Tiny-X, a small footprint X Window server implementation for embedded systems, is now available as part of XFree86 4.0. It was developed by Keith Packard of the XFree86 Core Team, sponsored by SuSE, Inc. The goal was to create something that would work well in a small memory footprint and, importantly, be robust in near out-of-memory situations. Typical X servers based on Tiny-X can fit in less than 1MB on x86 CPUs.

Currently, there is no mechanism provided for loading alternative video drivers. So, just as in the “bad old days” of XF 3.3, you build an X server specific to your video chip and run that. Tiny-X uses new frame buffer code which is quite a bit smaller than the old cfb/mfb combo which runs 1, 4, 8, 16, 24, and 32 bpp in the same code. The Tiny-X DDX also handles an out-of-memory condition without failure.

The code for Tiny-X is shipped with XFree86 4.0 and lives in programs/Xserver/hw/kdrive. The ftp site for XFree86 4.0 is located here.

 
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