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

[Rahul Sundaram]

On 09/05/2011 03:57 PM, Alexander Volovics wrote:
>  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'. 
Do file a bug report against the kernel in Red Hat bugzilla and cc
Matthew Garrett <mjg59-AT-srcf.ucam.org>  .  It can be reassigned if
necessary.   Keyboard information seems simple at first glance but often
is quite complicated.   For the gory details,  refer to
https://lwn.net/Articles/456146 

Rahul

[Rahul Sundaram]

On 09/05/2011 04:13 PM, Tom Horsley wrote:
>  On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 12:27:46 +0200
>  Alexander Volovics wrote:
>
> > Why does Fedora lag behind Ubuntu in this regard while usually
> > providing newer drivers and firmware than Ubuntu?
>  With fedora, a good guess is always the fanatical dedication to open source
>  licensing (but that is just a guess). Some lawyer may have noticed
>  that the Dell document describing the keyboard doesn't have
>  one of the acceptable creative commons licenses :-). 
Can you avoid doing this so often?  It misleads other users and is not
helpful in any way.  Thanks

Rahul

[nomnex]

On Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:42:19 +0100
Andrew Haley <aph(a)redhat.com&gt; wrote:

<snip>
nomnex:
>  > I disagree. I find it useful to stress this licensing policy.
> From
>  > my own experience I couldn't explain why OOo calc was stripped of
<snip>

>  Because is was wild speculation.  ("a good guess is...",
> "some lawyer
>  may have...")  No-one would have complained if it had been factual. 
I see. I understand the nuance now.

-- 
nomnex.
Registered Linux user #505281. Be counted at: http://counter.li.org/

[Andrew Haley]

On 09/06/2011 02:05 AM, nomnex wrote:
>  On Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:39:05 +0530
>  Rahul Sundaram <metherid(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  
> > On 09/05/2011 04:13 PM, Tom Horsley wrote:
> >> On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 12:27:46 +0200
> >> Alexander Volovics wrote:
> >>
> >>> Why does Fedora lag behind Ubuntu in this regard while usually
> >>> providing newer drivers and firmware than Ubuntu?
> >> With fedora, a good guess is always the fanatical dedication to
> >> open source licensing (but that is just a guess). Some lawyer may
> >> have noticed that the Dell document describing the keyboard doesn't
> >> have one of the acceptable creative commons licenses :-).
> >
> > Can you avoid doing this so often?  It misleads other users and is not
> > helpful in any way.  Thanks
>  
>  I disagree. I find it useful to stress this licensing policy. From my
>  own experience I couldn't explain why OOo calc was stripped of some
>  handy features available on the Sun version. Both were open source
>  software from my perspective. A user on #fedora explained me this
>  particularity (i.e. stripped featured to respect the free
>  software fedora policy). It might not be obvious for casual users at
>  first, but once it is, a user can decide to comply or change
>  distribution (ev. to compile a needed software). I like this stand about
>  Fedora, and I don't see how's Alexander comment is negative? 
Because is was wild speculation.  ("a good guess is...", "some lawyer
may have...")  No-one would have complained if it had been factual.

Andrew.

[nomnex]

On Mon, 05 Sep 2011 16:39:05 +0530
Rahul Sundaram <metherid(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  On 09/05/2011 04:13 PM, Tom Horsley wrote:
>  > On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 12:27:46 +0200
>  > Alexander Volovics wrote:
>  >
>  >> Why does Fedora lag behind Ubuntu in this regard while usually
>  >> providing newer drivers and firmware than Ubuntu?
>  > With fedora, a good guess is always the fanatical dedication to
>  > open source licensing (but that is just a guess). Some lawyer may
>  > have noticed that the Dell document describing the keyboard doesn't
>  > have one of the acceptable creative commons licenses :-).
>  
>  Can you avoid doing this so often?  It misleads other users and is not
>  helpful in any way.  Thanks 
I disagree. I find it useful to stress this licensing policy. From my
own experience I couldn't explain why OOo calc was stripped of some
handy features available on the Sun version. Both were open source
software from my perspective. A user on #fedora explained me this
particularity (i.e. stripped featured to respect the free
software fedora policy). It might not be obvious for casual users at
first, but once it is, a user can decide to comply or change
distribution (ev. to compile a needed software). I like this stand about
Fedora, and I don't see how's Alexander comment is negative?

-- 
nomnex.
Registered Linux user #505281. Be counted at: http://counter.li.org/

[Tom Horsley]

On Mon, 5 Sep 2011 12:27:46 +0200
Alexander Volovics wrote:

>  Why does Fedora lag behind Ubuntu in this regard while usually
>  providing newer drivers and firmware than Ubuntu? 
With fedora, a good guess is always the fanatical dedication to open source
licensing (but that is just a guess). Some lawyer may have noticed
that the Dell document describing the keyboard doesn't have
one of the acceptable creative commons licenses :-).

[Alexander Volovics]

On Mon, Sep 05, 2011 at 04:37:09PM +0530, Rahul Sundaram wrote:

>  On 09/05/2011 03:57 PM, Alexander Volovics wrote:
>  > 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'. 
 
>  Do file a bug report against the kernel in Red Hat bugzilla and cc
>  Matthew Garrett <mjg59-AT-srcf.ucam.org>  .  It can be reassigned if
>  necessary.   Keyboard information seems simple at first glance but often
>  is quite complicated.   For the gory details,  refer to
>  https://lwn.net/Articles/456146  
Will do.
Thanks for the reference. Didn't know this stuff.
Indeed 'gory details'.

Alexander