X.Org Testing Ground Toolkit: Making It Less Difficult To Compile The X Server In 2024

While the upstream X.Org Server development remains slow with most of the large vendors treating it in maintenance mode and not investing in new features, open-source developer Enrico Weigelt has been one of the few still working to improve the X.Org Server. As part of his work besides pushing new patches and testing of the latest X.Org Server Git state, today he announced the release of the X.Org Testing Ground Toolkit v0.0.1 as a means to help in facilitate testing of the latest X.Org Server Git by making it easier to build it.

The X.Org Testing Ground Toolkit is basically an easier way to build the latest X.Org Server Git code for users wanting to test out the very latest code. The toolkit makes use of schroot for a jailed environment to build and test the latest code. For now this toolkit is focused on just Debian Linux support both for the host system and the jailed environment.

The hope is for the X.Org Testing Ground Toolkit to support other Linux distributions and potentially BSDs like FreeBSD and NetBSD. It's basically an easy way to quickly and easily build and run the very latest X.Org Server code. Right now it's motivated for those eager to test out the X.Org Server Git code for verifying fixes, testing new functionality, etc, but where the user may not otherwise be familiar with or comfortable compiling this X.Org code from scratch. Eventually the X.Org Testing Ground Toolkit may incorporate more automated testing and other facilities to help in stressing the latest upstream code.

Those interested in learning more about the X.Org Testing Ground Toolkit can see the v0.0.1 announcement and find the code via FreeDesktop.org GitLab.