Ubuntu 11.04 Is Prepping For Mesa 7.10, X Server 1.10

The Ubuntu X developers are getting ready to push the Mesa 7.10 graphics library and X.Org Server 1.10 into the Natty Narwhal repository for Ubuntu 11.04. Due to API/ABI breakage, this also results in new driver builds going into Natty, and for a period of time at least where the ATI Catalyst driver will no longer be compatible with the xorg-server (though the NVIDIA binary driver should properly support Linux 2.6.37 and xorg-server 1.10 right now).

The announcement was made by Bryce Harrington on the ubuntu-x list. Right now these new packages are to be found in the xorg-edgers repository, but they should be pushed over into the mainline Natty repository in the coming weeks.

X.Org Server 1.10 isn't officially being released until February so right now that is a development snapshot while with Mesa 7.10 they are able to use the released version or a snapshot leading up to the stable Mesa 7.10.1 release.

These versions though for the graphics / X packages shouldn't come as a huge surprise since in early November we talked about the Ubuntu 11.04 X plans. There is no Wayland integration for Ubuntu Natty so those interested in trying out that next-gen tech will be left using one of the PPAs or build scripts for now.