Fujitsu Stylistic St5010D

[billklee]

I just picked up, as mentioned in the title, a Fujitsu tablet PC, a Stylistic ST5010D. My intent was to make an Ubuntu-based e-book reader and web browser and, of course, to play with it.

I installed Kubuntu on it, with the intention to add Ubuntu and Xubuntu later. The biggest reason I went with Kubuntu for the base installation is because I happen to have a Kubuntu 9.04 cd on hand. I knew it might be a bit tricky, having gone through several forum searches for "tablet." However, it might be a bit trickier than I anticipated.

As I said, I installed Kubuntu on it, which took a bit of juggling, right off the bat, but it's installed. It seems to work, for the most part, but the first thing I have trouble with is networking. I'm sitting at a rest area in Texas (I'm a truck driver, and it gives me something to do while I'm waiting for a Tuesday morning pickup), and it does not see the wireless access point. Oddly enough, my other laptop, a Dell Inspiron E1505n, does see it, which is how I'm posting this.

If I have to, I can wait until I get home next weekend and plug in an ethernet cable, but if I can get it working now, I'd certainly like to.

I've got several threads bookmarked that I hope will help with the general setup and configuration. There are a few things I've thought of I want to set up.

1: I want to be able to rotate the display and have it automagically change from landscape to portrait when I do so (when I use KRandRTray, it rotates the display, but the orientation does not change - the display is pushed up into the upper 2/3 of the screen, with the left and right ends pushed off-screen. I need to get it to switch from 1024x768 to 768x1024, obviously.

2: Also, when I rotate the screen, the mouse or pen goes semi-wonky. By that, I mean that even though the display had rotated 90 degrees, the mouse moves at about 10 to 15 degrees off of the original orientation, but does not move evenly. I'm hoping that calibration will fix that.

3: I've got it set up to load a virtual keyboard (kvkbd) before login, but it's not working quite right, either. Just before the login window appears, the keyboard pops up, but disappears when the login comes up. As soon as I log in (with a real keyboard) and it finished loading, kvkbd comes back up. I found a thread a couple of weeks ago that detailed a method of doing so, but neglected to bookmark it, and can't seem to find it now.

4: as I mentioned above, it doesn't see the local wireless access point I'm using with the other laptop. Oddly enough, when I first installed Kubuntu, it wouldn't see the access point, but I remembered that the ST5010 has a switch on the back to turn the WLAN on and off, and I'd turned it off to save battery. When I turned it back on, and rebooted, it saw the access point, but wouldn't connect. I decided to try re-installing Kubuntu with the WLAN switched on, on the feeble hope that if it was on during installation, then maybe whatever drivers it needed would be installed. As it was a new, clean install, I had nothing to lose, so I went ahead with it. Afterward, it won't even see the access point. Bad call on my part, obviously.

5: the stylus works as a single-click mouse only. There's a rocker switch on the barrel, which is supposed to be right-click (push forward) and erase (push backward), but those don't work. However, they didn't work before, either, so in this case, I think I need to get a new stylus.

When I first got it, it had Windows XP installed, and it worked pretty well. It booted up quickly, the WLAN worked (for the most part - it did not work when I first got to the rest area, but then, as I mention above, I had it turned off. Had it been turned on, it might well have see and connected to the access point. As for the stylus, the right-click and erase did not work in Windows, either, so I believe the stylus is defective. However, in Windows, if I held the stylus point against the screen for a few seconds without moving it, it would pop up with the right-click contextual menu. It does not do this in Kubuntu.

Two final questions, before I post this and go to sleep.

First off, is there a particular linux distribution that works better with tablets than K/X/Ubuntu?

Second, software. As far as I can tell, I need to install wacom-tools to get it to work right, or at least better. I've seen mention of cellwriter, xournal, easystroke and basket, and intend to check them out. Are there any others that I should check out?

Almost forgot the specs:
1 GHz Intel Pentium M
1 GB RAM
60 GB HD
Atheros WLAN

[Favux]

Hi billklee,

Sounds like a fun project. By the way you have a serial Wacom tablet pc.

To get the stylus to change orientation you need a xsetwacom command to go with the rotation. Since you're in 9.04 we need to check a few things.

Make sure that both 0.8.2-2 linuxwacom packages are installed: xserver-xorg-input-wacom & wacom-tools.

To use xsetwacom commands and wacomcpl (the calibration and configuration gui) in a terminal:

xsetwacom list

should return stylus (and eraser if you have one). If blank to see what HAL's calling things enter:

xinput -list

There's a couple of ways to go, see Jaunty User's near the top here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1038949 Rec's script may be a good option.

