RandR 1.4 & Per-Output DPMS Controls

Adam Jackson, a well known X.Org developer at Red Hat, has proposed adding per-output DPMS controls to the Resize and Rotate extension, which would ultimately go on to be part of RandR 1.4. Adam has proposed a patch on the X.Org development list to add per-output DPMS support to the RandR protocol. In other words, DPMS modes of on, stand-by, suspend, or off could be forced to individual monitors (rather than all displays) with drivers that implement this new RandR support.

However, as not much else has been discussed yet in regards to RandR 1.4, it would be unlikely for any of this to appear with the next release (X.Org 7.5 / X Server 1.7). Today's patch just defines the per-output DPMS portion of the RandR protocol but does nothing in regards to implementing the support within any driver. We are also just under two weeks away from the X Server 1.7 feature freeze. Also still missing from the Resize and Rotate extension is GPU object support.

The current version is RandR 1.3 and it provides panning support and other minor improvements. This version was introduced with X Server 1.6 and most of the open-source drivers now implement the RandR 1.3 panning support. For more information on the X.Org Resize and Rotate extension, read The Newbie's Guide To RandR 1.2.