Catalyst For X.Org Server 1.16 Readied, Updates In Ubuntu 14.10

Two months after the release of X.Org Server 1.16, AMD finally has readied a Catalyst Linux driver update that is compatible with the latest xorg-server ABI. This driver is being sent into the Ubuntu 14.10 archive and thus allowing the entire Linux graphics stack in Ubuntu 14.10 to finally be updated.

Sent into utopic-proposed on Tuesday was a new fglrx driver version. The new fglrx driver is labeled 14.201-0ubuntu1 as a new upstream Catalyst/fglrx release. While there is no full change-log for this driver, the Ubuntu change-log notes that the driver is compatible with xorg-video-abi-18 as the Application Binary Interface requirements for X.Org Server 1.16.

Ubuntu 14.10 has been very slow to land X.Org Server 1.16 and it was blamed on an unsupported Catalyst driver while NVIDIA's proprietary driver has long supported the new ABI. With this new AMD Linux driver finally out, Canonical is moving ahead to update to the new X.Org Server and pulling in all new X.Org DDX drivers for compatibility.

Maarten Lankhorst on Wednesday sent into utopic-proposed all of the updated xserver-xorg-input and xserver-xorg-video drivers that are the latest against Debian unstable and compatible with X.Org Server 1.16. Once going through the proposed repository, the new packages should make it into the main archive for the Utopic Unicorn in due time. The package uploads can be found via the utopic-changes list.

While this X update is nice, there's no Mesa 10.3 update yet for Ubuntu 14.10 with currently sticking to Mesa 10.2.x.