Wacom tablets in Ubuntu guide/howto

[Favux]

Hi hocmin,

Your xinput looks right and you say everything shows up in wacomcpl. Is there a specific program the stylus and puck are not working in or is it in general?

[PeterH1]

Favux, Thank you, it appears that you are correct. I typed in lsusb, and discovered the wacom was in the list with ID 056a:00d1. If indeed there is no support for this yet, then I'll just use it in Win 7, and focus on the cool stuff that Ubuntu can do right now. Thanks for the help.

[Loïc2]

Okay, so I tried out the live CD as I said and it didn't work, but I'm thinking that actually makes sense. I mean, it doesn't work in the Fedora live CD either, and a live CD really doesn't need support for these things.

For the record, it does. If a tablet is supported by the linuxwacom drivers version offered by the distribution release, then it will work with the LiveCD, including pressure (can be tested with the Gimp, just need to configure the Extended Input Devices menu in the Gimp's preferences.

And if the version in the release you want to test has been updated since the LiveCD has been issued, updating while in the Live session (then maybe restarting X) should give about the same results.

Unfortunately, I won't be able to either until Gnome stops freezing. I went ahead and upgraded to Karmic. I figured I'd probably like to try it out anyway. Things were going alright until I tried to flatten my cube (by pressing control-alt-down). It froze there, so I restarted. Now it freezes every time I try to open in gnome. It'll start a session in failsafe-gnome, and in KDE, but it dies in gnome. I'm puzzled because I can't seem to find the network manager in failsafe-gnome, so I can't reinstall anything from there. Arg.

Just switch to a Virtual Terminal (VT) at the login screen (or any time later) by pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 (up to F5 AFAIR) once or twice, and back to X with CTRL-ALT-F7. In the VT you can login as your user, and you've got a few options:
- nuke compiz configuration directory

rm -rf .compiz

and retry to login;
- create a new user

sudo adduser whatever_name_you_fancy

then back to X and login as this user. Then give him admin rights with System>Administration>User and Groups (obtaining security rights by selecting you first account when requested for an admin autorization and using its password. With the new user you can do whatever you want graphically.

I don't have a clue where Gnome stores the settings for System>Preferences>Apparence, if you have it you could just edit the file and change the value, but the two above solutions should work.

[Loïc2]

hocmin:
- did you do a clean reinstall or an upgrade?
- you shouldn't need wacomcpl (or changing the devices names to stylus/eraser/etc) with a tablet like that, unless you're using a dual screen setup.

Basically, with a supported tablet and a single screen setup, it might be better to just use Ubuntu (or Fedora, or whatever recent distribution) default setup first. To configure the devices, use a more recent tool than the ages-old wacomcpl, like the one at http://www.gtk-apps.org/content/show...content=104309
It should work with the new Wacom names, and then you only need to configure the Extended Input Devices in the graphic program of your choice.

That way, if something goes bad you can be sure it's Ubuntu default configuration, not a mistake from your part. Then the bug can be reported and hopefully fixed, while you can still start fiddling with a custom configuration later.

For example, on Karmic Beta I can just plug my tablet and start working with it. I only need to change the default .fdi file because I have a Cintiq that I want to use along the main monitor, the Intuos doesn't require any changes except settings that the app linked above (or a set of xsetwacom commands).

[hocmin]

Hi hocmin,

Your xinput looks right and you say everything shows up in wacomcpl. Is there a specific program the stylus and puck are not working in or is it in general?

It's everything. Before trying your guide I was following along with the guide from The Linux Wacom Project. I was able to run wacdump on one of my events and I saw output for only the buttons; the position info and such never changed. I'm not sure if it means anything, but since following your guide I haven't been able to find a device in /dev that gives me either now, but then I was really tired and frustrated last night.

I'm taking it work today to see if it works on a windows machine.

[hocmin]

hocmin:
- did you do a clean reinstall or an upgrade?
- you shouldn't need wacomcpl (or changing the devices names to stylus/eraser/etc) with a tablet like that, unless you're using a dual screen setup.

Basically, with a supported tablet and a single screen setup, it might be better to just use Ubuntu (or Fedora, or whatever recent distribution) default setup first. To configure the devices, use a more recent tool than the ages-old wacomcpl, like the one at http://www.gtk-apps.org/content/show...content=104309
It should work with the new Wacom names, and then you only need to configure the Extended Input Devices in the graphic program of your choice.

That way, if something goes bad you can be sure it's Ubuntu default configuration, not a mistake from your part. Then the bug can be reported and hopefully fixed, while you can still start fiddling with a custom configuration later.

For example, on Karmic Beta I can just plug my tablet and start working with it. I only need to change the default .fdi file because I have a Cintiq that I want to use along the main monitor, the Intuos doesn't require any changes except settings that the app linked above (or a set of xsetwacom commands).

For Jaunty? I did an upgrade. Been upgrading since 8.04, I believe. If you're referring to clean install/upgrade with regard to the wacom drivers, I'm not sure what you mean.

I do have a dual monitor setup.

To go the default setup route, what would I need to do? Simply replace the custom fdi with the old and try the more recent tools?

[hocmin]

Just tried getting my wacom to work on my windows work machine. It appears the pad still isn't working (buttons do). Going to try buying another pen but it looks like it wasn't a software issue. Thanks for the help.

[kcallis]

The wacom stuff seems to be working for me just fine under 9.04 as well as beta 9.10. I am using a Toshiba R25-S3513 and just interested in one thing. I would love to make use of my tablet as a tablet. I want the auto rotation to work; The ability to get a decent virtual keyboard in place, etc.
Does anyone have any how-to to get that working?

[Favux]

Hi kcallis,

There is a Rotation HOW TO here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6274392

And a mini HOW TO on onscreen keyboards in post #8 here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1259154 Unless you have a slate form factor I don't find it that useful. I just install CellWriter and hide it in laptop and show it in tablet mode. Up to you.

[n1ete]

Hi, i installed karmic yesterday on my x61 tablet and try to the wacom tablet is working out of the box but i get no devices in wacomcpl so tried this:

sudo gedit /etc/init.d/wacomtohal

and paste this code in:

#! /bin/sh
## find any wacom devices
for udi in `hal-find-by-property --key input.x11_driver --string wacom`
do
type=`hal-get-property --udi $udi --key input.x11_options.Type`
## rewrite the names that the Xserver will use
hal-set-property --udi $udi --key info.product --string $type
done

then run :

sudo chmod +x /etc/init.d/wacomtohal
sudo update-rc.d wacomtohal defaults 27

after reboot the eraser and the touch config is shown in wacomcpl but no stylus config?

after this i tried the how-to from post #176 but nothing shows up in wacomcpl....

where is my error?
thanks and hi to everyone