Then to look at some rotation scripts see: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...92#post6274392

For wireless you'll need to post on the Wireless & Networking forum. There's several big threads that should be helpful and I've see the Atheros chipset dealt with.

Since you're in Jaunty the tablet is configured through the 10-wacom.fdi, not the xorg.conf. It's at /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/. So keep that in mind when looking at these links:

http://narnia.cs.ttu.edu/drupal/node/165

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=514842

http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Gento..._ST5010_Manual

Hope this was helpful.

[billklee]

Thanks for the response!

I am taking notes. For what it's worth, I plan to write down everything I do, as I do it. That way, I'll know (hopefully) what works and what doesn't, and, if anyone else is interested, I could post it all as a how-to when I'm done.

It looks like I'll have to wait, though, until I get home next weekend. I'll need network access to install stuff, and all I've got here at the rest area is sporadic wifi provided by the state of Texas. Once I leave here, I probably won't have any internet access until I get home, or if I hit a rest area back here in Texas (unlikely) or maybe in Iowa (also unlikely). I've got the week after next off, so I should have time then to get to work on this.

I'd be hitting all these pages and taking extensive notes while I've got the time, but the ubuntu forum pages are very slow to load. Still, I've got nothing better to do, and not much else to read.

So far, I need:
xserver-xorg-input-wacom
wacom-tools

[Favux]

Hi billklee,

Correct, and usually xserver-xorg-input-wacom is installed by default alond with the 10-wacom.fdi. The one you may have to install is wacom-tools.

[billklee]

I've finally been home and had a few days to work on it. There were four main things I wanted to get working: wireless, rotation, tablet buttons and on-screen keyboard for login. I've had some success, and with a few more hints, I'm pretty sure I can get the rest.

1: wireless. The first thing I did with this tablet when I got home was to plug it into my DSL and run sudo apt-get update;sudo apt-get upgrade. After that, the wifi works like a charm. Wish the rest of it was that easy.

2: screen rotation. I'm using your Method 1, right-handed script from the opening post of How to Rotate the Screen for a TX2000 Tablet PC. It works 2/3 perfectly. The screen rotates, and maximized windows resize themselves to the new orientation. That's 1/3. The mouse also rotates, so the cursor moves correctly. That's 2/3. Unfortunately, the stylus does not rotate. That's the missing 1/3.

When in portrait mode, which is where I intend to mainly keep it, the stylus is 90 degrees off. If I touch the stylus to the upper right-hand corner of the screen, the cursor is in the lower right-hand screen. As I move the stylus down the edge of the screen, the cursor moves to the left, taking the same time to go from bottom right to bottom left as the stylus does from top right to bottom right. Different distances, same time. As I move the stylus clockwise from corner to corner, the cursor stays ahead.

I'm not sure if it's a calibration problem, or something in the script. When I try to run wacomcpl to calibrate the stylus, I get this:

william@buntablu:~$ wacomcpl
wacomcpl: using TCLLIBPATH="[list  /usr/local/lib ]"
Error in startup script: xsetwacom: error while loading shared libraries: libxcb-xlib.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
    while executing
"exec xsetwacom list"
    (procedure "createDeviceList" line 4)
    invoked from within
"createDeviceList "
    (procedure "createControls" line 8)
    invoked from within
"createControls"
    (file "/usr/local/bin/wacomcpl-exec" line 1953)
william@buntablu:~$

As I get the time, I'm going to have to read the other 28 pages in that thread.

3: the tablet buttons. They don't show up in xev, and I don't know how to make them do so. I tried downloading fjbtndrv, which is supposed to cover that, but when I run ./configure it fails, telling me that it can't find 'hal'. Now, I had to install four or five other packages it couldn't find, but hal is already installed. I don't know what to do with fjbtndrvpast this point.

4: on-screen login keyboard. So far, I've found 3 ways to get an onscreen login keyboard, and none of them work.

The first one involved kvkbd. It pops up before the login window, then promptly vanishes an instant before the login window appears. It then reappears as soon as login is finished.

The second involved xvkbd. It, too appeared before the login window, but then the system stalled right there. I let it spin for five or ten minutes to no avail.

The third method also involved xvkbd, and kdm. This time, I got the keyboard and most of the login window. I say 'most of' because the window came up, but the username and password fields wouldn't show until I exited xvkbd.

So, I need to work at that some more. gok, sok and onboard all sound like they might work, so I'm going to go ahead and install ubuntu-desktop, since it sounds like they're Gnome products, and the instructions for setup all go through Gnome.

