Tablet PC [Motion Computing LE1600] Issues

[DrGNU]

Ubuntu 8.10 - LE1600 (Motion Computing Tablet PC)

Wikipedia Stump
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_computing

Images
http://images.google.com/images?clie...N&hl=en&tab=wi

ISSUES
1. [working*] PEN/STYLUS

- other posts address the XORG configuration and wacom drivers
- Pressure/Sensitivity is working well and no need to calibrate.

2. [working] ROTATION

- other posts address the randr and scripts for rotating orientation of the screen, stylus and eraser

NOTE HAL not XORG controls this in Jaunty 9.04 SEE BELOW (work in progess)
3. [working] HANDWRITING RECOGNITION

- I recommend CELLWRITER (onscreen keyboard and cell-based character recognition)
- I recommend EASYSTROKE gesture recognition (can customize any gesture and link to command, button, etc)
- I haven't customized this fully yet

4. [UNRESOLVED] LOGIN/PASSWORD KEYBOARD
- Seen suggestions to do "automatic login"
-- this is unacceptable and NOT a solution

- I did see something about enabling GROK? or some keyboard as an accessibility solution, also I have not tried making EASYSTROKE available to the LOGIN process (I probably need to read more about how to do that)

5. [UNRESOLVED] HARDWARE BUTTONS
- I have tried "xev" and none of the buttons on the machine do anything

-- 4-way pad (PAGE-UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT SCROLL?) with a central button (ENTER?)
-- Four buttons (2 on each side of the "scroll/enter" pad)
-- Wi-fi on/off button
-- Fingerprint reader
-- Button for reset (CTRL-ALT-DEL?] next to Fingerprint reader

6. [UNRESOLVED] FINGERPRINT READER

- I have not tried to work on the Fingerprint reader yet
-- Saw information about another TabletPC recommending a couple software solutions and mentioning that they didn't work on all reader models
-- Hardware model for the LE1600 Fingerprint Reader:
$ lusb
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 08ff:2580 AuthenTec, Inc. AES2501 Fingerprint Sensor

This looks promising:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=503928

7. [UNRESOLVED] SOUND/MICROPHONE

-- Sound is currently broken this is lower priority for me at the moment
-- Microphone - unchecked due to broken sound
-- Will need to find links to finding out the hardware and fixes for these two items at some point

8. [WORKS W/ JAUNTY 9.04 ] WI-FI

- I am more interested in getting my SPRINT EVDO PCMIA CARD working instead as a mobile connectivity solution.

9. [UNRESOLVED?] EVDO PCMIA CARD

- I have a SPRINT EVDO Card that I use for internet access via an old laptop that runs WINDOWS XP. I've had success in the past on that old laptop that can dual boot to Ubuntu Studio (7.04?) but don't know how to share that internet connection and it is slower in Ubuntu compared to with WINDOWS XP. It worked by using KPPP.
- A while back I found a SPRINT .PDF file that describes how to get the EVDO working with Ubuntu and KPPP I don't have the link but can post it to my server if there is an interest in this.
- I must have done something wrong with my EVDO card with the LE1600 because it found the card but wouldn't test properly or connect to the internet.
- This will need some more work/experimentation.
-- I have poor reception in my apartment so that may be a complicating factor.

I have searched the forums and can not find how to get dead hardware keys to be found and working. There is no information on the LE1600 from what I have searched. There are some links on the internet to a Gentoo Linux site for this model but apparently that site lost its database so they don't find any information.
AS OF 7/26/09 STILL BROKEN

I hope others with the LE1600 or similar LE1700 will find this thread useful and will add in their fixes and links to information that will help others.

-DrGNU (Steve FSF Member#:6887)

[Favux]

Hi DrGNU,

re 4. : There are several posts at the HP TC1100 thread on using CellWriter to log in with. You may have looked at this.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ghlight=tablet

re 5. : Check in Synaptics Package Manager that you have hotkey-setup installed. Search hotkey. Some bezel buttons, the ones that return no keycode with xev, we haven't figured out how to detect. Apparently they use a proprietary driver?

re 6. : Not many have succeeded in configuring fprint for log in. My impression is that those who have, except for a few models of readers, still have problems with it. It seems that most fingerprint reader manufacturers haven't released enough useful information on their hardware.

[DrGNU]

Hi DrGNU,
re 4. : There are several posts at the HP TC1100 thread on using CellWriter to log in with. You may have looked at this.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...ghlight=tablet

I basically got rid of the authentication on logon but when I get some time to hack around again then I'll follow this link. Thank you!

re 5. : Check in Synaptics Package Manager that you have hotkey-setup installed. Search hotkey. Some bezel buttons, the ones that return no keycode with xev, we haven't figured out how to detect. Apparently they use a proprietary driver?

This is frustrating to me. A perfectly wonderful machine with hardware buttons that don't do anything! Motion Computing should be ashamed of themselves. It is a nice machine but definitely NOT worth the sticker price! They make even more money selling add-ons like the keyboard/cover.

I wonder if the keyboard (if/when I get one) will ALSO have issues!

