Editing X.Org Server (section)

===={{Anchor|DDX graphics driver}} 2D graphics driver====
For historical reasons the X.Org Server still contains graphics device drivers supporting some form of 2D rendering acceleration. In the past, [[mode-setting]] was done by an X-server graphics device driver specific to some [[video controller]] hardware (''e.g.'', a [[Graphics processing unit|GPU]]). To this mode-setting functionality, additional support for 2D acceleration was added when such became available with various GPUs. The mode-setting functionality was moved into the [[Direct Rendering Manager|DRM]] and is being exposed through a DRM mode-setting interface, the new approach being called "kernel mode-setting" (KMS). But the 2D rendering acceleration remained.

In [[Debian]] the 2D graphics drivers for the X.Org Server are packaged individually and called ''xserver-xorg-video-*''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://packages.debian.org/stretch/xserver-xorg-video-nouveau|title=Details of package xserver-xorg-video-nouveau in stretch|website=packages.debian.org}}</ref> After installation the 2D graphics driver-file is found under <code>/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/</code>. The package xserver-xorg-video-nouveau installs <code>nouveau_drv.so</code> with a size of 215 KiB, the proprietary [[Nvidia GeForce driver]] installs an 8 MiB-sized file called <code>nvidia_drv.so</code> and [[Radeon Software]] installs <code>fglrx_drv.so</code> with a size of about 25MiB.

The available [[free and open-source graphics device driver]]s are being developed inside of the [[Mesa 3D]]-project. While these can be recompiled as required, the development of the proprietary DDX 2D graphics drivers is greatly eased when the X.Org Server keeps a stable API/ABI across multiple of its versions.

With version 1.17 a generic method for mode-setting was mainlined. The <code>xf86-video-modesetting</code> package, the Debian-package being called <code>xserver-xorg-video-modesetting</code>, was retired, and the generic modesetting DDX it contained was moved into the server package to become the KMS-enabled default DDX, supporting the vast majority of AMD, Intel and NVidia GPUs.

On April 7, 2016 AMD employee Michel Dänzer released <code>xf86-video-ati</code> version 7.7.0<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-announce/2016-April/002684.html |title=[ANNOUNCE] xf86-video-ati 7.7.0 |date=2016-04-07}}</ref> and <code>xf86-video-amdgpu</code> version 1.1.0,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-announce/2016-April/002686.html |title=[ANNOUNCE] xf86-video-amdgpu 1.1.0 |date=2016-04-07}}</ref> the latter including support for their [[Polaris (microarchitecture)|Polaris]] microarchitecture.

====={{Anchor|Acceleration-anchor}} Acceleration architectures=====
There are (at least) XAA (XFree86 Acceleration Architecture),<ref name="StupidSquirrel">{{cite web|url=http://www.xfree86.org/3.3.6/ark3.html|title=Information for ARK Logic Chipset Users: Acceleration|website=XFree86.org|access-date=22 September 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623033423/http://www.xfree86.org/3.3.6/ark3.html|archive-date=23 June 2018}}</ref> [[EXA]], [[UMA Acceleration Architecture|UXA]] and [[SNA (computer graphics)|SNA]].

[[File:Linux graphics drivers 2D.svg|upright=1.5|thumb|'''XAA''' is an API between the Device-Independent-X (DIX) and the Device-Dependent-X (DDX), a 2D graphics driver, here e.g. with the [[Linux kernel]].]]
In the [[X Window System]], '''XFree86 Acceleration Architecture''' ('''XAA''') is a driver architecture to make a video card's 2D [[hardware acceleration]] available to the X server.<ref name="anholt2004">{{cite web |last1=Anholt |first1=Eric |title=High Performance X Servers in the Kdrive Architecture |url=https://www.usenix.org/legacy/event/usenix04/tech/freenix/full_papers/anholt/anholt_html/ |website=www.usenix.org |access-date=14 September 2018}}</ref><ref name="Wetzel2003">{{cite web |last1=Wetzel |first1=Robert |title=An acceleration architecture for DOpE |url=http://wwwos.inf.tu-dresden.de/papers_ps/wetzel-diplom.pdf |website=wwwos.inf.tu-dresden.de |access-date=14 September 2018}}</ref> It was written by [[Harm Hanemaayer]] in 1996 and first released in [[XFree86]] version 3.3. It was completely rewritten for XFree86 4.0.<ref>{{cite web|title=Release Notes for XFree86 4.0|url=http://www.xfree86.org/4.0/RELNOTES2.html#6|website=XFree86 Project|date=7 March 2000|access-date=16 September 2018}}</ref> It was removed again from X.Org Server 1.13.

