LDP/LDP/howto/linuxdoc/Wacom-Tablet-HOWTO.sgml

<!DOCTYPE linuxdoc system>
<!-- 
Wacom Tablet HOWTO, (C) 1999 by <SR>
------------------------------------

History:
1.0.1 28.10.99: First draft
1.0.2 30.10.99: Keys section written, gimp section: keys written
1.0.3 01.11.99: wacom to Wacom, than to then, gpm section: modified "V1.18.1"
                supports graphire
                added "Getting max values" /
1.0.4 03.11.99: removed typos, checked tex generation
1.0.5 21.11.99: WacomErasor to WacomEraser, Mini-XF86Config: first two lines
                swapped. gpm: mouse type description fixed, added asterix 
                explaination
1.0.6 28.03.00: Problems Section written, gpm and graphire sections updated
                Copyright changed to gpl
 -->
<ARTICLE>
<TITLE>
	Wacom Tablet HOWTO
</TITLE>
<AUTHOR>
Stefan Runkel 
<TT>
	&lt;runkel@runkeledv.de&gt;
</TT>
</AUTHOR>
<DATE>
Version 1.0.6 of Mar 28, 2000
</DATE>
<ABSTRACT>
Installation of (not only) Wacom graphic tablets under linux and  / or xfree86
</ABSTRACT>
<TOC>
<SECT>
Copyright
<P>
Copyright (c) 1999,2000 by Stefan Runkel 
<HTMLURL url="mailto:Runkel@runkeledv.de" name="Runkel@runkeledv.de">
<P>
This document describes the installation of Wacom tablets under linux.
<NEWLINE>
It may be distributed, at your choice, under either the terms
of the GNU Public License version 2 or later or the standard Linux
Documentation Project terms. These licenses should be available from where you
got this document. Please note that since the LDP terms don't allow
modification (other than translation), modified versions can be assumed to be
distributed under the GPL.  

<SECT>
Introduction
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765693">

Graphic tablets are now quite inexpensive and can help allot with the work of
image manipulation. In addition to that what a mouse can do for you they have
the following features:

<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
pressure and tilt sensitivity
<ITEM>
high resolution motion control
<ITEM>
sub-pixel positioning
<ITEM>
an input device that looks like and is handled like a normal Pen.
</ITEMIZE>

This document addresses mainly the products from Wacom, because I own 3
different products of them and because their products are highly available in
the region of Europe.
<P>
Nevertheless I think it should be easy to adapt the shown concepts to other
products.

<P>
I have written this document because I have not found a document about this
subject which contained completely what I wanted to know.
So I got small parts of information from various people in the
net and assembled them to this HOWTO. Regarding the questions of
my readers, I must realize that this document also is not complete and never
will be. But from the same questions I can tell that it helped many people on
the way, and each new question lets this HOWTO grow.

<SECT1>
New Versions of this Document 
<P>
 
<LABEL id= "_Toc465765694" >
The latest version of this document will be available at
<HTMLURL url="http://www.runkeledv.de/linux.htm" name="http://www.runkeledv.de/linux.htm">
.

<SECT1>
Feedback and Corrections
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765695"  >
Comments, corrections, and additions are greatly be appreciated. I can be
contacted at:
<P>
<HTMLURL url="mailto:Runkel@runkeledv.de" name="Runkel@runkeledv.de">
or at <HTMLURL url="mailto:RunkelEDV@t-online.de" name="RunkelEDV@t-online.de">
<SECT1>
Acknowledgements
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765696"  >
I would like to thank all authors listed in the 
<REF id="_Toc465765731" name="Further Information / used documents">
Section as well as everyone who answered my questions by email.
This HOWTO reflects much of their work.

<SECT>
Requirements
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765697">
This chapter is about what is needed to get your tablet working.
<SECT1>
Which Hardware is supported
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765698">
First of all, you should have a tablet, of course. This should be a product
that connects to the serial port (RS232) of your computer, because USB support
for linux is still under development. At the time of writing (Mar 2000) kernel support 
starts for the newer usb products graphire and intuos, and it is worked on the XFree driver. 
Gpm is unmaintained for now, so we can not expect an usb driver for it in the near future.

