X.org lone ranger rides to rescue multi-monitor refresh rates
- Reference: 1721903467
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/07/25/xorg_monitor_refresh_rates/
- Source link:
The [1]code commit improves the multi-monitor handling to the existing support for variable refresh rate displays that X.org [2]gained as recently as 2021 . The current code works, but it can only change the refresh rate of the first screen. With the new code, it should be able to handle several displays combined with Xinerama.
The lone code-ranger is Enrico Weigelt, who [3]describes himself as an "old Linux hacker and kernel maintainer." This is not the only project Weigelt is working on in the X.org codebase. Last month, [4]he announced the [5]X.org testing ground , which he describes as "a little toolkit to help in testing X.org Xserver."
[6]
"The idea is giving testers a tool for installing latest X.org directly from git heads, so they don't need to do this manually any more."
[7]
This month, he [8]released version 0.0.4 of the X.org testing ground, which adds support for the Illumos family of OSes, [9]forked from OpenSolaris after [10]Oracle axed the project back in 2010. Several projects are continuing work on Illumos, and we [11]looked at OpenIndiana at the end of 2022. It's one of the most desktop-oriented members of the family. Others, such as [12]Joyent Triton, formerly known as SmartOS , are much more server-focused.
This brings the range of supported OSes up to five: Debian-based Linux distros, FreeBSD 14, NetBSD 10, OpenBSD 7.5, and now OpenIndiana Hipster. This reflects one of the core features of X11, which is not a priority for Wayland. X11 runs on more or less every Unix-like OS ever made, proprietary or FOSS, and because working over a network is part of its design, it enables almost any of them to display a graphical app on any other. Wayland was designed for Linux, and although it's gradually [13]gaining BSD support , it will never run on Solaris, AIX, or the like.
[14]Arch-based CachyOS promises speed but trips over its laces
[15]Nvidia's next Linux driver to be… just as open
[16]Thunderbird is go: 128 now out with revamped 'Nebula' UI
[17]GNOME head honcho Holly Million steps down
X.org has worked with multi-head systems for decades, but in the early days, each display was entirely separate – there was no easy way to combine them into one big virtual desktop. That is what [18]Xinerama delivered, and it has been open source since 1998 when it became [19]part of Xfree86 4.0 . Today, the Arch wiki refers to it as " [20]the old Xinerama setup ," and suggests [21]RandR instead , complete with an explanation of [22]why it's better . However, as a 20th century tool, Xinerama works with proprietary drivers, and on other, older OSes as well.
We suspect that this cross-platform nature of X.org may keep it alive for many years to come. Not everyone runs Linux, and not everyone wants one of the few modern desktop environments that runs under Wayland – at present, that mainly means KDE and GNOME, plus a few tiling window managers, and some custom environments such as the one in [23]Raspberry Pi OS 5 . If you're running one of the BSDs and talking to a few proprietary Unix variants, Wayland is no help to you, and as long as people want such things, X11 won't die. ®
Get our [24]Tech Resources
[1] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/xserver/-/merge_requests/1616
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/28/x_org_1_21/
[3] https://github.com/metux
[4] https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-devel/2024-June/059249.html
[5] https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/metux/xorg-testing
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZqJ2q0oNkbdkUgDzsMComwAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/applications&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZqJ2q0oNkbdkUgDzsMComwAAAEk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-devel/2024-July/059275.html
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2010/08/03/illumos_opensolaris_spork/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2010/08/13/opensolaris_is_dead/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/07/new_version_of_openindiana/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2015/03/24/joyent_triton_cloud/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/13/wayland_is_coming/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/23/cachyos_arch_linux/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/18/nvidia_drivers_remain_as_foss/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/18/thunderbird_128_nebula/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/17/gnome_boss_steps_down/
[18] https://www.x.org/releases/current/doc/man/man3/Xinerama.3.xhtml
[19] https://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Using_multiple_monitors
[20] https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Multihead
[21] https://www.linux-magazine.com/Issues/2009/106/Multi-heading-with-RandR
[22] https://i3wm.org/docs/multi-monitor.html#_the_explanation
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/09/raspberry_pi_os_5_3/
[24] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: X11 won't die.
