X Server 1.6 Beta 1 Has Been Delayed

X Server 1.6, the update to the X Server for X.Org 7.4 that Intel had called for by year's end, has just experienced a minor setback. The release schedule that came about two weeks ago had put the release branching and initial test release to occur on the 24th of November. However, the beta 1 release has been pushed back by a few days.

Keith Packard shared on the development mailing list this week that the render matrix operations into pixman, which is great, except that X Server 1.6 now relies upon a new unreleased version of pixman. Until a new version of pixman is out, X Server Beta 1 can't be pushed out. This is similar to the situation we had with X Server 1.5 where the developers were dependent upon the release of Mesa 7.1.

Keith Packard will be pushing out a new pixman release within a few days to clear the way for X Server 1.6. In addition though, X Server 1.6 is dependent upon a newer version of inputproto that also has yet to be released, but Peter Hutterer hopes to have that ready by the week's end.

Permitting there are no other roadblocks, X Server 1.6 Beta 1 will likely be released next week. However, the second beta release was planned for the 8th of December, which could be in jeopardy depending upon when Beta 1 actually makes it out, thereby pushing back the entire release schedule. With there being critical development releases around the holidays, it won't be surprising if this release cycle gets dragged out longer -- just hopefully not as long as the wait for X Server 1.4.1.

Among bug fixes and other features, some of the noteworthy additions in X Server 1.6 are Predictable Pointer Acceleration, 2D performance improvements, a revised version of Direct Rendering Infrastructure 2, RandR 1.3, and X Input 1.5 with device properties. Multi-Pointer X and X Input 2 were pushed back from this release into X Server 1.7.

The final release of X Server 1.6 is expected in early January.