[billklee]

Installed Ubuntu & Kubuntu desktops & tried them. Not much, just wanting to see how rotation & stylus/cursor positioning works. When I rotate in Ubuntu, the display looks like crap (video is bad - can't describe it, I'll have to try to get a screenshot - and the display only covers the top 2/3 of the screen - it's like the rotate script isn't doing anything), the stylus is still un-rotated and the mouse seems to be about an inch to the left of where the cursor is.

In Xubuntu, it rotates just fine, but the stylus is till un-rotated.

My wife wants me to help with a bunch of yard work, so I'll have to wait until this evening/tonight before I can try anything else.

[Favux]

Hi billklee,

I've looked but haven't seen anything saying it has a Wacom digitizer, presumably serial (rather than usb). But assuming it does make sure in Synaptic Package Manager that both linuxwacom packages are installed: wacom-tools & xserver-xorg-input-wacom.

The reason the stylus is not rotating is probably due to what name HAL/dBus is returning for it. For the xsetwacom command to work:

xsetwacom list

should not be blank. To see what HAL is calling the stylus enter:

xinput --list

The Xorg Intel video driver has problems with Jaunty (9.04). There are some threads that deal with that. They tell you how to change the Intel driver and/or modify xorg.conf for best performance. I have some links if you need them.

Since you have a true slate a onscreen keyboard is a good idea. I have some notes on that from before I realized that it really wasn't useful for a convertible tablet pc. Let me whip them into shape. Remember I've only tested parts of it.

[Favux]

HOW TO Install an On Screen Keyboard for login.

You can use several different on screen keyboards (OSK's). CellWriter, onBoard, and xvkbd all work. I personally prefer CellWriter. Check Synaptic Package Manager and if your preference isn't installed, installed it.

In "System->Administration->Login Window" select the 'Local' tab. In 'Style' choose either "Plain" or "Plain with face browser" (recommended) option. Using "Themed" or "Themed with face browser" from the login windows will not work! The theme will cover the keyboard. You must also be sure that the "Show title bar" option is active (checked).

The method is essentially the same for all of them. You add to the "/etc/gdm/Init/Default" file a line for the one you prefer. At the end of the file you'll see:

  fi
fi

exit 0

Edit using:

gksudo gedit /etc/gdm/Init/Default

And between the last 'fi' and 'exit 0' enter the line. For CellWriter it would be:

cellwriter --keyboard-only --window-y=600 &

So it should look like:

fi
cellwriter --keyboard-only --window-y=600 &
exit 0

Save and close.

For OnBoard use:

onboard -s 684x200 -x 170 -y 568 &

These values will display the onBoard at about 2/3 the screen width at the bottom. The -s settings control size and the -x and -y values control location. You can experiment with them. For example a smaller keyboard in a different location: -s 500x130 -x 15 -y 15 &

And for xvkbd use:

xvkbd -geometry -300-100 -no-keypad &

or

xvkbd -geometry 684x200+170+568 -no-keypad 2&>/dev/null &

I have no idea what the "2&>/dev/null" is for.

Kubuntu users: In KDE 3.x put either onboard or xvkbd into the "/etc/kde3/kdm/Xsetup" file. In KDE 4 is it "/etc/kde4/kdm/Xsetup"?

I'm not sure what the following means but I left it in in case you can figure it out:

Note: If you enable automatic login, do NOT amend this file as you will end up with 2 instances of the OSK!

Finally, if you enable autologin in System > Administration > Login Window in Gnome, you still must put the keyboard line in the init script; otherwise you won't be able to log back in if you log out.


Allowing onscreen keyboards to enter passwords (use GNOME gksudo)

You can set up CellWriter to supply gksudo passwords. GNOME's graphical sudo frontend, gksudo, by default grabs the focus, keyboard and mouse to prevent malicious applications from intercepting the password. However, this also prevents onscreen keyboards from entering input at the gksudo prompt. To allow this, Use the gconf-editor program (in Applications > System Tools > Configuration Editor). Find the key "/apps/gksu/disable-grab" and turn it on (check the box). Or:
1. Press ALT/F2, type 'gconf-editor' and press <ENTER>.
2. Find and click once on 'gksu' under 'apps' in the tree on the left.
3. On the right, check 'disable-grab'.
4. Close gconf-editor
This will prevent gksudo from grabbing focus and all input. You can then input the password the normal way, using CellWriter, OnBoard, Xvkbd, GOK, etc. Be aware though that this is a potential security vulnerability. You'll notice that the screen no longer dims when passwords are requested.

Another, and simpler, way to do this should be to in System > Preferences > Assitive Technologies to check the "Password dialogs as normal windows" box.

