80 Posts

May 28th, 2015 09:00

After loading BIOS A04, I uninstalled then reinstalled kernel 3.19.  This had no effect on the  problem.

Current kernel is 3.19.0-19

80 Posts

May 29th, 2015 19:00

I just installed kernel 3.19.0-20 - the update appeared from the PPA.

Now it seems the  keyboard is workingg better. Not perfect as you can see, but much better. Enough that I won't be returning this machine to Dell.  Though I hope they issue another BIOS update with better de-bouncing.

It also seems to respond better if I bang hard when I type. My external keyboards are all mechanical switch, and I learned to type on a typewriter so many years ago, so I'm used to this.

Consider this resolved.

PS I got a kernel panic on  wake from suspend on 3.19.0-20, so I reverted to 3.19.0-19. I suspended and woke 10 times in a row, no panics. Not proof, but I removed 3.19.0-20 and I'm  sticking with 3.19.0-19, which I ran for 3 long days of work, multiple suspends, multiple wireless & ethernet changes, VPN,  etc. with no panics.

1 Message

June 1st, 2015 13:00

I also installed A04 and a new kernel (3.19.0-20).  But, the keyboard is still unusable--too many double letters.  Does anyone know if some of the hardware works better than other samples?  I'm planning on returning it--but my question is, should I trade it for a different piece of hardware in hopes it works better?  Or are they all equally busted for people who type fast?

thanks,

dean

80 Posts

June 1st, 2015 14:00

I can't answer your question but thanks for posting, at least I know I'm not the only one.

This must be a software problem, else it would have been noticed on the Windows version, which was reviewed by many different folks - someone would have noticed. Because of this it should only get better, not worse, as long as Dell knows A04 didn't fix it.

I have noticed that adding the kernel boot params has improved reliability - made the panics less frequent. I went back to kernel 3.19.0-20 and it's just as reliable as prior ones. My boot params in GRUB are:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="pcie_aspm=force radeon.modeset=0 noveau.modeset=0"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="noquiet nosplash"

BTW, this typed on my external keyboard with Cherry browns - that's why no typos.

No Events found!

Top