Why should I upgrade my system and how do I do that?

# 10 Why should I upgrade my system and how do I do that?

Contents of this section

Upgrading will always refer to the latest XFree86 distribution (currently 2.1.1). First of all, take a look at the bugs section [cf. Bugs in XFree86 ]. If you are caught by one of those bugs, you should upgrade. You should upgrade, if you want to use one of the newer features. You should upgrade in any case if you are not running at least XFree86 2.0 as the shared libraries of XFree86 version 2 and those of the earlier versions are partly incompatible. Some bugs have been fixed since then and most binary packages that use X11 are linked with the XFree86 2.? libraries.

Every subsection has a list of new features (if there are any) angainst the next newer version.

Furthermore you should upgrade if you have problems with your `Xconfig` file and want to use the new `ConfigXF86` utility.

## 10.1 Upgrading from XFree86 versions before 2.0

You should get the complete distribution but the fonts files (`*-fnt*`) which have not changed.

## 10.2 Upgrading from XFree86 2.0

You should get the complete libraries and programs file, as there are some bugfixes (most important several security holes in xterm). New features in 2.1 are:

- kernel keytable support.
- 8bit colour lookup table support for some RAMDACs (S3 &Mach32 servers).
- Support for SPEA Mercury, TI RAMDACs, additional line lengths, and (preliminary) Bt485 (S3 server).
- Better DRAM card support (S3 server).
- Pixmux code for some RAMDACs (Mach32 server).

## 10.3 Upgrading from XFree86 2.1

You only need to upgrade if you have problems due to one of the bugs. If you start using XFree86 you should get 2.1.1, as many bugs have been fixed and there is a new configuration utility that will make installation much easier. New features in 2.1.1:

- `ConfigXF86`
- full Bt485 support (S3 server).

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