Free X.org Server 1.8.0 with udev to Replace HAL

Keith Packard, responsible for graphics support at Intel, announced the new version of the X server on the xorg-announce mailing list. He describes the move to udev as a massive change: the X server gives preference to udev over HAL as a device manager if it finds the libudev library in the system. Part of the library is the 10-evdev.conf configuration file from which udev draws the data to load the X driver as the input device.

The configuration file finds its place in version 1.8.0 in the new xorg.conf.d configuration directory, which Packard indicates as the second significant change in the X.org server. The new directory makes it easier to use the many small device configurations instead of the large single file that was difficult to programmatically edit. Since the release, however, many questions have arisen as to the choice of where to put this configuration data that has not been cleared up (see the thread in the mailing list).

The 6.5 MB compressed tar archive is available for download from the x.org website, and the download file also includes the detailed changelog. Explanations for the changes are in Packard's announcement and the blogspot entry from the time of the release candidate in January from developer Peter Hutterer.

The X server 1.9 and the complete X.org window system 7.6 should be available around October, based on recent discussion.