yserver: A Contemporary X11 Server Crafted in Rust

yserver is a ground-up reimplementation of an X11 server, developed entirely using the Rust programming language.

🎯 Project Objectives

The primary goal is to deliver a functional X11 server capable of powering modern Linux desktop environments, window managers, and various applications. To achieve this, the project intentionally discards legacy architectural baggage, such as:

• Support for multiple screens
• Non-TrueColor visuals
• Indirect GLX
• The DDX driver ABI
• Clients with swapped endianness

Note on Naming: The title yserver is currently a "working name"—the first one that came to mind. Because other GitHub projects share this name (though none are X11 servers), it may be rebranded in the future.

🚀 Current Status & Capabilities

The standalone DRM/KMS version of yserver is now capable of running full-featured desktops including Cinnamon, XFCE, and MATE.

Supported Extensions

The server implements and tests the following protocol extensions:

• BIG-REQUESTS
• Composite
• DAMAGE
• DPMS
• DRI3
• GLX (including GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap)
• Generic Event Extension
• MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
• MIT-SHM
• Present
• RANDR
• RENDER
• SHAPE
• SYNC
• X-Resource
• XFIXES
• XInputExtension
• XC-MISC
• XKEYBOARD
• XTEST

Hardware Compatibility Matrix

Vendor	Status	Specific Hardware Tested
AMD	✅ Supported	Ryzen 9 6900HX (RDNA2), i9 13900k + RX580 (Polaris)
Intel	✅ Supported	Various modern chipsets
Apple	✅ Supported	M1 MBA, M2 MBP (via Asahi Linux / apple-drm / AGX-V)
Qualcomm	✅ Supported	Tested and functional
NVIDIA	❌ Unsupported	Proprietary drivers will NEVER work. Nouveau failed on GTX 1050.

Visual Proof

With the implementation of TFP, the server now supports Compiz. (Reference: compiz-720p.mp4)

🛠️ Technical Architecture & Setup

The server's execution flow can be visualized as follows:

Prerequisites

You will need a recent stable Rust toolchain. Depending on your distribution, install the following:

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S just gcc seatd libxshmfence libxkbcommon libinput shaderc systemd-libs fontconfig

Ubuntu

sudo apt install just gcc libseat-dev libxshmfence-dev libxkbcommon-dev libinput-dev glslc libudev-dev libfontconfig-dev

Alpine Linux

export RUSTFLAGS=" -C target-feature=-crt-static "
apk add gcc musl-dev fontconfig-dev freetype-dev libxshmfence-dev libxkbcommon-dev libinput-dev libseat-dev shaderc

🖥️ Deployment and Usage

Option A: Integration with LightDM

Since lightdm allows for a configurable X-server command, it is the recommended display manager.

1. Install the binary (requires root): just install $\rightarrow$ installs to /usr/local/bin/yserver
2. Configure LightDM: Create /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/99-yserver.conf with the following content:

   [Seat:*]
   xserver-command=/usr/local/bin/yserver
   

3. Restart the service: sudo systemctl restart lightdm

Option B: Manual TTY Launch

Switch to an available TTY and execute:

just startx

This triggers yserver and loads your ~/.xinitrc (or the system default at /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc).

Useful Hotkeys:

• Ctrl + Alt + Backspace: Kill the server and return to the console.
• Ctrl + Alt + Enter: Capture a framebuffer screenshot in the current directory.
• Ctrl + Alt + D: Export all drawables as .ppm files to the current directory.

🧪 Quality Assurance

To ensure protocol adherence and completeness, the project utilizes:

1. xts5: The X.Org X Test Suite.
2. rendercheck: For rendering validation.

Current progress and pass rates are documented in docs/test-status.md.

📊 Repository Statistics

The project is overwhelmingly written in Rust, as shown by the language distribution: $\text{Rust Percentage} = 97.4\%$

• Stars: 274
• Forks: 15
• Watchers: 6
• Releases: 11 tags