Wacom tablets in Ubuntu guide/howto

[Favux]

Thank you. I'll add your work to the HOW TO.

[riesengreen]

Hi all:

And thanks for work on making tablets usable in Ubuntu!

I am a 95% GUI-only user, and have been working on setting up my Bluetooth Graphire tablet for a couple of years (not kidding!).

After months and months of trying and failing, I am closer than ever!

Progress so far:

1) installed updated bluez packages from the PPA below:
htps://launchpad.net/~yobbobandana/+archive/ppa
>Bluetooth seems to be working. The tablet has been recognized and set up. I do not think that the Bluetooth connection is a problem.

2) edited xorg.conf
>As in Community Documentation, under "Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx): Method 1"

3) installed the package xserver-xorg-input-wacom using Synaptic Package Manager
>Again, as in Community Documentation

Things were very promising up to step 3, when I attempted to install the second of the two necessary packages, wacom-tools.

I could not install the package, and the error message below was displayed:



Error message read as follows:

Could not mark all packages for installation or upgrade
The following packages have unresolvable dependencies. Make sure that all required repositories are added and enabled in the preferences.

wacom-tools:

Package wacom-tools has no available version, but exists in the database.
This typically means that the package was mentioned in a dependency and never uploaded, has been obsoleted or is not available with the contents of sources.list
-

What do I need to do to install the wacom-tools package? If I need to add a software repository in Software Sources, I have been unable to determine which I need to add.

Any help is appreciated. Many thanks.

BMR

[Favux]

Hi riesengreen,

wacom-tools is no longer available starting with Lucid (X server 1.7 and up). This is because the X driver for Wacom tablets was taken over by Xorg. So it's now Xorg's xf86-input-wacom, not linuxwacom's, X driver wacom_drv.so. The xserver-xorg-input-wacom package now contains different stuff in other words. And the Xorg folks dropped several tools that linuxwacom had like wacomcpl, xidump, and wacdump.

It sounds like you have the tablet working. I'm not sure you had to use the xorg.conf. Could I see it? I think maybe the wacom.conf in xorg.conf.d would have worked for you.

Good work on installing the ppa and getting the tablet working. Sounds like your linux skills have progressed. What did you need wacom-tools for? It's not clear to me from your post.

By the way the Bluez patch for Maverick isn't available so don't try to upgrade to Maverick.

[maarts]

Hi,

thanks for this good howto!

I use an Intuos 4 (PTK-840) under Ubuntu 10.10 (xf86-input-wacom-0.10.8 ) and I set the keys with xsetwacom:

xsetwacom set "Wacom Intuos4 8x13 pad" Button9 "key Esc"

And all keys works fine, but the "Esc" Key doesn't work.

xxx@xxx:~$ xsetwacom list mod
....
43 specialkeys are supported:
  ....
    f32
    f33
    f34
    f35
    esc
    Esc
    up
    down
    left
    right
    backspace
    Backspace

Hm, and "xsetwacom list mod" view the supported keys...

How can I fix this problem?

thanks
maarts

[Favux]

Hi maarts,

Hmmm. That should work. It's in the 0.10.8 xsetwacom.c:

	{"esc", "Escape"}, {"Esc", "Escape"},

Have you tried it on another button? Maybe there's a problem with 9.

By the way you can get the OLED's to work.

[maarts]

Hi Favux,

thanks for your replay!

I have tried it on another button, but it's the same problem. What can I do?

Yes, the OLED's work. Here my inspiration:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...01#post9888901

thanks
maarts

[Favux]

When you run the escape key command in a terminal do you get an error message? What is it?

If you're interested sanette posted a slightly updated version of his take on Karg's OLED support (profiles) a few posts later.

[maarts]

Hi Favux,

there is no error message.

OK, I use xev and the ESC-Key on my keybord send the keycode 9, but the tablet send 8!! All the other keys from the tablet send correct keycodes.

My xmodmap:

! Converted keytable file to xmodmap file
! with mk_modmap by root@chanae.alphanet.ch vie nov 27 02:12:00 CET 1998
clear Mod1
clear Mod2
!  de-latin1.map: German keymap
!  Some changes due to Olaf Flebbe (flebbe@pluto.tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de)
keycode   9 = Escape Escape
keycode  10 = 1 exclam
keycode  11 = 2 quotedbl twosuperior
keycode  12 = 3 section threesuperior
keycode  13 = 4 dollar dollar
keycode  14 = 5 percent
keycode  15 = 6 ampersand
keycode  16 = 7 slash braceleft
...

There is no keycode "8"?? What can I do?

Thanks
maarts

[Favux]

Hi maarts,

So if the Button in the 4-function touch control ring is Button1 the eighth express key is Button9.

Looking at xf86-input-wacom-0.10.8/tools/xsetwacom.c, xsetwacom seems to be set up to handle up to 32 buttons (1-32). So that doesn't seem to be the problem.

Does Button9 work with anything else such as "key ctrl z"? Is it only "key Esc" that doesn't work? Does it work in Windows?

If it's not working in Linux you have to wonder if somewhere in the driver code it's being limited to 8 buttons. Confusion over the fact there are 9 buttons but only 8 express keys somewhere?

[maarts]

Hi Favux,

Does Button9 work with anything else such as "key ctrl z"? Is it only "key Esc" that doesn't work? Does it work in Windows?

If I set Button9 with the key: "key ctrl", it works. It is only "key Esc" that doesn't work on all the buttons! I don't have Windows.

Hm... any idea?

thanks
maarts