Xorg X11R6.7.0 in tree - renaming of X server, config file, and log file

[Mike A. Harris]

At the end of last week, I finished getting the initial rpm 
packaging of X11R6.7.0 together, and fixing up things due to 
upstream trademark changes and whatnot, but wanted to wait until 
early this week to drop the changes in rawhide, so that there 
wasn't any massive breakage over the weekend.

Now that the long weekend is over, I've dropped 6.7.0 into 
rawhide.  The noteable changes are:

- The X server is now /usr/X11R6/bin/Xorg, and no longer named "XFree86"

- The X server log file is now /var/log/Xorg.$DISPLAY.log, so 
  when attaching log files to bug reports, be sure to attach the 
  correct log, as you'll likely have old XFree86 logs around

- The X server config file is now /etc/X11/xorg.conf (although if 
  that does not exist, the X server will look for XF86Config, 
  which should work, but should be renamed to xorg.conf ASAP).
  Be sure to attach the proper config file to any Xorg X11 bug
  reports.  If unsure what config file is being used, look at the 
  X server log (and make sure it's the right log), as it tells 
  which config file is in use.

There are some other internal changes which occured as part of
the mass s/XFree86/Xorg/ upstream renaming and trademark
replacement process, however those should be opaque changes for 
non-developers for the most part.

Due to the above renaming changes, any other software which 
needs to know the name of the X server binary, config file, or 
log file, will need to be updated to handle the new Xorg X11 
filenames as per above.

This includes system-config-display (which Brent has updated
already internally), anaconda (which Jeremy Katz has updated),
and probably system-config-mouse, system-config-keyboard, and 
other packages as well.

Any rpm package which has hard coded dependancies on the 
existance of the XFree86 X server binary or config file's 
existance or ownership by some package will break.  For 
packages in the distribution, this is an easy fix, and affects 
only a small number of packages.

For external rpm packages, the *only* way to fix this, is to fix
the package to not hard code a requirement on a specific X server 
binary name (which is kindof insane, unless it is an X server 
config program or something similar).

So if you upgrade to xorg-x11-6.7.0 and find that 
rpm/apt/yum/up2date/whatever complains that some package requires 
/usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 - if that package is part of the OS, such 
as system-config-display, update it.

If it is a 3rd party package, uninstall it and file a bug report
to the upstream maintainer to not hard code bogus filename
dependancies on a specific X server implementation.  ;o)

I do not expect we'll see very many problems arise, but please
report bugs in bugzilla for any packages that are part of the OS
which you find broken due to the renaming.

Thanks for testing.


-- 
Mike A. Harris        ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris
OS Systems Engineer   -   X11 Developer   -   Red Hat