Wacom tablets in Ubuntu guide/howto

[dsavi]

Here's an xorg.conf produced with nvidia-settings that doesn't have any junk in it, I found that nvidia-settings has an option to not merge anything, just display a clean file.

xorg.conf:

# nvidia-settings: X configuration file generated by nvidia-settings
# nvidia-settings:  version 260.19.06  (buildd@palmer)  Mon Oct  4 16:01:38 UTC 2010

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Layout0"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    Option         "Xinerama" "0"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Mouse0"
    Driver         "mouse"
    Option         "Protocol" "auto"
    Option         "Device" "/dev/psaux"
    Option         "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
    Option         "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    # generated from default
    Identifier     "Keyboard0"
    Driver         "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    # HorizSync source: edid, VertRefresh source: edid
    Identifier     "Monitor0"
    VendorName     "Unknown"
    ModelName      "LG Electronics W2042"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 83.0
    VertRefresh     56.0 - 75.0
    Option         "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier     "Device0"
    Driver         "nvidia"
    VendorName     "NVIDIA Corporation"
    BoardName      "GeForce 8600 GT"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier     "Screen0"
    Device         "Device0"
    Monitor        "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    Option         "TwinView" "1"
    Option         "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +1680+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"
    SubSection     "Display"
        Depth       24
    EndSubSection
EndSection

xinput --list:

⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ USB Optical Mouse                       	id=8	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Wacom BambooFun 2FG 6x8 Pen eraser      	id=11	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Wacom BambooFun 2FG 6x8 Pen stylus      	id=12	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Wacom BambooFun 2FG 6x8 Finger pad      	id=13	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Wacom BambooFun 2FG 6x8 Finger touch    	id=14	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=7	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Creative Technology Creative USB Headset	id=9	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Dell Dell USB Keyboard                  	id=10	[slave  keyboard (3)]

xsetwacom list param:

TopX             - Bounding rect left coordinate in tablet units. 
TopY             - Bounding rect top coordinate in tablet units . 
DebugLevel       - Level of debugging trace for individual devices, default is 0 (off). 
CommonDBG        - Level of debugging statements applied to all devices associated with the same tablet. default is 0 (off). 
Suppress         - Number of points trimmed, default is 2. 
RawSample        - Number of raw data used to filter the points, default is 4. 
Screen_No        - Sets/gets screen number the tablet is mapped to, default is -1. 
PressCurve       - Bezier curve for pressure (default is 0 0 100 100). 
Mode             - Switches cursor movement mode (default is absolute/on). 
TPCButton        - Turns on/off Tablet PC buttons. default is off for regular tablets, on for Tablet PC. 
Touch            - Turns on/off Touch events (default is enable/on). 
Gesture          - Turns on/off multi-touch gesture events (default is enable/on). 
ZoomDistance     - Minimum distance for a zoom gesture (default is 50). 
ScrollDistance   - Minimum motion before sending a scroll gesture (default is 20). 
TapTime          - Minimum time between taps for a right click (default is 250). 
Capacity         - Touch sensitivity level (default is 3, -1 for none capacitive tools).
CursorProx       - Sets cursor distance for proximity-out in distance from the tablet.  (default is 10 for Intuos series, 42 for Graphire series).
Rotate           - Sets the rotation of the tablet. Values = NONE, CW, CCW, HALF (default is NONE).
RelWUp           - X11 event to which relative wheel up should be mapped. 
RelWDn           - X11 event to which relative wheel down should be mapped. 
AbsWUp           - X11 event to which absolute wheel up should be mapped. 
AbsWDn           - X11 event to which absolute wheel down should be mapped. 
StripLUp         - X11 event to which left strip up should be mapped. 
StripLDn         - X11 event to which left strip down should be mapped. 
StripRUp         - X11 event to which right strip up should be mapped. 
StripRDn         - X11 event to which right strip down should be mapped. 
RawFilter        - Enables and disables filtering of raw data, default is true/on.
Threshold        - Sets tip/eraser pressure threshold (default is 27)
xyDefault        - Resets the bounding coordinates to default in tablet units. 
mmonitor         - Turns on/off across monitor movement in multi-monitor desktop, default is on 
ToolID           - Returns the ID of the associated device. 
ToolSerial       - Returns the serial number of the associated device. 
TabletID         - Returns the tablet ID of the associated device. 
GetTabletID      - Returns the tablet ID of the associated device. 
MapToOutput      - Map the device to the given output. 
all              - Get value for all parameters.

