Okay, I’ve got to take a break from some very frustrating work.

Fedora Core 2 includes the 2.6.5 (and now, the 2.6.7) Linux kernel. Unmodified, this kernel will not see the ALPS trackpad on my HP zv5000z laptop. Fedora Core 1—with the 2.4.x kernel— would see it just fine.

Apparently, the kernel developers have changed the way they talk to mouse devices and have decided to move to a more abstracted input event device table. Seems like a great idea... if it works!

Some other people have been dealing with similar issues. This guy has a Compaq r3000z, which is very similar hardware and his page has some good information on setting it up. He had some success with the trackpad, but I haven’t been able to duplicate his results.

Here are some more sources of information I’ve found:

• http://www1.uop.edu/~khughes/presario-r3120us/
• http://cmb.phys.cwru.edu/kisner/linux/compaq-r3000/
• http://www.themoreiknow.info/R3000Z_web/
• http://lists.suse.com/archive/suse-amd64/2004-Jul/0267.html
• http://www.notebookreview.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=713
• http://amd64notebooks.com/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=19

Before I get back to work on these issues, I’m going to check out SUSE’s and Mandrake’s AMD64 ports to see if they’ve got the trackpad and PCMCIA issues resolved.

That’s right! Pick up your jaw off the floor!