Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Discussion of hardware related issues
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crosscourt
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Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Post by crosscourt »

The recent 6.1 version of Mageia works fine with the backlit keyboard and all features of this laptop.
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Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

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Works with Linux Lite 4.2 but the interval on the light gets off at times but it works well enough
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Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

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Rosa with recent updates no longer works so i went back to Mint 19 Cinnamon as it works great and is also compatible with my E series dock.
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Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

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Mint 19 Cinnamon seems to be working fine and so far has been the best choice for supporting the backlit keyboard.
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Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Post by crosscourt »

I was hoping the E6420 wouldnt have the same issues with its backlit keyboard but it does.
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Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Post by tlmiller »

Not overly surprising. The E6400/10/20/30 are all basically chipset upgrades of each other. The underlying hardware didn't change a lot, even though the design did for the E6420. The biggest change was that the Exx30 had native USB 3.0, other than that and the core chipset changes to support the newer processors, those laptops are more identical than different.
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Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

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With recent updates the backlight is working with Rosa again.
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Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Post by crosscourt »

Netrunner 19.01 works very well with the backlit keyboards on both the E6400 and E6420. In fact there isnt any time limit as the keyboard maintains the backlight for as long as I need. Its the best implementation ive used so far.
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Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

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Zorin 15 works with the E6400 and the E6420.
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Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Post by crosscourt »

KDE Neon 2019627 works fine.
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