Wacom tablets in Ubuntu guide/howto

[Carthorse]

I've been reading various wacom set up threads for some time and the problem I was having is the tip was set to 3, which I've just found ^^. Every time I touched the pad, the right-click came up. Using the xsetwacom set 13 Button 1 1 has corrected this. Thanks, it's a start It was so frustrating, trying and failing to draw/photo-edit in GIMP! I'm using a Graphire 4 (CTE 440) with 10.10 (64bit, 2.6.35-27-generic) and this behaviour is as installed, no messing about by me. My other wacom, a Wacom One is the same. Scripts are a dark art to me, is there one for the Graphire4, enabling pressure, too? I could tinker with others but I'd probably spend weeks getting it wrong I was even toying with the idea of using another one and just removing stuff my Wacom doesn't have, like touch etc. I use my standard mouse left-handed, Wacom right-handed, so the pad buttons and scroll-wheel on the Wacom aren't essential, tbh.

If not, is there some-where I could find which button does what, as it does in Windows default? Then at least I'd have basic functionality.

xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ MLK Trust Deskset 16593 id=9 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Wacom Graphire4 4x5 eraser id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Wacom Graphire4 4x5 cursor id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Wacom Graphire4 4x5 pad id=12 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ Wacom Graphire4 4x5 stylus id=13 [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)]
↳ MLK Trust Deskset 16593 id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]

[Favux]

Hi Carthorse,

It sure sounds like button mapping is/got messed up somehow. How long has this been going on for you in Maverick?

Anyway I'd like to work with you on a Graphire4 with a cursor to develop a script. Don't have one for a Graphire4 yet and haven't finalized the cursor (Wacom tablet mouse) so that would be good.

So the stylus has 2 side buttons and an eraser. The Wacom mouse has 3 buttons? The pad has how many buttons? How are they laid out? Any scroll wheel or other such?

You use the get command with the "device name" (in quotes) and parameter to find out the current setting or the special "all" parameter. Like so:

xsetwacom get "Wacom Graphire4 4x5 stylus" Button1

or

xsetwacom get "Wacom Graphire4 4x5 stylus" all

Then you just change get to set and add the parameter value at the end to change the setting.

[Carthorse]

Thanks! I'm very grateful for any assistance. Having this past year returned to photography, I wanted the finer control a stylus offers over a mouse.

I'm not using a Wacom mouse: The Graphire4 has two buttons at the top of the pad, above the drawing area, either side of a scroll-wheel. These are working as normal, the same as my usual normal mouse. (The buttons are reversed on my mouse but out of preference for using it left-handed. I don't need to do this for the Wacom pad buttons or wheel )
The stylus, as you've noted: two side buttons and and eraser.
I've always had this problem with the mapping, right from 10.04. I never had a graphic tablet before that, so I can't comment on if it's 10.x specific. I even bought another Wacom (the Wacom One) to rule out hardware faults.
get "Wacom Graphire4 4x5 stylus" all
Option "Area" "0 0 10208 7424"
Option "ToolDebugLevel" "0"
Option "TabletDebugLevel" "0"
Option "Suppress" "4"
Option "RawSample" "2"
Option "PressureCurve" "0 0 100 100"get "Wacom Graphire4 4x5 stylus" all
Option "Area" "0 0 10208 7424"
Option "ToolDebugLevel" "0"
Option "TabletDebugLevel" "0"
Option "Suppress" "4"
Option "RawSample" "2"
Option "PressureCurve" "0 0 100 100"
Option "Mode" "Absolute"
Option "TabletPCButton" "off"
Option "Touch" "off"
Option "Gesture" "off"
Option "ZoomDistance" "50"
Option "ScrollDistance" "20"
Option "TapTime" "250"
Option "Capacity" "-1"
Property 'Wacom Proximity Threshold' does not exist on device.
Option "Rotate" "none"
Property 'Wacom Wheel Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Wheel Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Wheel Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Wheel Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Strip Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Strip Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Strip Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Strip Buttons' does not exist on device.
Option "RawFilter" "on"
Option "Threshold" "27"
Option "ToolID" "288"
Option "ToolSerial" "0"
Option "TabletID" "21"

