HOW TO: Set up the HP TX2z and Dell XT & XT2 (N-trig digitizer) in Ubuntu

[mcoleman44]

Ok, so I have an idea. This may sound stupid, and it might be completely impossible, but I have to ask.

Is there a way to use the stylus while Im using the touch pad on the keyboard. So that both cursors can move at the same time?

If we could get that to work, couldnt we just have the sub devices attach to the touchpad and stylus whenever a finger touches the screen, and then switch back when I release my finger?

This might be impossible and stupid, but I was just trying to think out of the box.

[mcoleman44]

Nevermind, that was stupid. I just tried it and it didnt work. What a surprise? haha

[Ubuntiac]

A quick guess based on the information above, it almost looks like the wacom driver was not patched. I say this because the X and Y resol is show 1016 instead of 11xx x 7xx or 1280x800.

Sorry, I've been overseas without internet for the last couple of weeks. Anyway, I realised that the problem was that I hadn't patched/installed the wacom.fdi file as mentioned in post#1. When I did that, I now have touch and stylus (with pressure) again.

Hooray! (and thanks for your help again )

Now I just need to wait for QT to work it's wacom related bugs out so I can play with this in Krita...

[rafiyr]

Ok, so I have an idea. This may sound stupid, and it might be completely impossible, but I have to ask.

Is there a way to use the stylus while Im using the touch pad on the keyboard. So that both cursors can move at the same time?

If we could get that to work, couldnt we just have the sub devices attach to the touchpad and stylus whenever a finger touches the screen, and then switch back when I release my finger?

This might be impossible and stupid, but I was just trying to think out of the box.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your question, but if not the answer is as simple as:

xinput create-master silly
xinput reattach stylus silly

Now if you want cursors to come and go based on activity, that's what multitouchd is supposed to get you for multi touch contacts (do not go out and try it, its on my list of things to fix). We could certainly extend that to pointers in general or something more targeted if you'd like.

Anyway, I don't think I'd advocate that for a general audience just yet.

[mcoleman44]

When you say on your list of things to fix, how far down the list are we talking? Just curious, not trying to rush or anything.

And I guess what I was saiyn was this;

If we make 2 subdevices for multi touch. We now have 2 cursors on the screen that i can move around with my fingers at the same time. But I cant click anything. My idea was to attach those mtouch subdevices to the stylus and the mousepad that way I can click. But that would only be possible if the stylus and mousepad would work at the same time. At the moment they dont.

And I know thats probably a stupid suggestion, but I had to ask.

[rafiyr]

When you say on your list of things to fix, how far down the list are we talking? Just curious, not trying to rush or anything.

And I guess what I was saiyn was this;

If we make 2 subdevices for multi touch. We now have 2 cursors on the screen that i can move around with my fingers at the same time. But I cant click anything. My idea was to attach those mtouch subdevices to the stylus and the mousepad that way I can click. But that would only be possible if the stylus and mousepad would work at the same time. At the moment they dont.

And I know thats probably a stupid suggestion, but I had to ask.

I think multitouchd sends clicks, but I'm not sure. Certainly it could be easily modified to add them.

Why can't you use the touchpad and stylus at the same time? Strange hardware problem? Running out of digits to drive your device (you still have toes

Anyway, if you really want to mess with that, you could just move a move to the same master as one of the mt subdevs. Or you could just mod the evdev code. There is something in there that emits an active inactive event, just change that to BTN_LEFT. But.... keep in mind the various levels of protocols are just being worked out now. So you should consider whatever weird hacks you write now, just a bit of fun.


I'm hoping to get to multitouchd this weekend. Just a bit of debug of existing code, not really looking to get into the philosophy yet. Also, keep in mind the authors of that code did, and do still consider it mostly a hack to show off and have fun (and the videos they made are pretty cool).

[mcoleman44]

Which evdev file in evdev could I find that in?

"Anyway, if you really want to mess with that, you could just move a move to the same master as one of the mt subdevs."

How?

[rafiyr]

Which evdev file in evdev could I find that in?

"Anyway, if you really want to mess with that, you could just move a move to the same master as one of the mt subdevs."

How?

Sorry, should have been more clear. You can muck about with the source of the evdev X driver. I think the pertinent code would be in evdev.c. All the usual warnings apply about playing with core code on your machine.


First, enable mt for your mt device, create a couple masters, and then reassign slaves in groups. (Sorry, not using evdev in my current Xsession, so not actual commands)

â¡ Virtual core pointer                         id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
â   â³ Virtual core XTEST pointer               id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ ntrig_pen_evdev                          id=6    [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ stylus                                   id=7    [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ eraser                                   id=8    [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ touch                                    id=9    [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ mtouch                                   id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]

(fake devs made up to illustrate)
â   â³ "kitty mouse"                     id=11   [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ "trackman FX"                         id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ mtouch sub 0                                  id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)]
â   â³ mtouch sub 1                                  id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)]

xinput create-master a
xinput create-master b

â¡ a pointer                                    id=18   [master pointer  (19)]
â   â³ a XTEST pointer                          id=20   [slave  pointer  (18)]
⣠a keyboard                                   id=19   [master keyboard (18)]
    â³ a XTEST keyboard                         id=21   [slave  keyboard (19)]
â¡ b pointer                                    id=22   [master pointer  (23)]
â   â³ b XTEST pointer                          id=24   [slave  pointer  (22)]
⣠b keyboard                                   id=23   [master keyboard (22)]
    â³ b XTEST keyboard                         id=25   [slave  keyboard (23)]

xinput reattach 11 18
xinput reattach 13 18

xinput reattach 12 22
xinput reattach 14 22

Now we have kitty mouse supplying clicks on the same pointer as the first finger, and my trackball sending clicks to the pointer of my second finger. And you will need the cat to hit the mouse buttons for you if you actually want to try to use such a configuration (or put a mouse by your toes).

I think you could have some fun with this.

Sorry about the unicode characters instead of the usual line art. I should probably clean up my xterm settings.

[mcoleman44]

Before I make the new groups and sub devices, do I have to run:

xinput set-prop '"N-Trig MultiTouch"' "Evdev MultiTouch" 4

[rafiyr]

Before I make the new groups and sub devices, do I have to run:

xinput set-prop '"N-Trig MultiTouch"' "Evdev MultiTouch" 4

Yup.

Man including the double quotes in the name string is getting on my nerves. I'll have to talk to someone about that.