Wacom tablets in Ubuntu guide/howto

[Favux]

Hi llex_paul,

Welcome to the Ubuntu Forums!

Probably the easiest way is to use wacomcpl. If you enter 'wacomcpl' in a terminal the linuxwacom calibration and configuration gui pops up. To find out if you can use it enter in a terminal:

xsetwacom list

It should return stylus, eraser, cursor, and pad. If it is blank you can not use wacomcpl.

To fix this go to post #176 on this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=967147&page=18 and follow the instructions to install the modified 10-wacom.fdi.

Then to set up wacomcpl go to "Section 3: Calibrating your Tablet" here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1038949 and follow the instructions.

Now to set up your pad go to shatterblast's post #188 on this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=967147&page=19 to see how he set up his Bamboo's pad. What he is doing is modifying the .xinitrc you worked on above. Remember it is a hidden file so to see it check Show Hidden files in View in Places.

Good luck!

[Dave M G]

Favux,

Thanks! This is really great! I now have my tablet switching between relative and absolute mode on-the-fly with just some simple keystrokes.

This has made it possible to switch between graphics editing and other tasks so easy that I think my cumulative productive time at the computer just shot up considerably.

A couple notes for anyone who might be considering something similar:

The command line needs to be all lower case:
xsetwacom set stylus mode absolute
xsetwacom set stylus mode relative

Upper case "Stylus", as originally suggested, didn't work for me.

The other thing was that I use Compiz as my window manager, and in the interface there is a section called "commands", where one can simply assign a command to a sequence of buttons. On the upside, this was easier to set up. On the downside, this will only work in Compiz. If for any reason Compiz crashes or I need to switch to another window manager (rare, but happens once in a blue moon), then that key binding won't apply.

Oh, and one last thing. I originally intended to use super+1 and super+2 as my switching keys (the "super" key is the one that sometimes has a Windows logo on it... if you're not hardcore like me and took it off with rubbing alcohol!). For some reason, no binding with the super key would work, perhaps because of a conflict with another key binding. So instead I chose to alt+1 and alt+2 and that works fine.

I am totally psyched!

Thanks for all your help!

[llex_paul]

i hope it will work, but i will try it at my friend...i am afraid of the problems that may appear...(i heard that i can get in ubuntu crash if there is something wrong and i don't know a lot of things... is there any risk?). i hope you understand me...there is a lotttt of strange things in all of that codes for me)

[Favux]

Hi llex_paul,

Sure, get your friend to help. It's pretty safe to do. Not likely to crash the system. You will quickly learn things.


Hi Dave M G,

Great! You're welcome.

[adrianbowyer]

Hi

I am running Jaunty and I have a Wacom Bamboo model CTE-650. This doesn't quite work "out of the box", and I can't figure out why.

lsusb gives:

Bus 006 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 005 Device 002: ID 056a:0018 Wacom Co., Ltd
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
.
.

which seems to imply it's connected. dmesg | tail gives:

[21878.842206] usb 5-2: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 2
[21879.067015] usb 5-2: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[21879.140965] usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
[21879.141709] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[21879.142051] /build/buildd/linux-source-2.6.22-2.6.22/drivers/hid/usbhid/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver

which again seems to imply that it's there. My /etc/X11/xorg.conf has all the old wacom stuff commented out:

.
.
# commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used
# InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
# commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used
# InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
# commented out by update-manager, HAL is now used
# InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
.
.

and so on.

And yet the tablet won't control the mouse.

xinput --list gives:

"Virtual core pointer" id=0 [XPointer]
Num_buttons is 32
Num_axes is 2
Mode is Relative
Motion_buffer is 256
Axis 0 :
Min_value is -1
Max_value is -1
Resolution is 0
Axis 1 :
Min_value is -1
Max_value is -1
Resolution is 0
"Virtual core keyboard" id=1 [XKeyboard]
Num_keys is 248
Min_keycode is 8
Max_keycode is 255
"AT Translated Set 2 keyboard" id=2 [XExtensionKeyboard]
Num_keys is 248
Min_keycode is 8
Max_keycode is 255
"ImPS/2 Generic Wheel Mouse" id=3 [XExtensionPointer]
Num_buttons is 32
Num_axes is 2
Mode is Relative
Motion_buffer is 256
Axis 0 :
Min_value is -1
Max_value is -1
Resolution is 1
Axis 1 :
Min_value is -1
Max_value is -1
Resolution is 1
"Macintosh mouse button emulation" id=4 [XExtensionPointer]
Num_buttons is 32
Num_axes is 2
Mode is Relative
Motion_buffer is 256
Axis 0 :
Min_value is -1
Max_value is -1
Resolution is 1
Axis 1 :
Min_value is -1
Max_value is -1
Resolution is 1

and I'm fairly sure none of those is the tablet. Any idea what I'm missing?

[Favux]

Hi adrianbowyer,

See if in a terminal entering:

dmesg | grep [Ww]acom

returns Wacom stuff.

Check in Synaptic Package Manager that both 0.8.2-2 linuxwacom packages are installed: xserver-xorg-input-wacom & wacom-tools If not install them and reboot. Then try dmesg again.

Before installing the linuxwacom packages check to see that in "/usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/" there is a file called "10-wacom.fdi". It should be there after you install the packages.

[MartinGiese]

still there is no button5 recognized by X.

I am wondering how xinput knows how many buttons are available for each input device. I have not found that info up to now. may it be part of the driver?

is there anyone else with a wacom bamboo and a missing scroll-event?

sl ubootfanat

Yep, i have the same problem:

• scrolling one way (button 4) works, but not the button 5 way.
• xinput for the "pad" says "Num_buttons is 4"
• xidump only reports button 4 and not button 5 events
• binding AbsWUp or AbsWDn to "core key +" and the likes works.

Any solution to this yet?

[adrianbowyer]

Hi Favux

Thanks for your reply.

dmesg | grep [Ww]acom

gives nothing.

Both xserver-xorg-input-wacom and wacom-tools are installed, and have been all along.

/usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/10-wacom.fdi exist, and again has been there all along.

[Favux]

Hi adrianbowyer,

It should have returned some Wacom stuff if things were working.

So first thing is are you sure the hardware is OK? Does it work in Windows or on another machine?

How new is this model of Bamboo? When did Wacom start manufacturing it, if you know?

It almost sounds like your wacom.ko isn't in place, isn't working, or doesn't work for your model of Bamboo.

The wacom.ko comes with the "linux image" for your kernel. The "linux-image" has the default kernel modules. In Synaptic Package Manager you could find the correct one for your kernel version, it should be checked as installed, and tell it to reinstall. Then reboot. See if that does anything.

Edit: Another possiblity is that you need to add 'wacom' (without the quotes) to the end of your "/etc/modules" file. Some systems don't seem to kick in the wacom.ko unless you do that.

[shatterblast]

Step 1) Install wacom-tools from Synaptic if available. Xserver-xorg-input-wacom should already be installed.

Step 2) If you use a Bamboo, try running the attached script in this posting.


Step 3) Several other types of Wacom tablets are compatible with the Bamboo. If you still have trouble, go into Terminal and type:

xinput --list

Change the naming around as necessary in the attached script.

Step 4) If you still have trouble, use the 10-wacom.fdi file. Usage of the file may still be necessary for tweaking to achieve desirable settings. If so, the attached script will require changes in naming.

Good luck.