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Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 5:18 am
by crosscourt
I havent tested all my distros so far but Zorin 12.4 doesnt work at all but Mint Cinnamon 19 works fine, Ill test more distros and report back.

Re: Dell E6400 backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2018 5:38 am
by crosscourt
Kubuntu,Mandriva,Neptune and Rosa all dont work with the keyboard backlight. Only Mint 19 Cinnamon which including the E series dock which means youre seriously limited to which distros you can use. Works fine with Win 7.

Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2018 11:36 pm
by crosscourt
Netrunner 18.03 works with the backlit keyboard, not to mention in general. I was surprised as its based on Debian but other Debian based distros like MX Linux and Neptune dont work.

Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 7:17 pm
by crosscourt
My only complaint is, the backlit keyboard wont stay on all the time or at least longer. Many times it cuts out while typing or does a slow comeback while Im typing. They should have at least allowed the keyboard to stay on with the charger in use. You cant adjust it in Linux, only in Windows with the control point software.

Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Posted: Sun Sep 16, 2018 9:43 pm
by tlmiller
The KDE settings for backlit keyboard doesn't control it?

Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 2:18 am
by crosscourt
No, it has no affect whatsoever and this is a known problem that so far has no fix. Ive talked to Dell about it since they use Ubuntu but only with Windows.

Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Posted: Fri Sep 21, 2018 2:40 am
by crosscourt
Rosa with recent updates now works with the backlit keyboard, which pleases me as this is one of my favorite RPM distros.

Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Posted: Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:48 pm
by crosscourt
KDE Neon new version based on Ubuntu 18.04 didnt work with the backlit keyboard and the E series dock.

Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Posted: Sat Sep 29, 2018 5:40 pm
by crosscourt
Gecko Linux 150 based on OpenSUSE 15 Leap works fine with all features of this laptop. Livecd didnt work but did allow me to install and after that everything works great.

Re: Dell E6400 ATG backlit keyboard only works with some distros

Posted: Sun Sep 30, 2018 5:31 pm
by crosscourt
OpenSUSE 15 works great with all features of the laptop and supports the Broadcom wifi by default.