X.Org Server Patches Updated For Non-Desktop & Lease Handling

Keith Packard has sent out his latest patches for implementing the non-desktop and DRM lease functionality from within the X.Org Server. This work also includes the relevant DDX bits being wired through for the xf86-video-modesetting driver.

The "non-desktop" handling is the new property for indicating if a display output is not for a conventional desktop use-case, i.e. a VR HMD as the main use-case from Valve's perspective. When the VR HMD or other non-desktop output is set, it's not used by the X.Org Server and any desktop window manager so it can be reserved for the SteamVR compositor.

The DRM lease handling that was added to Linux 4.15 is about leasing resources also in the context of VR HMDs.

The updated patches Keith Packard sent out today are re-based against the latest X.Org Server Git code for the necessary user-space bits now that the kernel-side work is already in place. The xf86-video-modesetting DDX driver work is about support for RandR CRTC/output leases with the new kernel infrastructure.

These latest seven patches can be found on xorg-devel. Hopefully it's not too much longer before all this code is squared away and merged so that hopefully the long overdue X.Org Server 1.20 release preparations can get back underway.