If in System > Preferences > Screensaver you've enabled "Lock screen when screensaver is active" deactivate it. CellWriter won't show up and you'll have to reboot. There is a way around this but it involves introducing a keyboard widget for the screensaver.

By frafu post #4: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...28#post1792228

By phenest post #1: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=563736

By Aearenda post #167: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=167

From: http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/...Stylus_buttons

[billklee]

Okay, the on-screen keyboard works now. Boo-yah! It works for login, and when I get everything else working, I'm going to go through those threads you linked and get the screensaver password to work, too.

When I run xsetwacom list, I get a fail for libxcb-xlib.so.0 - no such file or directory. I suspect that might be the problem with the stylus when rotated. wacom-tools and xserver-xorg-input-wacom are both installed.

While I'm thinking of it, running
apt-get install wacom-tools xserver-xorg-input-wacom
followed immediately by
apt-get purge wacom-tools xserver-xorg-input-wacom
seems incredibly counterproductive, especially since you have to run
apt-get install wacom-tools xserver-xorg-input-wacom
again later. The only thing I can think of is that installing them sets something up that definitely shouldn't be there at some point, and you need to install them so the purge makes sure they're removed, which, somehow, might not work right if they weren't installed. In otherwords, completeness, so you don't miss something.

Yesterday, xinput -list gave me, among other things, these lines:
"Virtual Core Pointer" id=0"
"Virtual Core Keyboard" id=1"
"Wacom Serial Tablet PC Pen Tablet/Digitizer" id=2
"Wacom Serial Tablet PC Pen Tablet/Digitizer eraser" id=3

Today, it gives me this, instead:
"Virtual core pointer" id=0 [XPointer]
"Virtual core keyboard" id=1 [XKeyboard]
"stylus" id=2 [XExtensionKeyboard]
"eraser" id=3 [XExtensionKeyboard]

IIRC, yesterday's version also had the same entry after the id, i.e. [XPointer], [XKeyboard] etc, but I didn't write that part of it down. I thought the name and id would be the important parts, and I could always run xinput again. I thought I'd made a copy of it (xinput -list > ~/Documents/xinput.txt), but if I did, I can't find it now. Oh, well. "stylus" and "eraser" sound a lot more like what I'm reading in all these threads, anyway. Your rotation script I'm using (which, aside from the stylus problem, if that's where the problem is, is great) uses the name "stylus", so I'm fairly confident (halfway confident, anyway) that that's not the problem.

For what it's worth, my xorg.conf looks like this, with all the commented lines removed:

Section "Device"
    Identifier    "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier    "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier    "Default Screen"
    Monitor       "Configured Monitor"
    Device        "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Of course, it appears that since I'm using 9.04, I need to make changes in /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/20thirdparty/10-wacom.fdi. That looks like an XML document to me, and while I know a little about XML, it's just that: a little. I found a post about, basically, boiling down the fdi to the wacom basics, and I'm going to try that later today/tonight.

I'm going to poke around next for the Xorg Intel fix. The rotation works fine in Kubuntu & Xubuntu, except for the stylus problem. If I can fix the video rotation in Ubuntu, that just leaves the bezel buttons and the stylus.

Ah, well, more poking around. Sometimes, I think I get more fun out of fiddling with the system than using it.

[Favux]

Hi billklee,

You shouldn't be:

While I'm thinking of it, running
apt-get install wacom-tools xserver-xorg-input-wacom
followed immediately by
apt-get purge wacom-tools xserver-xorg-input-wacom
seems incredibly counterproductive, especially since you have to run
apt-get install wacom-tools xserver-xorg-input-wacom

That's only for compiling and installing a new version of linuxwacom. You want to clear the old version out because different versions confict and can cause weird symptoms.

Did you compile and install a new linuxwacom? Where from? You don't need that with Jaunty. You want the default linuxwacom packages. Install them through Synaptic Package Manager. Unless you've compiled and installed a new version. In which case you need to remove it as in Appendix 4 here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1038949 before installing the default linuxwacom through Synaptic.

I think you want the standard default .fdi because I think you have a serial tablet pc. What we should be seeing is:

"Wacom Serial Tablet PC Pen Tablet/Digitizer" id=2
"Wacom Serial Tablet PC Pen Tablet/Digitizer eraser" id=3

Then in the xsetwacom commands in the rotation script you would substitute "Wacom Serial Tablet PC Pen Tablet/Digitizer" for stylus and the other for eraser. Although someone said just putting the quotes around them worked, ie "stylus" and "eraser". See "Jaunty Users" 3) and 3a) near the top here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1038949