The open-ness of X11 is of course a Good Thing. But "supposed freedom loving developers, like Debian," also have the job of keeping things working efficiently and maintaining them. Which, given the inherent drawbacks of X11, can be a major pain. THAT is why newer standards have replaced good old X11, not the fact that supposed Open Source champions have sold out to Big Corporate.
Granted, X11 not dead yet and X11 will be around for quite a while yet, but it has simply failed to keep up with the times. Like the dinosaur.
Re: X11 won't die.
> ... the job of keeping things working efficiently and maintaining them. Which, given the inherent drawbacks of X11, can be a major pain.
No doubt, but X11 does have its strengths, in particular the ease and transparency of forwarding graphics across networks (I use this extensively myself). The alternatives do not (so far) really cut it in that respect.
> THAT is why newer standards have replaced good old X11
Except that they haven't... yet.
> Granted, X11 not dead yet and X11 will be around for quite a while yet, but it has simply failed to keep up with the times. Like the dinosaur.
Hmm... dinosaurs were around for a mere 165 million years. And it wasn't the "times" they failed to keep up with, so much as a bloody great lump of space rock. At least us mammals - snivelling, scurrying little creatures we were at the time (and arguably since) - fared somewhat better there. But that might be stretching the X11/Wayland metaphor a little far...
Re: X11 won't die.
I think it's IBM only by implication. Both Systemd and Wayland were Red Hat products. I'm not sure that IBM as a whole thinks of Systemd or Wayland in any great detail, at least not yet. The only way that IBM appears to be affecting Red Hat is the push to restrict source access to just those people who are support customers, and I think that Red Hat were already considering that before being bought.
We're only now beginning to see IBM subsume Red Hat, and it is still not entirely clear how much Red Hat will maintain it's own identity as time goes by.
Within IBM itself (I have a bit of an inside view... because) Red Hat is still being presented as a largely independent entity, although there is a very significant push to get a lot of IBM technical, project management and sales people Red Hat certified.
Re: X11 won't die.
Also there are plenty of X11 apps around too which means X11 won't be disappearing any time soon.
Which is we have XWayland and Weston. Personally I'd prefer Weston (run Wayland software in X11) over XWayland (run X11 software in Wayland).
The proliferation of refresh rates has always been a PITA
Personally I've always had a problem with multiple refresh rates in the PC world, which goes back all way to the time VGA started to replace EGA. In contrast, a Sun Sparcstation came with a monitor that only had 1 resolution (the highest) and 1 refresh rate (which was one that worked well). The PC world could have done the same. Granted, monitor technology evolved quickly in the PC market of the 1990s, but the leading monitor and graphics adaptor manufacturers could easily have decided on either one single standard refresh rate (from a technology point it's not that complicated) or at least a very limited set of refresh rates.
There never was a really good reason for SVGA monitors to support any odd refresh rate between 60 and 85Hz. I mean, who spent a lot of ca$h on a Nec Multisync but ran it lower than the maximum that the hardware could produce and the monitor could handle? Not to mention that more than one monitor burned out by subjecting its flyback to the wrong frequencies!
This whole mess could (and IMO should) have been avoided.
Re: The proliferation of refresh rates has always been a PITA
Which is fine so long as you don't work on latency sensitive tasks. Otherwise, if you just pick a single refresh rate you have to always hit it, never under or overshooting it.
I still recall my first download
Just like it was yesterday -- filled up our 575Mb Super Eagle HDs with it, had to move a copy of the source code to 6250bpi reel-to-reel tapes once it was compiled, which took 5hrs on a Sun 3/280 to do.
Probably no one or anyone
... not everyone wants one of the few modern desktop environments that runs under Wayland ...
Hmm ...
How about ... not everyone no one wants one of the few modern desktop environments that runs under Wayland ...
and
... Wayland is no help to you anyone ...
.
X11 won't die.
A good thing to avoid the corporate lockin that IBM tries to create with the Wayland and its Systemd infestation of Linux. It is too bad all these supposed freedom loving developers, like Debian, have fallen for this garbage hook, line and sinker. With the systemd subversion they do not even try to hide the disdain for the open source UNIX philosophy anymore, with the recent however many percent less UNIX comment when releasing the latest version that resulted in 100% less /home in that debacle by them scumbags now employed by Microsoft. Yet one more step on the road to enshitification of Linux by the Corporate forces who pretend to be friendly while gutting it from the inside with the plants in key projects doing their corporate bidding.