Wacom Graphire I serial and Lucid

[gwi]

I have a Wacom Graphire I serial tablet, that was working well.
After installing Lucid it stopped working completely. The tablet is not even listed as an X input device.

Here I read that serial Wacom tablets are no longer supported. If this is true, this is a big &**&@#$ (which I would expect from a commercial OS company, but not in the open source world)!

Is there some kind of workaround possible?

[Favux]

Hi gwi,

I don't know about the workaround. Maybe adding the serial Wacom sections to xorg.conf and otherwise setting it up like old times, serial conf etc.? Without support in the code I'm dubious.

The only update on serial tablets I've seen is the answer to this post: https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/...xwacom-discuss

So that's interesting. It looks like it wasn't a policy change but a lack of developer resources. My guess is Peter thought serial tablets are old enough that there aren't that many still around so why spend the time adding serial support for xf86-input-wacom? Many things with higher priority to do first.

[Favux]

Hi gwi,

Just posted on linuxwacom-discuss is a link to a patch that purports to add serial wacom back into xf86-input-wacom! It was made against 0.10.6. It's by Sebastian Berthold and company. See: https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/...xwacom-discuss So you should be able to download xf86-input-wacom, apply the patch, compile it and enable your tablet. How about that!

The original patch the new patch is based on is here on Nuclear's blog: http://codelab.wordpress.com/2010/02/21/wacom-hacking/

I downloaded both and looked at them. Looks like the real deal.

[turquoiserabbit]

Hi Favux,

I'm in the same boat as gwi, upgraded to lucid and now no serial tablet.. I got as far as downloading the source for xf86-input-wacom, and the patch file but all the sites I've been on that explain how to apply a patch file have been frustratingly vague. Any chance you could give a short step by step?

I mean, my tablet is ancient by tech standards, but if I can save myself from having to spend 400 bones on a new one just to get it working with lucid that would be wonderful.


*edit* Having the patch file in the same folder as the xf86-input-wacom-0.10.5 folder and running it results in "hunk failed" about 20 times.*edit*
*edit2* got it to succeed just had to rename the xf86-input-wacom_0.10.5 folder to just xf86-input-wacom. Now all I have to do is compile and test. I'll post if it works *edit2*

[Favux]

Hi turquoiserabbit,

Welcome to Ubuntu forums!

I can sure understand not wanting to buy a new tablet when you already have a perfectly good one.

OK, copy or move the patch into the downloaded xf86-input-wacom file, whether the unpacked 0.10.6 tar or the git clone. Then, for e.g., in a terminal:

cd Desktop

cd xf86-input-wacom-0.10.6

patch -p1 < xf86-input-wacom_git-20100511.patch

I'm pretty sure that will work for you.

Hope this helps.

[turquoiserabbit]

Well I managed to patch successfully, and compile and install but my tablet still isn't working. I'm getting this in my /var/log/Xorg.0.log:

(II) LoadModule: "wacom"
(WW) Warning, couldn't open module wacom
(II) UnloadModule: "wacom"
(EE) Failed to load module "wacom" (module does not exist, 0)

my xorg.conf still has the settings in it from before I updated to lucid. The wacom entries were commented out by the update, but I uncommented them all in again. Still nothing.

Did you get it working gwi?

[Favux]

Hi turquoiserabbit,

Well it shouldn't be talking about the wacom.ko, which is the usb kernel driver/module so it must be talking about the wacom_drv.so which is the X driver. I think it should be located at /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/. I'd check and see if the install placed it there. If not copy it there from the source code. If there weren't any errors on the compile it should have been made.

[royleith]

@Favux

I have a Wacom Intuos serial A4 tablet which used to work well on Kubuntu with the modified xorg.conf file. Since Kubuntu 10.4 I have been chasing your useful comments all over the interweb and have (after countless stumbles) done the following,

reinstalled xserver-xorg-input-wacom

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get build-dep xf86-input-wacom

extracted xf86-input-wacom-0.10.6 and copied the patch into the folder
successfully run the patch

I had to do a new install of Kubuntu, so my old xorg.conf file was lost. However, I had the old wacom entries saved elsewhere. I created a new xorg.conf based on xorg.conf.failsafe.

I logged-out and restarted the xserver.

I won't bore you with the resulting xwindow disaster, but I did get xwindow running.