<P>
The following Wacom tablets are supported:
<P>

<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
ArtZ II series (known in Europe as the UltraPad series -
the same UltraPad name also was used for earlier tablets that only work
partially.)
<ITEM>
ArtPad II
<ITEM>
PL300 (combined LCD screen and tablet)
<ITEM>
Pen Partner
<ITEM>
Graphire alias FAVO (mouse and pen, get at least the alpha 16 driver for full
support from <HTMLURL url="http://www.lepied.com/xfree86/"
name="http://www.lepied.com/xfree86/">).
<ITEM> Intuos series (support may be only partial with the driver of your
distribution, get  updated alpha versions from  <LABEL id="_driverlepied">
Frederic Lepied's page:
<HTMLURL url="http://www.lepied.com/xfree86/" name="http://www.lepied.com/xfree86/">)
</ITEMIZE>
<P>

The older SD and HD series are not supported by the standard XFree86 driver,
however, a modified driver that supports these devices as well some OEM
products with embedded screens including the IBM Thinkpad 360 PE and Toshiba
T200 is available from:
<HTMLURL url="http://hwr.nici.kun.nl/pen-computing/pen-computing-formats.html" name="http://hwr.nici.kun.nl/pen-computing/pen-computing-formats.html">

<SECT1>
Which Software is needed
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765699" >
<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
<LABEL id="_gpm">
If you want support for the linux console, get the latest version of gpm from
<HTMLURL url="ftp://ftp.prosa.it/pub/gpm" name="ftp://ftp.prosa.it/pub/gpm">
or from
<HTMLURL url="ftp://animal.unipv.it/pub/gpm"  name="ftp://animal.unipv.it/pub/gpm">
(mirror)
<P>

<ITEM>
<LABEL id="_xfree">
If you want support for XFree86, use at least version 3.3.3.1 or get the latest
from
<HTMLURL url="http://www.xfree.org/"  name="http://www.xfree.org">
</ITEMIZE>

<SECT1>
Which Software is supported
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765700"  >
<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
For the linux console, the only program I know is gpm.
<P>
<ITEM>
For XFree, the keyword is XInput. This specification has to be supported by
device drivers which provide extra information. In turn, XInput has to be
understood by programs which want to use alternative pointer devices.
</ITEMIZE>
<P>
There is a big number of programs based on the gtk library. The gtk has XInput
support and makes it very easy to use.
<NEWLINE>
At least the following applications support XInput:
<P>

<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
The Gimp - a powerful image manipulation program in the style of Photoshop. The
1.1.x instable development version includes XInput support as a standard
feature. We are awaiting the next stable release, Version 1.2.x.

<LABEL id="_gimp">
Obtain Gimp from
<HTMLURL url="http://www.gimp.org/"  name="http://www.gimp.org">
, it really deserves it !
I am sure most of you know this and it was the reason to buy a tablet.

<P>
<ITEM>
gsumi - a simple B/W drawing program that supports drawing / erasing with
pressure and tilt sensitivity.
Get it from the gsumi web page:
<HTMLURL url="http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/gsumi/"   name="http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/gsumi/">

<P>
<ITEM>
xink (By Ralph Levien) - another rudimentary drawing program for X.
<P>
xink is available from:
<HTMLURL url="ftp://kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/raph/xink.tar.gz"   name="ftp://kiwi.cs.berkeley.edu/pub/raph/xink.tar.gz">
<P>
<ITEM>
RasMol - a molecular visualization program that supports a hardware dial box
using XInput. look at
<HTMLURL url="http://www.umass.edu/microbio/rasmol/distrib/rasman.htm"   name="http://www.umass.edu/microbio/rasmol/distrib/rasman.htm">
.

<P>
<ITEM>
xinput (by Frederic Lepied) - a very useful utility for configuring and testing
XInput devices.
<LABEL id="_XInput">
xinput is available from:
<HTMLURL url="ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/utilities/xinput-1.2.tar.gz"   name="ftp://ftp.x.org/contrib/utilities/xinput-1.2.tar.gz">

</ITEMIZE>

<SECT>
Tablets as Mouse-Replacement for the Linux-Console
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765701">

