Hi all
Been away for a while, making a return to openSUSE after some years away… I bought a Dell XPS13 Developer Edition on the basis it would ship without Windows and on the assumption it would work well with any Linux. All the rather lovely core hardware works out of the box with openSUSE 12.3, except the touchpad, which is unrecognised and works somewhat clumsily as a standard PS2 mouse. The hardware is Cypress, and Dell have successfully applied the pressure on them to produce a full-featured Linux driver. I understand this has now been patched into the newly released 3.9 kernel.
So questions…
I guess my only choice in the short term to make the touchpad work would be to install that kernel - is there a neat repo driven way to install a stablish version of this (not KOTD!) or must I get my hands dirty compiling one?
Is there a chance in the medium term this patch will be backported to a kernel released for 12.3?
I guess the big question is am I better off switching back to Ubuntu for now and pretending they haven’t lost interest in KDE?
Thanks for any input.
Chris
On 2013-05-03, putt1ck <putt1ck@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> Hi all
<SNIP>
> I guess the big question is am I better off switching back to Ubuntu
> for now and pretending they haven’t lost interest in KDE?
Before someone helpful usefully answers your touchpad support question, I think you’ll find the best KDE implementation
of Ubuntu is call Linux Mint KDE 
Which of course may not have the Cypress driver in the kernel…
On 2013-05-03, putt1ck <putt1ck@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> Which of course may not have the Cypress driver in the kernel…
>
… I see your point. Perhaps they might include it in their Olivia edition if they haven’t already.
It seems a pain to have to patch the kernel then re-compile just to support a touchpad! If you’re sure the driver is
included in later kernels, then why not use James’ SAKC for openSUSE:
http://forums.opensuse.org/blogs/jdmcdaniel3/s-k-c-suse-automated-kernel-compiler-version-2-50-34/
Thanks for the tip, SAKC to the rescue. One 3.9 kernel duly installed, touch pad working perfectly (and very nice to use). Now for the broader Linux using public, surely a backport of the patch into 12.3 is due? The XPS13 Developer Edition looks very nice with openSUSE installed, be shame if people were put off by the lack of touchpad support 
On 2013-05-03, putt1ck <putt1ck@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
>
> flymail;2553500 Wrote:
>>
>> It seems a pain to have to patch the kernel then re-compile just to
>> support a touchpad! If you’re sure the driver is
>> included in later kernels, then why not use James’ SAKC for openSUSE:
>>
>> ‘S.A.K.C. - SUSE Automated Kernel Compiler - Version 2.80 - Blogs -
>> openSUSE Forums’ (http://tinyurl.com/6y8upm5)
>
> Thanks for the tip, SAKC to the rescue.
Pleasure, but thank James for masterminding it.
> One 3.9 kernel duly installed,
> touch pad working perfectly (and very nice to use). Now for the broader
> Linux using public, surely a backport of the patch into 12.3 is due? The
> XPS13 Developer Edition looks very nice with openSUSE installed, be
> shame if people were put off by the lack of touchpad support 
Glad it worked, but I suspect openSUSE will stick with 3.7! At least we saved you from Ubuntu’s attempt at KDE!
On 05/03/2013 12:56 PM, putt1ck wrote:
>
> flymail;2553500 Wrote:
>>
>> It seems a pain to have to patch the kernel then re-compile just to
>> support a touchpad! If you’re sure the driver is
>> included in later kernels, then why not use James’ SAKC for openSUSE:
>>
>> ‘S.A.K.C. - SUSE Automated Kernel Compiler - Version 2.80 - Blogs -
>> openSUSE Forums’ (http://tinyurl.com/6y8upm5)
>
> Thanks for the tip, SAKC to the rescue. One 3.9 kernel duly installed,
> touch pad working perfectly (and very nice to use). Now for the broader
> Linux using public, surely a backport of the patch into 12.3 is due? The
> XPS13 Developer Edition looks very nice with openSUSE installed, be
> shame if people were put off by the lack of touchpad support
The patch was not marked with the indication that it be backported to the stable
kernels. That is why it was not picked up by openSUSE. I see no reason for it to
be restricted to developmental kernels, and I will send Email to the stable
mailing list to see if it can be picked up.