Option "Mode" "Absolute"
Option "TabletPCButton" "off"
Option "Touch" "off"
Option "Gesture" "off"
Option "ZoomDistance" "50"
Option "ScrollDistance" "20"
Option "TapTime" "250"
Option "Capacity" "-1"
Property 'Wacom Proximity Threshold' does not exist on device.
Option "Rotate" "none"
Property 'Wacom Wheel Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Wheel Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Wheel Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Wheel Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Strip Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Strip Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Strip Buttons' does not exist on device.
Property 'Wacom Strip Buttons' does not exist on device.
Option "RawFilter" "on"
Option "Threshold" "27"
Option "ToolID" "288"
Option "ToolSerial" "0"
Option "TabletID" "21"


Something has just occurred to me as I'm typing this: having my normal mouse buttons reversed, would this affect the Wacom's own default?
BTW, sorry for the list, not sure how to put it in a box.

[Favux]

OK, I'll whip up a script. Take a few minutes.

The default xf86-input-wacom in Maverick is 0.10.8. They're still fixing it up. For example they just fixed the xsetwacom RawSample and Suppress parameters. So depending on your results you might want to consider updating xf86-input-wacom.

To box something place it in between the code tags (click on # in the top right).

Edit: 4 buttons total or 2 buttons total on the tablet?

[Favux]

Alright the script is attached to the bottom of the post. To download click on it.

To set it up to auto-start, download the attached file, and rename it .xsetwacom.sh (or whatever you want) and place it in your /home/yourusername directory or you could make a folder/directory called bin (/home/yourusername/bin) and place it there. Remember it will be a hidden file if you use the . in front. To enable the xsetwacom commands in the .xsetwacom.sh file to apply to Xserver through a reboot you enter in a terminal:

chmod +x ~/.xsetwacom.sh

or you could right click on the file and in Properties, in the Permission tab, check Execute as program. Then go to System->Preferences->Startup Applications and click on add and for the command write "sh /home/yourusername/.xsetwacom.sh" (without the quotes). You can also change your settings on the fly using the xsetwacom parameters in a terminal. They only apply during the current session.

Once the script is executable you can double click on it to apply it's settings or reboot to check the auto-start set up.

The idea is if you are happy with the defaults you comment them out with a # in front of the line. Only leave active the lines that are actually modifying things.

It's also a good idea to set up your general or start up configuration script in a Launcher. That way if you change a xsetwacom setting to test something when you're done you can restore your general configuration.

In Gnome right click on your Desktop and chose Create Launcher... In the Launcher enter a name. Then in the Command box add the entire path for the script. It's a good idea to select an icon also. Close and the profile script will now run when you double click on the Launcher.

[Carthorse]

I'm not seeing any difference?
BUT: If I change my mouse to right-hand in System>Preferences>Mouse, the stylus behaves itself. Back to being a pain when I change back to left-hand mouse. OR when I:
xsetwacom set 13 Button 1 1
After this, my stylus works enough to draw/select etc in GIMP using my right-hand, and my mouse works fine as a left-hand mouse.
I have the 1:0.10.99 xserver-xorg-input-wacom.
Indecently, the brush pressure works fine in Krita but not in GIMP. I guess this is GIMP specific and some settings within GIMP need to be changed. I think I've seen other threads regarding this, I'll look.
Getting there

[Favux]

Ahah!

I have the 1:0.10.99 xserver-xorg-input-wacom.

Where did you get that from? Maverick has 0.10.8.

[Carthorse]

Ah. I think it was while I was at the point of try anything
From http://ppa.launchpad.net/irie/wacom/ubuntu (maverick main)

[Favux]

OK, that explains it. IRIE's just updated his PPA to 0.10.11+. A bunch of parameter names changed with it, see: http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawik...arameter_Names

So ClickForce is Threshold, PressCurve is PressureCurve, and Button1 would be Button 1. That's probably why the button commands weren't working for you. Make those changes to the script.

[Carthorse]

Done.

Thank you so much! Although GIMP still doesn't 'do' pressure, Krita does so that's no fault of the script or the graphic tablet
Not only do I have a working graphic tablet, I even understand a little of why it now works! I may even try to adapt it for my Bamboo One, put two launchers on the desktop. But that's by no means a priority, now the Graphire4's working! More of a 'lets see if..."
I'll save the original script somewhere safe and play with some basic customisation. But I'll always have your script to fall back on when I get it wrong lol.
Thanks again from an awkward customer with a right-hand tablet and left-hand mouse