If you have an E laptop with the latest alps device, it is not protocol compatible with other alps devices. This is just another example of Dell being in the pants of microsoft with little regard for Linux users.
I have an E6410 with the same issue. I also had issues with the sdhc card reader, and power management. Power management has been resolved in the 2.6.33 kernel, and a couple of us have been working on a fix for the sdhc card reader, but no one is working on the new Alps touchpad device.
This is why we started buying Mac Laptops for our engineers. The hardware just works and we can do meego / maemo / moblin development just fine in an ubuntu virtual machine.
I see Dell making a lot of noise about supporting Linux, but they do nothing to push their device manufacturers into providing help with linux drivers.
I like my E6410. It is a very cool laptop, but my next one will be a macbook.
Thanks. I've been following the Ubuntu work. Seems that they have parts of it working, but not everything. I think it is always useful to send a not to ALPS and Dell letting them know your concerns about this.
glebovitz
3 Posts
0
July 23rd, 2010 12:00
If you have an E laptop with the latest alps device, it is not protocol compatible with other alps devices. This is just another example of Dell being in the pants of microsoft with little regard for Linux users.
I have an E6410 with the same issue. I also had issues with the sdhc card reader, and power management. Power management has been resolved in the 2.6.33 kernel, and a couple of us have been working on a fix for the sdhc card reader, but no one is working on the new Alps touchpad device.
This is why we started buying Mac Laptops for our engineers. The hardware just works and we can do meego / maemo / moblin development just fine in an ubuntu virtual machine.
I see Dell making a lot of noise about supporting Linux, but they do nothing to push their device manufacturers into providing help with linux drivers.
I like my E6410. It is a very cool laptop, but my next one will be a macbook.
ubuntu-rakete
5 Posts
0
August 30th, 2010 08:00
there is work going on in this bug, within the ubuntu-community.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/550625
there are some patches, but nothing final, yet.
glebovitz
3 Posts
0
August 30th, 2010 09:00
Thanks. I've been following the Ubuntu work. Seems that they have parts of it working, but not everything. I think it is always useful to send a not to ALPS and Dell letting them know your concerns about this.