Intel Pushes Out A Big Bug-Fix X.Org Driver Update

We have already burned through more than half of Q1'09 and have yet to see Intel's quarterly X.Org Linux driver update approaching (or even any release candidate, although the 2.6 release was late). While xf86-video-intel 2.7.0 isn't ready yet, a fairly significant bug-fix release has been issued in the 2.6 series.

Eric Anholt has announced the release of xf86-video-intel 2.6.2, which carries some weight compared to the quick 2.6.1 release. Found in xf86-video-intel 2.6.2 are major fixes for the Graphics Execution Manager and kernel mode-setting. The key end-user benefits in this open-source driver update include a significant BO memory usage reduction, textured X-Video support when using kernel mode-setting, and rotation support when using kernel mode-setting. Of course, most Intel Linux users haven't used KMS yet and will not do so until most Linux distributions begin shipping with the Linux 2.6.29 kernel that brings this support.

The other key feature in the xf86-video-intel 2.6.2 driver is the dynamic front buffer allocation support when using the UXA acceleration architecture.

There are 45 changes in total for this graphics driver update, which can be found on the X.Org mailing list along with source download links. According to a blog post by Eric Anholt, it looks like we may still see an xf86-video-intel 2.7.0 release by the end of March.