The tablet did not work, but /var/log/Xorg.0,log contains the following;

(II) XKB: generating xkmfile /tmp/server-B20D7FC79C7F597315E3E501AEF10E0D866E8E92.xkm
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
(**) Option "SendCoreEvents"
(**) stylus: always reports core events
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "stylus" (type: STYLUS)
(**) Option "StopBits" "1"
(**) Option "DataBits" "8"
(**) Option "Parity" "None"
(**) Option "Vmin" "1"
(**) Option "Vtime" "10"
(**) Option "FlowControl" "Xoff"
(WW) stylus: Waited too long for answer (failed after 3 tries).
(WW) stylus: Waited too long for answer (failed after 3 tries).
(WW) stylus: Waited too long for answer (failed after 3 tries).
(II) stylus: serial tablet id 0x90.
(EE) Couldn't init device "stylus"
(II) UnloadModule: "wacom"
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
(**) Option "SendCoreEvents"
(**) eraser: always reports core events
(II) XINPUT: Adding extended input device "eraser" (type: ERASER)
(**) Option "StopBits" "1"
(**) Option "DataBits" "8"
(**) Option "Parity" "None"
(**) Option "Vmin" "1"
(**) Option "Vtime" "10"
(**) Option "FlowControl" "Xoff"
(WW) eraser: Waited too long for answer (failed after 3 tries).
(WW) eraser: Waited too long for answer (failed after 3 tries).
(WW) eraser: Waited too long for answer (failed after 3 tries).
(II) eraser: serial tablet id 0x90.
(EE) Couldn't init device "eraser"
(II) UnloadModule: "wacom"
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
(II) UnloadModule: "wacom"

So, the serial wacom driver seemed to find the tablet, but was unable to communicate with it. I am wondering if it is something to do with the serial port being set to Xon/off flow control.

I will do a reboot to see if that helps, but my previous attempts with homebrew xorg.conf files resulted in a lockup. I am still very encouraged by the progress so far.

Regards
Roy Leith

[Favux]

Hi royleith,

Nice work!

First we should probably fix your xorg.conf so you don't have any more lock ups. Can you post it?

The serial patch was rejected because it disables ISD4 support. But you can tell the LWP dev.s were excited about it because they took the time to comment on it within a few days. Hopefully the submitter and crew are working on the changes suggested. Haven't seen a response yet.

So one thing to do is make sure that ISD4 is commented out in xorg.conf and/or in the 10-wacom.conf serial snippet. Just in case, even though the patch disables it.

I am wondering if it is something to do with the serial port being set to Xon/off flow control.

Could be, and there are some other parameters you can play with. But I'd leave everything default for now until we get the xorg.conf fixed.

[royleith]

Hi Favux,

Promise not to laugh!

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "fbdev"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

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

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" # USB ONLY?
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0" # SERIAL ONLY
Option "Type" "stylus"
# Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
# Option "USB" "on" # USB ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" # USB ONLY?
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0" # SERIAL ONLY
Option "Type" "eraser"
# Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
# Option "USB" "on" # USB ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" # USB ONLY?
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0" # SERIAL ONLY
Option "Type" "cursor"
# Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Tablet PC ONLY
# Option "USB" "on" # USB ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "pad"
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" # USB ONLY
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0" # SERIAL ONLY
Option "Type" "pad"
# Option "USB" "on" # USB ONLY
EndSection

# Uncomment the following section if you you have a TabletPC that supports touch
# Section "InputDevice"
# Driver "wacom"
# Identifier "touch"
# Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0" # SERIAL ONLY
# Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom" # USB ONLY
# Option "Type" "touch"
# Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4" # Serial Tablet PC ONLY
# Option "USB" "on" # USB ONLY
# EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents" # For non-LCD tablets only
# InputDevice "pad" # For Intuos3/CintiqV5/Graphire4/Bamboo tablets
# InputDevice "touch" "SendCoreEvents" # Only a few TabletPCs support this type
EndSection

The lockups and failures are all to do with the video. The log file reports loads of what seem to be framebuffer failures and xwindow either does not start up, but will start with startx, or it loads incorrectly configured. In both cases, it loads with the highest resolution setting and with no alternative resolutions and it also loads with a refresh rate of 0Hz! As a rescue mode, it is fine (when wearing glasses), but I will have to find a way of getting the default to work under normal startup conditions.

I seem to remember there is a way of forcing the generation of a default xorg.conf file, but I cannot remember the command.

One last thing for those who have tried and not got this far. Sourceforge is proudly announcing the xf86-input-wacom-0.10.6 for download and then delivering 0.10.5. I gave that a try, but some patch modules failed. I may have still been missing some dependancies, though.

And, finally, its an Intuos graphics pad I am trying to get to work rather than a tablet computer.

Regards
Roy Leith