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

[Favux]

A Call for Testers

We just brought out Magick Rotation v. 1.2 on Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/magick-rotation This version significantly decreases CPU usage and adds an Installer feature. Testers and feedback welcome.

As part of the changes it has become easier to add other tablet pc's. Our first attempt is to add the Dell XT & XT2's. If you have a Dell and would like to test please use the files below. Substitute the 62-magick.rules attached (after renaming it from 62-magick.rules.txt to 62-magick.rules) for the one in the unpacked tar. Do the same with the hinge.py file. Then either disable hpwmi.py by renaming it or remove it and add oem_wmi.py in it's place. Once that's done double click on magick-rotation and let the Installer go to work.

Good luck with testing! Looking forward to some feedback.


Edit: Updated some labelling on 62-magick.rules. No functional change.

[Ubuntiac]

When I run it it says:

"The following packages are going to be installed:
libavutil50
x11proto-xext-dev
x11proto-kb-dev
x11proto-render-dev
libxrender-dev
libxdmcp-dev
xtrans-dev
x11proto-core-dev
x11proto-randr-dev
libxext-dev
x11proto-input-dev
libpthread-stubs0-dev
libxau-dev
libpthread-stubs0
libxrandr-dev
libx11-dev
libxcb1-dev"

Is it really necessary to have all these -dev packages installed to get a hinge rotation working? I'm also wondering if Magick Rotation is likely to help with the fact that in Natty on a Dell Latitude XT, that the touch input doesn't rotate when you rotate the screen with randr...

[Favux]

Hi Ubuntiac,

Basically you need gcc, libx11-dev and libxrandr-dev. Not sure where all the rest are coming from. Looks like Natty lacks a bunch of dev libraries that are normally there or wants to update them. Don't know how rotation will go in Natty, you'd be the first tester. Kernel and Xorg Xserver versions are what currently?


Edit: By the way the missing libraries may have something to do with why you're not seeing rotation in Natty. Seems to be a lot of xrandr stuff.

[Ayuthia]

Hi Ubuntiac,

Basically you need gcc, libx11-dev and libxrandr-dev. Not sure where all the rest are coming from. Looks like Natty lacks a bunch of dev libraries that are normally there or wants to update them. Don't know how rotation will go in Natty, you'd be the first tester. Kernel and Xorg Xserver versions are what currently?


Edit: By the way the missing libraries may have something to do with why you're not seeing rotation in Natty. Seems to be a lot of xrandr stuff.

I just installed Natty on my laptop and found that check.c does not compile in Natty right now. However, libraries still seem to be the same as Maverick so I copied the 64-bit binary over and was able to get it to run. I have attached it here in case you want to use it. It will need to go into the magick-rotation folder.

After that was installed, I was able to get magick-rotation to work with touch. I have an HP tx2 though but it should not really make a difference.

The extra dev packages that are listed are dependencies of libX11 and libXrandr. Unfortunately those two libraries are linked to a lot of other input related X code, they are also needed.

[wildschweini]

hey friendz, new in the forum but benefitting a lot due to your work!!! thanks a lot for this! I've got an latitude XT and try to get magick-rotation 1.2 running but it works only partially, even with ayuthia's hint. it starts fine and does toggling between touch on and off, but there is no hinge rotation at all. interestingly, it works quite good with a self-written rotation script: cellwriter starts but no enlargement of the panel takes places... curious on your comments wildschweini

[Ubuntiac]

Don't know how rotation will go in Natty, you'd be the first tester. Kernel and Xorg Xserver versions are what currently?

No rotation so far... xserver-xorg is version 1:7.5+6ubuntu3b1
kernel is version 2.6.37-8

Edit: By the way the missing libraries may have something to do with why you're not seeing rotation in Natty. Seems to be a lot of xrandr stuff.

I let it install them all, which finished without any visible error, and then restarted. I'm not seeing any difference when I rotate the screen yet. This may be related to Ayuthia's hint, which unfortunately I don't think I can use as my system is 32 bit and the binary he posted is 64 bit. If someone could post the 32 bit version of that same file from Maverick, I'd be much obliged!

[Favux]

Thanks for the feedback!

Hi wildschweini,

Welcome to Ubuntu forums!

What release of Ubuntu are you using?

Do you mind doing some more testing? Right click on the Magick tray icon and click on Setup and then Advanced Setup check on Debugging tool logging and hit Save. Then rotate and rotate back. Go back into Advanced and check off Debugging and hit Save. The log will be in your home directory. Please post it. Also you could right click on the Magick icon and tell it to quit. Open a terminal and change directories into the magick-rotation folder. Then run:

./magick-rotation

Go ahead and quit it again and see if it gives you an error. Then do the same and try a rotation. When you're back quit again. Again post any errors. Thanks.


Hi Ubuntiac,

my system is 32 bit and the binary he posted is 64 bit. If someone could post the 32 bit version of that same file from Maverick, I'd be much obliged!

I take it you tried to compile it yourself and found check.c wouldn't compile in Natty, correct?

[Ubuntiac]

Hi Ubuntiac,

I take it you tried to compile it yourself and found check.c wouldn't compile in Natty, correct?

Compile? Maybe I''ve missed something obvious, but all I did was:

1. Downloaded Magick-Rotation from http://launchpad.net/magick-rotation...on-1.2.tar.bz2
2. Unzipped it
3. Replaced the files as instructed in your "Call for Testers" post
4. Clicked on magic-rotation.py
5. Allowed it to install the packages listed in my previous post
6. Restarted my machine

Is there something I missed?

[Favux]

Hi Ubuntiac,

The Installer is suppose to compile it for you if it works. See if there is a file in the magick-rotation folder called checkmagic32. If there is make sure the file firstrun was removed. If not instructions on how to compile it are in Installer.txt.

Does the Magick icon show up in the Tray if you double click on magick-rotation but doesn't survive a reboot? If that happens double click on magick-rotation and right click on the tray icon and hit Save. It just means it isn't placing itself in autostart.


Hi wildschweini and interested testers,

I have a debug version of oem_wmi.py and hinge.py. A few print statements. These won't show in the Debugger log, so just do the rotation routine through the terminal as in the above post.

Just had a brain storm. Post them in a bit.

[Favux]

Oh well, brain storm didn't pan out.

Here's the debug versions. Substitute them in for the current files in magick-rotation.

Edit: For Dell testers -
Other helpful things you could do is first right click on the Magick tray icon and click on Setup and then Advanced Setup check on Debugging tool logging and hit Save. Then rotate and rotate back. Go back into Advanced and check off Debugging and hit Save. The log will be in your home directory. Please post it.

Also you could right click on the Magick icon and tell it to Quit. Open a terminal and change directories into the magick-rotation folder. Then run:

./magick-rotation

Go ahead and Quit it again and see if it gives you an error. Then do the same and try a rotation. When you're back to laptop right click on the Magick icon and Quit again. Again post any errors.

What would be very useful in addition to the above is is to enter the following command in a terminal:

sudo xxd -g1 /dev/input/dell-wmi

Without hitting another key or anything rotate the screen into tablet and then rotate it back. This should produce 6 lines, 3 after you rotate to tablet and 3 after you rotate back. Exit xxd with a ctrl + z. That set of 6 lines would be very helpful. 1 or 2 additional sets wouldn't hurt either.

Thanks.