Release Notes for X11R6.7.0 : Summary of new features in 6.7.0.
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3. Summary of new features in 6.7.0.

This is a sampling of the new features in X11R6.7.0. A more complete list of changes can be found in the CHANGELOG that is part of the X source tree.

3.1. Enhancements in X11R6.7.0 beyond XFree86 4.4RC2

3.2. Summary of new features in Cygwin/X

This is a sampling of the new features in Cygwin/X in X11R6.7.0.

3.2.1. Cygwin/X Notes

Cygwin/X has continued its rapid pace of development that it has sustained since Spring 2001 and this release shows it, we now have: a stable and fast multi-window mode, seamless clipboard integration, a configurable tray menu icon, popups on error messages pointing users to the log file and our mailing list, the beginnings of indirect 3D acceleration for OpenGL applications, improved non-US keyboard and clipboard support, and only a handful of bugs that continue to be reported.

Between the XFree86 4.3.0 release and the X.Org X116.7 release the Cygwin/XFree86 project broke away from The XFree86 Project, Inc. due to a lack of support from the XFree86 project. As such, the Cygwin/XFree86 project was renamed to the Cygwin/X project and the upstream source code tree that Cygwin/X pulls from and pushes to is now the tree managed by the X.Org Foundation. The Cygwin/X project has seen a rush of development and interest in the project since the split; one metric showing this is that the number of CVS committers we have has gone from zero to six.

3.2.2. Cygwin/X-specific Changes

[Note: This list is by no means complete and covers issues that were either specific to the Cygwin/X DDX or were reported as problems by a number of Cygwin/X users, thus creating an interest in such a problem being fixed. The complete Cygwin/X-specific change logs can be seen at http://x.cygwin.com/devel/server/changelog-full.html]

3.3. Video Driver Enhancements

3.4. Input Driver Enhancements

3.5. IPv6 support

X11R6.7.0 supports IPv6, based on the code contributed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. to X.Org. See X.Org's document for a detailed list of what these changes are and how your system is affected by them.

Note that in most environments script kiddies have generated sniffer scripts that will easily grab passwords on a network. By default, therefore, many software vendors now ship X with remote access disabled.

Unless you are confident of your network, direct use of IPv6 (or, for that matter, IPv4) over the network to your X server is not recommended; instead, we recommend the use of ssh ("ssh -X -C") to provide strong cryptography (and possibly compression) for network transparent use of X. Work is beginning to address this with a more fully integrated encryption scheme that would avoid the extra process context switches and improve performance over ssh (how much is unknown).

3.5.1. Protocol names and aliases.

You can force the X server to only listen to IPv4 connections with the X -nolisten inet6 command or you can force a IPv6 connection by setting DISPLAY to inet6/host:0.

3.5.2. XDM

The IPv6 XDMCP code is not enabled by default on platforms that don't support binding a IPv6 socket to a IPv4 address.

The XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1 authentication scheme does not support IPv6 addresses but a new release of the protocol, XDM-AUTHORIZATION-2 has been designed; this though is yet to be implemented. By default builds do not enable the XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1 code.

3.5.3. ServerInterpreted host authentication

The ServerInterpreted host family was added in response to comments received during the X11 over IPv6 standards public review period. This family allows registration of new subtypes and implementation of them by modifications solely to the X server, without having to modify clients such as xhost or the Xlib or X protocol standards. In the initial X11R6.7.0 release, two subtypes are supported - "hostname" for hostnames resolved by the server at connection time to better support dynamic DNS & mobile IP, and "ipv6" to allow IPv6 literal addresses, including in the future, scoped addresses. For more information on these features, see the xhost manual page, X11 Protocol and Xlib standards, and the documents in xc/doc/specs/SIAddresses.

3.6. X Server and Extension Updates

3.7. Client and Library Updates

3.7.1. Xterm

The user-visible changes to xterm since XFree86 4.3 are:

Bug Fixes:

New Features:

Improved Locale Support:

Improved Font Handling:

Workarounds for Special Applications:

Modified Resources:

Modified terminfo/termcap entries:

3.8. I18N and Font Updates

3.9. OS Support Updates


Release Notes for X11R6.7.0 : Summary of new features in 6.7.0.
Previous: Introduction to the XFree86 4.x Release Series
Next: Drivers