Comment 3 for bug 73982

I can't speak directly for Canonical, since I'm just a volunteer with the Ubuntu project, but I'm sure they do have one. With the huge popularity of Ubuntu, there are now way more users and bug reports than there are developers to adequately address each one, so some will inevitably fall through the cracks, like this one did. One of the things that volunteers have done is create a team called BugSquad ( https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad ) to try to address issues before they sit around for two years.

Another thing to consider is that most of the work done by Ubuntu developers is getting all the pieces of the GNU/Linux stack to work together nicely, from the kernel and drivers to X and Gnome/KDE to the applications on top of those, everything is pieced together by the Ubuntu team. Since this is such a monumental effort in itself, improving these components is more something that the upstream teams, the people who create these products that are packaged by Ubuntu, are more in charge of. So if you have an issue, report it here to Launchpad first. If no one does anything, you can try to bring attention to it on IRC channels. I think #ubuntu-bugs would be the best place to start (that's where the bug squad hangs out). Sometimes though, it just comes down to developers have too many things on their minds to follow up on every single bug, which is unfortunate, but sadly the case. Would I would do then is open a bug in the upstream component. So at the kernel bugtracker, and then post a link to the Launchpad report. The upstream bugtracker is where the specialists are who are more likely to be able to actually help you. Feel free to contact me personally via my Launchpad profile ( https://bugs.launchpad.net/~ash211 ) if you're having trouble with something.

So the best thing to do to make sure that the latest version will support your hardware is to run the development version every now and then (if possible) and post any bugs you find. If you don't start checking until the new version is already released, then obviously it's too late to get it fixed in that one!

I'll close this bug then, since apparently it got fixed by kernel devs somewhere between 2.6.15 and 2.6.16 Thanks for the bug report!