xinput list-props "Device Name":

Device 'Wacom BambooFun 2FG 6x8 Pen stylus':
	Device Enabled (121):	1
	Coordinate Transformation Matrix (123):	1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
	Device Accel Profile (241):	0
	Device Accel Constant Deceleration (242):	1.000000
	Device Accel Adaptive Deceleration (243):	1.000000
	Device Accel Velocity Scaling (244):	10.000000
	Wacom Tablet Area (268):	0, 0, 21648, 13530
	Wacom Rotation (269):	0
	Wacom Pressurecurve (270):	0, 0, 100, 100
	Wacom Serial IDs (271):	211, 0, 2, 0
	Wacom Display Options (272):	-1, 0, 1
	Wacom Capacity (273):	-1
	Wacom Pressure Threshold (274):	27
	Wacom Sample and Suppress (275):	2, 4
	Wacom Enable Touch (276):	0
	Wacom Hover Click (277):	0
	Wacom Enable Touch Gesture (278):	0
	Wacom Touch Gesture Parameters (279):	50, 20, 250
	Wacom Tool Type (280):	"STYLUS" (283)
	Wacom Button Actions (281):	"None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0), "None" (0)
	Wacom Debug Levels (282):	0, 0

[Favux]

Hi dsavi,

I think we're getting somewhere.

I don't believe what xsetwacom is returning. I think those multimonitor commands are gone, they just forgot to remove the comments for them from xsetwacom.

I'm guessing Nvidia knows there's two monitors from:

Option "metamodes" "DFP-0: nvidia-auto-select +1680+0, DFP-1: nvidia-auto-select +0+0"

I'm thinking the key bit is in "xinput list-props "Device Name"

Coordinate Transformation Matrix (123): 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000

I believe before we can use the new xsetwacom command we need to set up a transformation Matrix in X.

Let's review. I think you said your monitors have the same resolution which simplifies things for us.

The new method relies on a new xsetwacom command in the form:

xsetwacom set <device name> "MapToOutput" VGA1

However we've been seeing the error "Server does not support
transformation". So either we were attempting it on Lucid's X server
1.7 (hybrid with some early 1.8 backported into it) or we need to
actually add the transformation. Since you are in Maverick it would have to be the latter if you're seeing the same error.

This is a two monitor case. You set up a linear transform (matrix):

xinput set-prop <left> --type=float "Coordinate Transformation Matrix" \
0.5 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

xinput set-prop <right> --type=float "Coordinate Transformation Matrix" \
0.5 0 0.5 0 1 0 0 0 1

The numbers are a 3x3 matrix read out row by row.

[ c0 c1 c2 ]   [ x ]
[ c3 c4 c5 ] * [ y ]
[ c6 c7 c8 ]   [ 1 ]

Since we're scaling from 0-1 if both monitors have the same resolution
you'd end up with:

  left:            right:
[ 0.5 0 0 ]     [ 0.5 0 0.5 ]
[ 0   1 0 ]     [ 0   1 0   ]
[ 0   0 1 ]     [ 0   0 0   ]

With the c2 = 0.5 on the right matrix being the offset. I don't know
if you are allowed two digits to the right of the decimal.

And at this point you can use the xsetwacom command.

By the way i'm getting this from:
http://www.mail-archive.com/xorg-dev.../msg08731.html

I was thinking xinput or Nvidia might give us the "Device name" of the left and right monitor for the two xinput commands. But now I'm thinking from the 'xinput list-props' output you might use just one of the commands with the stylus "Device name" in the command appropriate to the monitor you want it on. Follow? So you'd want to check list-props for the stylus first to see if you now have the transformation matrix in there for the stylus before using the xsetwacom command.