Most drivers implement acceleration using the XAA module. XAA is on by default, though acceleration of individual functions can be switched off as needed in the server configuration file (<code>XF86Config</code> or <code>xorg.conf</code>).

The driver for the [[ARK chipset]] was the original development platform for XAA.

In X.Org Server release 6.9/7.0, [[EXA]] was released as a replacement for XAA, as XAA supplies almost no speed advantage for current video cards. EXA is regarded as an intermediate step to converting the entire X server to using [[OpenGL]].

====={{Anchor|GLAMOR}} Glamor=====
Glamor is a generic, hardware independent, 2D acceleration driver for the X server that translates the X render primitives into [[OpenGL]] operations, taking advantage of any existing 3D OpenGL drivers.<ref>{{cite web|title=What is Glamor?|url=http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/Glamor/|publisher=FreeDesktop.org|access-date=10 February 2014}}</ref> In this way, it is functionally similar to Quartz Extreme and QuartzGL (2D performance acceleration) for Apple [[Quartz Compositor]].

The ultimate goal of GLAMOR is to obsolete and replace all the DDX 2D graphics device drivers and acceleration architectures, thereby avoiding the need to write X 2D specific drivers for every supported graphic chipset.<ref>{{cite web|last=Anholt|first=Eric|title=Building 2D rendering acceleration with OpenGL|url=http://mirror.linux.org.au/linux.conf.au/2014/Wednesday/52-Building_2D_rendering_acceleration_with_OpenGL_-_Eric_Anholt.mp4|publisher=[[linux.conf.au]]|access-date=10 February 2014|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304064444/http://mirror.linux.org.au/linux.conf.au/2014/Wednesday/52-Building_2D_rendering_acceleration_with_OpenGL_-_Eric_Anholt.mp4|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Packard|first=Keith|title=Brief Glamor Hacks|url=http://keithp.com/blogs/glamor-hacking/|access-date=7 March 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://wiki.x.org/wiki/Events/XDC2013/XDC2013AdamJacksonGLXRewrite/ |title=Adam Jackson - GLX rewrite |date=24 September 2013 |access-date=2014-03-23}}</ref> Glamor requires a 3D driver with support for [[shader]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://xorg.freedesktop.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/ |title=Radeon Feature Matrix |work=[[freedesktop.org]]}}</ref>

Glamor performance tuning was accepted for [[Google Summer of Code]] 2014.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/project/details/google/gsoc2014/degasus/5639274879778816|title=Glamor Performance Tuning|access-date=22 April 2014|archive-date=24 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924023047/http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/project/details/google/gsoc2014/degasus/5639274879778816|url-status=dead}}</ref> Glamor supports [[Xephyr]] and [[Direct Rendering Infrastructure#DRI3|DRI3]],<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTYyMjc |title=GLAMOR Xephyr & DRI3 Support Called For Pulling |publisher=[[Phoronix]] |date=5 March 2014}}</ref> and can boost some operations by 700–800%.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=MTYyODU |title=GLAMOR Patch Bomb Can Boost Some Operations By 700~800% |publisher=[[Phoronix]] |date=13 March 2014}}</ref> Since its mainlining into version 1.16 of the X.Org Server, development on Glamor was continued and patches for the 1.17 release were published.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://lists.x.org/archives/xorg-devel/2014-July/043106.html |title=glamor changes for 1.17 |date=17 July 2014}}</ref>

====={{Anchor|Virtualization}} Virtualization=====
There is a distinct and special DDX for instances of the X.Org Server which run on a guest system inside of a [[Virtualization|virtualized environment]]: xf86-video-qxl, a driver for the "QXL video device". [[Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environments|SPICE]] makes use of this driver though it works without it as well.

In the Debian repositories it is called xserver-xorg-video-qxl, cf. https://packages.debian.org/buster/xserver-xorg-video-qxl