Wacom tablets in Ubuntu guide/howto

[Favux]

Hi strycore,

It sounds like you probably tried 'wacomcpl' to recalibrate and that didn't work. Wacomcpl uses xsetwacom commands for calibration like so:

xsetwacom set eraser bottomy "16630"
xsetwacom set eraser bottomx "26416"
xsetwacom set eraser topy "-101"
xsetwacom set eraser topx "66"
xsetwacom set stylus bottomy "16630"
xsetwacom set stylus bottomx "26416"
xsetwacom set stylus topy "-101"
xsetwacom set stylus topx "66"

Your calibrations would be different of course.

The bug report you link to may be marked as a duplicate to this one: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ls/+bug/410267 from this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1233845 So they already know there's a problem. Hopefully a fix soon.

This may be a bug in Xserver/Xinput or possibly linuxwacom.

[shatterblast]

Hi shatterblast,

I don't know about that.

I can tell you I've been referring people to your post #188 as an example of how to set up the pad since you posted it!

Okay, thank you. I can tell you're covering the basis well. I will check back later.

[llex_paul]

yess!! it works! i was starting to get discouraged after that loop, but now it's ok. 10x a lot favux!

[Favux]

Hi llex_paul,

Great! You're welcome. And you have your pad set up now? Good.

[Skiri-ki]

Hi there,
I'm having a fun time configuring my tablet as well, but my problems seem to be a bit different than the ones mentioned up until now (as far as I read them and the search told me anyways).

I have had a graphire4 in a dual Monitor setup first so setting up my new Cintiq 12WX was rather easy. Everything works, but the Expresskeys. They just don't do anything while the Touchstrips on the other hand, do exactly what you'd expect them to.

Setup: Cintiq 12WX on Ubuntu 9.04 using a self compiled linuxwacom driver (which Version I guess is -0.8.2-2 but ain't sure anymore) with --enable-wacom and --enable-quirk-tablet-rescale (for twinview). Other versions wouldn't compile or just didn't work properly.

Since I was more comfortable using xorg.conf, I disabled the 10-wacom.fdi at first and did everything through xorg.conf instead. Therefor I have entries in

Section "ServerLayout"
#           ...	
	InputDevice    "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
	InputDevice    "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
	InputDevice    "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
	InputDevice    "pad"
EndSection

and

Section "InputDevice"
  	Driver        "wacom"
  	Identifier    "pad"
  	Option        "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"   # USB ONLY
  	Option        "Type"          "pad"
  	Option        "USB"           "on"                  # USB ONLY
	Option        "Twinview" "horizontal"
	Option 	      "TVResolution" "1280x800,1280x1024"
EndSection

as well as similar entries for the other 3 devices. (My xorg.conf is rather crowded and confusingly structured so I decided for extracts only)

At startup I set one of the two touchstrips to ',' and '.', the other one to 'm' and 'n' and assign the nummbers 3-9 and 0 via "xsetwacom set" as can be seen in the attached .initrc file. It addresses the device as "pad" (without quotes). As stated, the strips work, the buttons don't produce any output.

xinput list

gives me a "stylus", an "eraser", a "cursor"(I know it's pointless), a "pad" and a "Wacom Cintiq 12WX" (no idea where that last one comes from though). For the full output see the attached xinput list.txt.

xidump -l und xsetwacom list print out the same devices, only "Wacom Cintiq 12WX" is ignored by xsetwacom list. wacomcpl lists all devices (except "Wacom Cintiq 12WX") and can be used for configuration. If I open up the buttons keystrokes, it shows me their respective numbers as I set them via xsetwacom.

xidump eraser and stylus work and xidump pad reacts to the strips as expected (Proximity changes from out to in AND key numbers are printed out (from 50-UP to 53-UP)).
It also tells me

1253062601 - MappingNotify

at the very bottom. The number increases in increments of one if I press a keyboard key and touch the touchstrip again (only keyboard, it doesn't work with the mouse). If I do this to often my deskbar applet crashes on me oO.
If I press the buttons one at a time, nothing is registered, if i press two or more simultaneously, Proximity changes from out to in but NO key numbers are printed.

wacdump /dev/input/wacom and /dev/input/event4 identifies the Tablet as

MODEL=Wacom Cintiq 12WX                 ROM=1.0-2
CLS=USB  VNDR=Wacom  DEV=Cintiq (V5)  SUB=DTZ-12wx

but won't show any activity at all.

(xidump is v0.8.3 wacdump is v0.8.2)


If I use the 10-wacom.fdi (exact copy of Favux's but still attached for quick references) xinput list and xidump -l print a second "stylus" instead of the "Wacom Cintiq 12WX" and wacomcpl also recognise a second stylus.

xidump stylus doesn't work, probably because of the second sytlus.

Once xidump produced any output with any device and is restarted with any device, it will not print anything for any of the devices, except "1253062601 - MappingNotify" once I hit a touchstrip. (It also does this without the .fdi though not after the first restart but about 2-5 restarts later.)

wacdump's behavior is unaffected by the use of 10-wacom.fdi

In any case (i.e. with or without .fdi)
using

xsetwacom set pad StripRDn "CORE KEY l"

during runtime works, changing the numbers for the buttons to, say... letters, works probably too (since it won't complain), but doesn't effect the missing output of these buttons.


