Who supplies the information to configure Dell keyboards?

[Alexander Volovics]

I ask because using Fed15/Gnome3 not all keys on the following laptops
(Dell Inspiron 1764 and Dell Vostr 3750) work.
For example the key to switch on/off the touchpad. It does not work
and also does not provide any 'notification'.

However using Ubuntu 11.04 all keys do work on the Inspiron 1764.
With Ubuntu 11.04 the touchpad key provides a notification icon
and works! On the Vostro 3750 with a newer touchpad (Alps) it
produces the notification icon but does not seem to work
(but all other keys work).

I tried the Fedora 16 alpha and it shows the icon but does
not work on the Inspiron 1764. On the Vostro 3750 it does
nothing at all.

Why does Fedora lag behind Ubuntu in this regard while usually
providing newer drivers and firmware than Ubuntu?

The kernel provides the drivers and firmware for Dell machines
and the keyboard configuration seem to be supplied by
'udev' and 'xkeyboard-config'.

Alexander