Screen and pen rotation with a tablet

[peterson43]

I am running Ubuntu 11.10 on a Thinkpad X61 Tablet. I used the instructions at http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Instal...Tablet#Rotate:
to get the screen rotation button working. However, when I rotate the screen, the pen doesn't rotate with it. For instance, if the screen has been rotated 180 degrees, when I put the pen in the top left of the screen the cursor still shows up in the old top left (my bottom right). It makes using the pen essentially useless when the screen is rotated.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

[Favux]

It sounds like whatever script you have bound to the rotation button is not using the proper "device names" in the xsetwacom rotation commands to rotate the input tools like the stylus. You can get the "device names" from the output of the xinput list command in a terminal. Then just correct the script.

For automatic rotation also see the Rotation HOW TO and Magick Rotation.

[peterson43]

As far as I can tell, the instructions I followed had be create a script called "rotatebutton" that used the xrandr command to rotate the screen. (I checked that doing the xrandr commands from the terminal also didn't rotate the pen correctly). I don't know how to edit the xsetwacom commands for the xrandr command (nor if this is a smart idea).

[Favux]

The xrandr commands rotate the screen orientation. You then have to use xsetwacom commands to rotate the stylus, eraser, and touch (if you have it) along with the change in screen orientation. What does the rotation script you have bound to the rotation button look like?

[peterson43]

The xrandr commands rotate the screen orientation. You then have to use xsetwacom commands to rotate the stylus, eraser, and touch (if you have it) along with the change in screen orientation. What does the rotation script you have bound to the rotation button look like?

The "rotatebutton" command that I copied from the above mentioned source looks like

mode=`cat /usr/bin/rotationmode`
if test 0 = $mode
then
echo 1 > /usr/bin/rotationmode
xrandr -o right
fi
if test 1 = $mode
then
echo 2 > /usr/bin/rotationmode
xrandr -o inverted
fi
if test 2 = $mode
then
echo 3 > /usr/bin/rotationmode
xrandr -o left
fi
if test 3 = $mode
then
echo 0 > /usr/bin/rotationmode
xrandr -o normal
fi

It appears to be a pretty simple script. The file /usr/bin/rotationmode just keeps track of what orientation the screen currently is in and the script simply rotates the screen to the "next" orientation and updates the rotationmode file accordingly (at least that's what I think it does). Do I need to add a xsetwacom command somewhere in this script? If so, what should I add?

[Favux]

Right, there aren't any xsetwacom commands. See the method 1 scripts on the Rotation HOW TO to see what I mean. This script is designed to be used with Tom Jaeger's wacomrotate daemon, that's what is missing. It rotates the screen and wacomrotate rotates the wacom stuff.

I don't know if wacomrotate still works for Oneiric. I don't remember checking if Tom updated it recently. It is also in the Rotation HOW TO as method 4.

[peterson43]

Right, there aren't any xsetwacom commands. See the method 1 scripts on the Rotation HOW TO to see what I mean. This script is designed to be used with Tom Jaeger's wacomrotate daemon, that's what is missing. It rotates the screen and wacomrotate rotates the wacom stuff.

I don't know if wacomrotate still works for Oneiric. I don't remember checking if Tom updated it recently. It is also in the Rotation HOW TO as method 4.

The instructions I had followed previously had me install wacomrotate, but I'm not sure why since the script didn't seem to implement it.

Anyway, I was able to follow the instructions in the Ration HOW TO in method 1 (and the remarks at the beginning) to figure out how to modify my script to get it to work. The modified script is as follows.

mode=`cat /usr/bin/rotationmode`
if test 0 = $mode
then
echo 1 > /usr/bin/rotationmode
xrandr -o right
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet stylus" rotate ccw
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet touch" rotate ccw
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser" rotate ccw
fi
if test 1 = $mode
then
echo 2 > /usr/bin/rotationmode
xrandr -o inverted
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet stylus" rotate half
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet touch" rotate half
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser" rotate half
fi
if test 2 = $mode
then
echo 3 > /usr/bin/rotationmode
xrandr -o left
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet stylus" rotate cw
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet touch" rotate cw
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser" rotate cw
fi
if test 3 = $mode
then
echo 0 > /usr/bin/rotationmode
xrandr -o normal
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet stylus" rotate none
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet touch" rotate none
xsetwacom set "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser" rotate none
fi

[GoodPanos]

Every time I run the above script I get:

line 2: test: too many arguments

I get this for each line there is a "if x = $mode"

Any thoughts?

[Favux]

Hi GoodPanos,

Which tablet PC do you have?

What is the output in a terminal of?

cat /usr/bin/rotationmode

[GoodPanos]

Sorry for the long delay.

Lenovo Thinkpad X61 Tablet

It just returns "0" (without the quotes)