So far I tested everything I could come up with and am pretty confused by the results of some of the tests. If anybody can make sense of this, or even better still, has an idea on how to fix this, I'd be more than happy to try it ^^

[Favux]

Hi Skiri-ki,

I don't think I'd upgrade to Karmic just yet. At least until they fix this bug: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=588649 Also described here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ls/+bug/410267

And did you mean linuxwacom 0.8.3-2? The 0.8.2-2 version doesn't support Xserver 1.6. The default 0.8.2-2 in Jaunty isn't vanilla, it has been specially patched to support 1.6 and HAL.

And for a little more information on setting up "dual monitors" with the Citiq see this thread, starting at about post #61 here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...=cintiq&page=7

Hope this is helpful.

[Skiri-ki]

Ah that's two mistakes on my side, I'm still using Jaunty and I assumed it was 0.8.2-2 because wacdump -V returned 0.8.2 and 0.8.2-2 was the only sources I had from 0.8.2-*. On hindsight I just realized that wacdump (probably) wasn't self compiled but came along with the Update to 9.04
I tried a lot of the drivers with various Problems and can't remember which one I finally used, how can I check this without having to try them all out again?

Regarding the dual monitor setup, both my monitor and my cintiq work perfectly in Tvinview and thanks to configuring with quirk-tablet-rescale I can switch the tablet area between them by touching the edges of the tablet. I'll read through the tread anyways and see if I can find something that might help me. Thanks ^^

Edit:
I also just realized that using an .fdi alongside of the xorg.conf is making it all rather pointless, so I commented the wacom specific lines out of it. The result is, that only the previously secondary stylus is recognized and the mapping on the tablet screen is off, as it uses the 3:4 ratio of my normal monitor. Not even calibrating is possible like this, since the lower right calibrating square is below the screen. If I specify TwinView and TVResolution in the fdi, the mapping is at least switching to the monitor if I hit the edge of the cintiq screen, where to it maps perfectly.

Also, could it be necessary to not only use the self-compiled wacom.ko, but the wacom_drv.so too?

[Favux]

Hi Skiri-ki,

That's right, you use either the xorg.conf or the wacom.fdi, not both. If you use xorg.conf you lose usb hot plugging.

Also, could it be necessary to not only use the self-compiled wacom.ko, but the wacom_drv.so too?

That's possible.

With the Ubuntu packaged version you can determine the version using the changelog in /usr/share/doc/xserveer-xorg-input-wacom or through Sypnaptic Package Manager or querying the apt-get list. As far as I'm aware you can't find version from a self compiled package other than the label on the source code tar. As Ping Cheng from LWP said to the same question:

Utility programs and drivers are versioned separately except they
packaged together since kernel driver follows the kernel base versions
and X driver follows its X driver base. The easiest way to make sure
your liuxwacom pieces are in-sync is to run the following:

download the driver package and unzip/untar it, then

cd linuxwacom-0.7.8-2/prebuilt
su
./uninstall
./install

From: http://www.mail-archive.com/linuxwac.../msg01061.html Despite this, as you know, both packages have to be the same version or things break.

To uninstall a linuxwacom compile see Appendix 4 here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1038949

[Loïc2]

Timo Aaltonen just uploaded 0.8.4.1 wacom packages for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic, I've tested them and they work fine with an Intuos3 tablet (the Cintiq is another story, but thanks to the threads posted here by Favux I should be able to configure it too).

The packages are in his PPA, at https://edge.launchpad.net/~tjaalton/+archive/ppa

He needs more testers to vouch for them, especially Intuos 4 users. Anybody with a tablet would make a big difference if they could test them and vouch for it (or not if it's worse) at https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/405800


Timo has been responsible for the wacom packages (and many other things) in Ubuntu for a long while, so you shouldn't worry about their provenance, except for the fact that it's still Linux wacom drivers we're talking about

Basically, you shouldn't expect an easier configuration than in Jaunty, but not worse either, and they have a few bugfixes + support Intuos4 tablet. They're also a stable release (and a bugfix one, since 0.8.4.1 is a bug fix of 0.8.4), better supported upstream than a random development release (plus it's the latest upstream too), so it would be worth have it in Karmic.

Thanks a lot Favux for helping Wacom users in Ubuntu (me included, since I've got to try getting the Cintiq to work in Karmic now).

By the way, when I tested 0.8.4.1 in Karmic, the cursor wasn't off in the Gimp, only in Inkscape, so it could be an improvement (not necessarily due to the wacom drivers by themselves, but nice to take ).

Don't upgrade to Karmic yet though - I'd advise a new install on a separate partition, since 1. there's still daily changes into Karmic 2. there's still the bug with the new xorg and Wacom tablets, at least in Inkscape.

I'll try updating the wiki a bit for Karmic, but only when the Cintiq will work

I also tested http://www.gtk-apps.org/content/show...content=104309 (saw the link from Favux) and it works with the default .fdi file in Ubuntu, which is really nice (even though it doesn't do all wacomcpl can do, but the part it does are far better).

[Favux]

Hi Loïc2,

Very good to hear from you.

It would be great if Timo got 0.8.4-1 (or even 0.8.4-2, out yesterday) into Karmic.

I'm looking forward to hearing how your setup in Karmic goes.