1. Introductory Note about the release 3.3.6

Before looking into this file, please check for any LATEST.OS2 files that may come with the binary distribution. Please also check out the following XFree86/OS2 WWW pages:

• http://ais.gmd.de/~veit/os2/xf86os2.html
• http://ais.gmd.de/~veit/os2/xf86bugs.html
• http://ais.gmd.de/~veit/os2/x11os2faq.html

This version of the code is called XFree86/OS2 3.3.6. This is a bugfix release for 3.3.5 and previous versions which again adds hardware support for some newer cards, including AGP boards. XFree86-3.3.6 contains all security fixes that were released for earlier versions. See the RELNOTES document for details.

XFree86/OS2-3.3.6 is a full, unrestricted version which does not expire, and for which the complete source code is available. In contrast to beta versions, we consider this code as sufficiently stable for use by an end user. Since there have been numerous bugfixes, we recommend this version, even if you had XFree86/OS2 3.3.x before and it worked satisfyingly with your hardware. By the time 3.3.6 is released, the older version 3.3 will be withdrawn, and archives will be updated to this version. There may still be references to 3.3 or 3.3.x still in documents; these apply to 3.3.6 as well, unless otherwise noted.

Previous versions have been tested in a large number of configurations and have been found to be working, with some bugs left, rather flawlessly.

This release is almost complete (with a few exceptions) regarding the X11R6.3 ``core'' distribution. A subset of the ``contrib'' distribution is available from the ported software page http://ais.gmd.de/~veit/os2/xf86ported.html

In the past beta testing, it has been found that the software itself is rather stable and does not damage hardware - provided the user does not try to push the builtin limits and change certain configuration parameters which could operate the video hardware out of specs.

However,

• even with a code we consider stable there is no explicit or implicit warranty that certain code works correctly or works at all
• although no damage reports are known, it does not mean that it is impossible to damage hardware with this code; some deeply hidden bugs may still be present in the software.

It is recommended that you backup essential data of your system before installing this software, but this should be your general precautions before ANY installation. No reports exist that a crashing X server itself actively destroys or modifies data, but it is possible in rare cases that the system is left in an unusable state (video display mode garbled or system unresponsive, not reacting to mouse or keyboard actions). If you then hard reset or switch off the system, file caches of the operating system might not be written correctly back to disk, thus causing data loss.