I'll check out hotkey. Thank you!

re 6. : Not many have succeeded in configuring fprint for log in. My impression is that those who have, except for a few models of readers, still have problems with it. It seems that most fingerprint reader manufacturers haven't released enough useful information on their hardware.

Again, the manufacturers should be outed and boycotted by our community. Not releasing the information is completely unsatisfactory. I was amazed the hardware even worked!

I look foward to seeing the community make a work-around.
In the meantime it is another ANTI-MOTION COMPUTING advertisement to everyone whom I show the gorgeous machine.
I use such opportunities to plug FREE SOFTWARE and to inform them about companies such as Motion Computing who are BAD. Instead of Motion helping someone like me and others in the GNU/LINUX and FREE SOFTWARE community innovate uses for their nice looking and over-priced machine on OUR OWN TERMS they have chosen to force us to use restrictive operating systems and hardware such as WINDOWS and their UNSUPPORTED HARDWARE BUTTONS to do things on someone else's terms and on our dimes!

Then to top it all off Motion Computing has the nerve to e-mail me trying to sell me more attachments for this computer.

[Favux]

Hi DrGNU,

I propose an experiment.

-- 4-way pad (PAGE-UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT SCROLL?) with a central button (ENTER?)
-- Four buttons (2 on each side of the "scroll/enter" pad)

This sounds almost like the "pad" on Wacom external graphics tablets. Why not try adding "pad" to your xorg.conf and see if there is any response from them.

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver        "wacom"
  Identifier    "pad"
# Option        "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"    
  Option        "Device"        "/dev/ttyS0"         # SERIAL ONLY
  Option        "Type"          "pad"
# Option        "USB"           "on"                  # USB ONLY
EndSection

and to "ServerLayout" under the last Wacom entry:

  InputDevice   "pad"                      # For Intuos3/CintiqV5/Graphire4/Bamboo tablets

[DrGNU]

Favux,

Thank you.

I'll have to give that a try sounds like a good experiment to me.
I'll also post my xorg.conf file.

I want to believe that at one time I did try this pad setting but I'll try again with what you have there and report back. So I keep track of such things and so others in a similar predicament can follow along.

My apologies - right now I'm a little distracted with some issues with another computer.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1155157

Favux, are you using a Tablet?

[Favux]

Hi DrGNU,

No. I have a HP TX2000 usb tablet pc.

[DrGNU]

Hi DrGNU,

No. I have a HP TX2000 usb tablet pc.

Hi Favux,
I am not familiar with that model.
Google images shows me this:
http://2tu.us/f75

Pretty nice looking machine.
Does it use a Wacom active digitizer pen also?

I'm missing using a keyboard, eventually I'll spring for the convertible cover/keyboard combo for the slate.
Lately, I've been using my Asus EeePC with gNewSense installed on it and since I'm rapidly becoming a big EMACS fan I'm missing NOT having a keyboard for the slate. I also need to get an extra battery for the LE1600 because it doesn't last more than a couple hours running full bore with wifi on etc on battery alone.
It does charge up wickedly fast though.

[Favux]

Hi DrGNU,

I gave a lot of thought to getting a Motion because they look so handy. But getting all the accessories did drive the price up.

The HP TX series started with the TX1000 which just had a touch screen, no digitizer. Then the TX2000 and TX2500 which have both a wacom digitizer and touch screen. The new TX2z has the N-trig digitizer which combines the digitizer and touch screen in one and supports multi-touch. Unfortunately multi-touch isn't yet supported in linux and the way to get it to work is to patch linuxwacom to support it. Without, as yet, official linuxwacom support.

[DrGNU]

Unfortunately multi-touch isn't yet supported in linux and the way to get it to work is to patch linuxwacom to support it. Without, as yet, official linuxwacom support.

Truly a frustrating situation to be in - and not because of any weakness with GNU/LINUX but purely due to the manufacturers!

I am refusing to support restrictive manufacturers and restrictive software. When I saw the Motion LE1600 being sold cheap (used) I couldn't resist... since before I went to Free Software I was constantly watching their products wanting to splurge on one. I'm glad I erased XP without even trying it out on it because I refuse to use XP or any Microsoft operating system any longer.

That decision has given me some frustrations, but I have learned a great deal and have only been even more impressed by the Free Software community and their tools/help as result. I think the only thing I put on the machine that is not Free Software is one copy of the Opera Browser - which I hardly use because I use GNUzilla IceCat. Since I put Ubuntu on it however there may be some other proprietary blobs of code here or there. I wanted to get it up and running but probably could have been just as successful with gNewSense (100% Free Software built off of gnome/debian/Ubuntu).

In the future - if I ever buy hardware that can not handle a 100% Free GNU/Linux then it's getting returned for a full refund of my money.

[richardjbrown]

Hi there, wondering if you have any more luck on the LE1600. I have just install ubuntu 9.04 on a LE1600 and most things work out of the box. screen, wifi, sd card, pen. what i dont have working is

On board buttons. none of them i can get working and have really tried too much

Fingerprint scanner.i have had a go at the think wiki but have had some troubles and have not got it running.

Audio. i have had a go at the ALSA project but again still no win.

if you have got any of these working i would love to know more info on it.

cheers.