X.Org Server 21.1 RC1 Released With VRR Support For Modesetting Driver, Other Features

More than three years after X.Org Server 1.20 was released, it's set to finally be succeeded soon by X.Org Server 21.1 under its new versioning scheme. Out today is the X.org Server 21.1 release candidate.

X.Org Server 21.1 is finally coming to light after being organized by new X.Org Server release manager volunteer Povilas Kanapickas. Even this new 21.1 release planning is running a few weeks late due to lingering changes to be moved. Rather than RC1 at the end of August, it's now coming at the end of September, but in any case it's looking like the official xorg-server 21.1.0 release will be out this year.

X.Org Server 21.1 brings Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) support for the xf86-video-modesetting driver, more mature Meson build system support, GLAMOR acceleration for Xvfb, X Input 2.4 with touchpad gestures, the DMX DDX has been removed, HiDPI improvements, and a large number of other changes that have accumulated in Git since 2018.

Note that there are no XWayland changes in this release since XWayland having started its own standalone releases separate from the X.Org Server cadence, thus the XWayland code has been stripped from the new X.Org Server releases while ultimately still part of the xserver source Git tree.

The full list of the hundreds of patches accumulated for X.Org Server 21.1 so far can be found via the xorg announcement.