baked X situation we've gotten ourselves into. It's either:

(1) Remove all of these packages from Feisty
(2) Grant UVFe's for packages where upstream has accomodated Xorg 7.2 in a newer version
(3) Revert Xorg 7.2

[John Dong (jdong)]

In addition, triaging Xgl bugs at this point is not all that practical. Most were filed in Edgy's days, and I cannot ask people to confirm it on feisty because... well... xserver-xgl does not work on feisty!

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

I hate to say this (as an nvidia-glx-legacy user) but of xserver-xgl doesn't work at all then please don't distribute it. It will server as a hint and people will instead be driven to 3rd party repositories rather than struggling with a package that doesn't work (of course those same 3rd party repos might contain trojans but I guess that's the risk you take).

[Andrew Mitchell (ajmitch)]

The debdiff is large, but the majority of it is the bundled copy of mesa. I'm not sure what the status of mesa is, whether it can be removed from the source or not, but we already carry most of the changes in the mesa source package.

[Sarah Kowalik (hobbsee-deactivatedaccount)]

Might be worth getting tepsipakki to look through this, seeing as he's just done the majority of X (i believe), so might know the codebase a bit more?

Anyway, if this is going to be uploaded, it might be worth uploading it, and the other stuff related to the xorg 7.2 breakage asap, to get the maximum amount of testing time before release.

[hexion (hexium)]

I've read all the post and I can't understand some statements...

-> We can't take this patch to the repositories.. because it can fail...

Well... NOW it doesn't work at all. So it's better to have something that "can fail (or not)" rather than something that "does fail"

-> Changing this, can bring new bugs and it's too late

No, it isn't. There are many (but really many) users with fglrx driver that are affected by this issue. And there's time to create a "team" (call it as you wish) at the forums to test the new packages and file bugs. Just creating and sticking a thread asking for support will work.. I'm sure, I would help too.

-> There's no time to solve this

Better now than tomorrow :P The alternative is giving no support for XGL at all in Feisty. And that's not an acceptable alternative for many users. They surely will search for 3rd party repos (is that the security everybody wants for them?) or simply stay with Edgy till Feisty+1

At least that's what I think.
Regards

[Jason Straight (jason-jeetkunedomaster)]

I agree, what's the point in having an xgl that doesn't work in the repos as it is now? How is that [in any way] better than having one that seems to work, even if it does have some bugs, there's no bigger bug than not working at all.

[hexion (hexium)]

In adition to my previous post, I have to say that I'm using John's package since a couple of weeks and it's ROCK STABLE with both beryl and compiz.

[Mosphet (mosphet)]

In response to an unusable Beryl / XGL install from the Ubuntu Feisty Fawn repositories, I have built and installed this package for the following system:

Feisty Fawn - AMD64 Herd 5 / AMD64 / ATI X800XL / FGLRX / XGL / Beryl

I can confirm that installation of this package alone transformed this system from broken to working.

[hexion (hexium)]

Mosphet, can you share that package in the forums, like John did for i386?

It not for me, my system is i386 and I have his package working (withouth problems, the system is perfectly stable) but as feisty devs are not very worried about this problem (at least it's what it looks like), maybe some people needs that package to make their systems work.

[Alfredo Matos (alfmatos)]

What is the status of this ? Is the new package going to pass the UVF or not ?

[Alfredo Matos (alfmatos)]

John Dong, i tried your package, it work great (and fast too). But you seem to have dropped the Xinerama stuff. Could this be why my windows (gnome-panel, splash, etc) are appearing between screens ? My dual monitors are like one big screen, with windows and panels spanning across both screens.

Thanks.

[John Dong (jdong)]

Yes, I'm sorry to say but Xinerama patches were dropped because they could not be patched against the new Xgl, and I could not locate an updated version of that patch.

My primary concern at the moment is to make xserver-xgl work _in any fashion_ on Feisty, as it's completely broken. Single-head working is better than no heads working. If at any time I (or someone else) manages to port that patch to the new Xgl, I'd be more than happy to look at it.

[Alfredo Matos (alfmatos)]

After some code checking, the Xinerama stuff is already in the git package that John Dong put together. The patch fails to apply because it's already there. After some investigation along with John, Xinerama works !great!. There is an explicit need to +xinerama to the XGL startup script, but after that, working great.

In my case the following does the trick:

Xgl :1 -fullscreen -ac -accel xv:pbuffer -accel glx:pbuffer -nolisten tcp +xinerama &

Having this fixed also, just gives me one more strong reason to support the UVF bypass for this package. Thanks J.Dong.

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

I've been discussing concerns with this UVF exception request with John on IRC (-motu). We've concluded that the mesa changes included in this git snapshot are largely irrelevant, because xserver-xgl's ./configure-time parameters use system-wide mesa. Furthermore, the remaining issue (above) with Xinerama appears to be resolved, at run-time, with a command-line parameter to enable Xinerama. With these issues - which were my most glaring concerns - moot, I'm in favour of this exception (particularly since the current package is useless).

+1

[John Dong (jdong)]

Fix committed and built properly on all archs.

[Peter Enzerink (ubuntu-enzerink)]

With this version of xserver-xgl I am finally able to successfully run Beryl on my Gnome/ATI/Xgl combo for the first time after months of trying. Two thumbs up.

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

The newly released version works for me. The only snag is that compiz no longer carries the LD_PRELOAD workaround for GL implementations without texture_to_pixmap (but that really needs to be filed into a different bug)

xserver-xgl 7.2.0.git.20070224-0ubuntu3