Help Wanted: Testing Mesa 7.6 in Karmic

[Ara Pulido]

Hello all,

As Bryce said, mesa 7.6.0 has arrived to Karmic. We need as much testing 
as possible from people with different hardware.

I have set up a wiki page to gather information about people who are now 
using the latest mesa in Karmic.

   https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Mesa7.6

It also includes links to the bugs already filed upstream.

If you want to help testing the new version of mesa, these are the steps 
to follow:

  * Upgrade to the latest version of mesa in Karmic repository
  * Find the exact model of your video card:

    $ lspci -vvnn | grep "VGA compatible controller"

  * Add yourself to the list of testers at:

    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/Mesa7.6#Testers

  * If you encounter any bug, report it against xorg

    ubuntu-bug xorg

  * Add the links of the bugs found to the wiki page

Thanks!
Ara.

On 07/10/09 23:50, Bryce Harrington wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> According to our previous plans, we've gone ahead with uploading mesa
> 7.6.0 for Karmic.  We would appreciate your extra attention given to
> testing 3D functionality this coming week.
>
> Upstream's release notes:
>      http://www.mesa3d.org/relnotes-7.6.html
>
> mesa 7.6 brings improved OpenGL support to Radeon R200/R300 and Intel
> i915/i945 which should improve 3D functionality for users of older
> hardware.  It also provides a huge number of bug fixes; in particular it
> solves many issues we've seen with KMS on -ati.
>
> Please file bugs for any issues you encounter with this new mesa version
> by running:
>
>    ubuntu-bug xorg
>
>
> For some added background, we've known that 7.6.0 would hit around
> beta time.  We decided at the outset that it was probably worth the
> risk, and we've been carefully tracking git snapshots of it all along.
> Still, given the lateness in the cycle we have had worry that any change
> at this brings some risk, with minimal time to recover.
>
> But fortunately we have a pretty solid X stack now, and can afford to
> take some risk.  We have a good fallback to revert to if we need it, and
> the upside here is an even more solid X stack with better 3D and OpenGL
> behavior for a lot of users.  The evidence we have on hand from testers
> indicates this to be safe.  If additional evidence proves this to be
> false, we are prepared to revert back to the git snapshot from August.
>
> Bryce
>
> FAQ's:
> ======
> Q: Does this mean KMS will be available on -ati?
>
> A: This pulls in a number of bug fixes for KMS on -ati, but does not set
> it as the default.  Turning it on requires a kernel parameter be set.
> You can test it by booting with the 'radeon.modeset=1' kernel option.
>
> Q: Will libdrm, -intel, or xserver be updated as well?
>
> A: Those are unrelated to this upload and will each be evaluated
> separately in turn.  Those three are pretty much just bug fix releases;
> worst case is we can cherrypick patches from them as necessary.
>
> Q: Didn't a late-in-the-release mesa update break Jaunty?
>
> A: No, as it turned out.  We had updated mesa right prior to when a
> bunch of X freeze bugs were reported, so it looked very suspicious.
> However, the freezes still occurred even after downgrading mesa.  In the
> end, the X freezes were fixed by changes in the Karmic kernel's DRM
> code.
>
> Q: How do I downgrade to the earlier mesa version?
>
> A: I will be uploading the prior version to x-retro later today:
> https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat/+archive/x-retro
>
> Q: Are even newer versions available?
>
> A: Snapshots of the 7.7 development tree are being provided in
> xorg-edgers:
> https://edge.launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/ppa
>