[SnickerSnack]

Is this coordinate transformation matrix the trouble I'm having in the other thread? http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...1&postcount=26

Also, I'm currently back tracking through the thread to find how to update to the newest versions of the wacom drivers/tools.

[Favux]

Yes if you've updated to xf86-input-wacom 0.10-10+. We're still not sure how to do it. Maybe we just need the coordinate options for part of the virtual screen. So it may be simpler than this.

I linked you to how to clone the git on the other thread with links to the Bamboo and linuxwacom HOW TO's.

So you're not going to try the older way or what?

[SnickerSnack]

I tried the old way here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...1&postcount=26, but it was quite frustrating, so I decided to try the new way.

Well, I got the newer version of the input driver by following section 2 of the how-to, but it didn't seem to work at all. The stylus was off by default, and "xsetwacom list dev" returned nothing. So, I reinstalled the old version for the time being, since it works fine when only display is active.

I'm going to try again at getting the old way to work. It didn't occur to me earlier to try using negative values for TopX. After reading the last post in a thread you linked earlier, I'm going to try again.

[dsavi]

Favux, thank you so much! I have No idea why that works, but it did.

A better way to explain that might be to use the left coordinate transform matrix if you want to use the left monitor, or the right coordinate transform matrix if you want the right monitor. (Just putting this there for people coming from google)

So for the left monitor:

xinput set-prop <stylus device name> --type=float "Coordinate Transformation Matrix" 0.5 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1

And for the right:

xinput set-prop <stylus device name> --type=float "Coordinate Transformation Matrix" 0.5 0 0.5 0 1 0 0 0 1

Choose one of those commands according to which monitor you want to map your tablet to.

If I understand it right this particular matrix only works if both monitor resolutions are the same. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

[Favux]

Hi dsavi,

Great! We finally figured it out!

Yes, you put it much better than I did.

Correct. For the same resolution. For different resolutions the coefficients would vary and for a 3 monitor setup there would be another matrix/xinput command for the third monitor.

To help others can you post your list-props with the "Device name" in it from 'xinput --list' so others can see the transform in it? It'll tell us which monitor you chose also. Please include the xsetwacom command you used too.

[Favux]

Hi dsavi, SnickerSnack, and everybody,

I've set up a preliminary HOW TO for the new method for dual and multi-monitors and the Wacom tablet here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1656089

Comments, critiques, testers, and help with the math: all feedback appreciated. Please post on that thread.


dsavi, I'm also interested if the changes to the transformation matrix from the xinput command last through a reboot or if you need to set it up in a start up script. My understanding is the xsetwacom command needs to be in a start up script to apply to each session.

[Francus]

I have a tablet pc (Toshiba m780 S7240) with a wacom diplay.
I installed Ubuntu 10.10 and the tablet seemed to work by default. At least it was possible to touch it and obtain a response.

However only one of the bezel buttons was working (the one to shutdown the pc) but the pointing device and the 3 other buttons are dead.

Also it would be nice to be able to configure the touch pressure.

I tried to follow the instructions found: installed utouch and xserver-xorg-input-wacom, but nothing changed. Also I am very afraid that going along meddling with it, without really knowing what I'm doing, I'll end definitely breaking it. Much more because it seems very complicated.

Also Instructions differentiate among USB and serial tablets and I do not even know what kind of tablet I have.

May be somebody knows something relatively simple to do just one time and that will possibly survive future kernel updates.

[Favux]

Hi Francus,

I would think you have a serial Wacom digitizer as that is what the M700 and M750 have.

So you don't need to worry about the usb kernel driver wacom.ko or a kernel update "breaking it".

With luck you should just need to clone the xf86-input-wacom (the X driver) git repository. See part II. of the Bamboo P & T HOW TO and follow the instructions.