<SECT1>
Tablets and gpm
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc46576570a"  >
The 
<REF id="_gpm" name="gpm">
 daemon supports allot of input devices, including tablets. If you want
a list of the supported devices of your gpm,  do a
<TSCREEN><EM>
	gpm -t help
</EM></TSCREEN>
and you get it.
<P>
The Wacom driver of gpm 1.18.0 and below seems to be for the very old
artpad models, the documentation does not say anything about this. I
tested it with ultrapad, penpartner, graphire and intuos models but it did not
work.  I have rewritten the wacom driver for gpm, to use it you need at least
gpm version 1.18.2 . Since 1.18.2, the old wacom driver has been replaced with
my driver for wacom graphire, penpartner and ultrapad products.
<P>
However, if you own an old artpad, use gpm < 1.18.1 and try:
<TSCREEN><EM>
	killall gpm ; gpm -t wacom -m /dev/ttyS0
</EM></TSCREEN>
and it should work.<p> 
If you own a graphire, use gpm > 1.18.1 instead and use<p>
for the relative (mouse-like) mode:
<TSCREEN><EM>
	killall gpm ; gpm -t wacom -o relative -m /dev/ttyS0
</EM></TSCREEN>
for the absolute (tablet-like) mode:
<TSCREEN><EM>
	killall gpm ; gpm -t wacom -o absolute -m /dev/ttyS0
</EM></TSCREEN>
<P>Of course, you get only the buttons and the movement
function, pressure and tilt are not supported because they are not too useful
in text-based applications. <newline> 
There is no support for ultrapad macro buttons or graphire mouse wheel.
<P>
If you use gpm and XFree86, you may or may not run in problems, because
normally a device can be opened only by one program at a time. There are two
solutions for that:
<P>

<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
The gpm repeater mode. If you start gpm with the &quot;-R protocol&quot;
option, it will repeat all data it gets
to the device /dev/gpmdata. Let us say, you have a ps2 type mouse and your gpm
call looks like:
<EM>
	gpm -t ps2 -Rmman
</EM>
then gpm gets your ps2 mouse data and tries to translate this into a mman
packet, which it will emit to /dev/gpmdata. Unfortunately, gpm can translate to
only a few protocols at the time of writing. Since gpm 1.18.1, these protocols to which can be translated are marked with an asterix at the first column.
Again, do a 
<EM>
        gpm -t help
</EM> 
to get the list.<p>

If you want to omit the translation and only get the data byte for
byte, just call
<EM>
	gpm -t ps2 -R raw
</EM>
. You can then make XFree use that second device by putting the line
<EM>
	Device      "/dev/gpmdata"
</EM>
in your XF86Config in the pointer section or the XInput section.
<P>
<ITEM>
If you use startx, you can modify it that it does a
<EM>
	gpm -k
</EM>
before the X-Server is started. This option kills a running gpm.
</ITEMIZE>

<SECT>
Tablets with XFree
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765702">
<SECT1>
Required XFree Version
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765703"  >
Minimum 
<REF id="_xfree" name="XFree">
 version should be 3.3.3.1 because this version has extended XInput support, 
the second side switch works now and the blocking mouse effect has been fixed. 
<P>
If you must use any prior version, XInput support should be available since
3.1.2.d. 
<P>

XInput support in XFree is configured basically in a file called XF86Config.
In most cases the XF86Config file is located in /etc or in /etc/x11. I will
show now a very short configuration section and explain then what can be
changed and why  this is needed.

<SECT1>
Sample XF86Config snippet (simple)
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765705"  >
<TSCREEN>
<VERB>
Section "Module"
# Wacom Device Driver
Load "xf86Wacom.so"
EndSection

Section "XInput"
# Settings for Wacom pen
  SubSection "WacomStylus"    # type of input device
    Port "/dev/ttyS0"         # Serial Port
    DeviceName "Pen1"         # Name, choose it free
    Baudrate 9600             # Usable only for intuos
    Mode Absolute             # Map Tablet Area to Screen
    AlwaysCore                # See text
    HistorySize 200           # Buffer size for motion events
  EndSubSection
EndSection
</VERB>
</TSCREEN>

<SECT1>
Section Module
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765706"  >
XInput support in XFree is reached due to the use of modules. The device
driver module for Wacom is called 
<REF id="_driverlepied" name="xf86Wacom.so">
. This goes to the
&quot;Module&quot; section and has to be appear only once per XF86Config file.


<SECT1>
Device Types
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765707"  >
A physical device can be:
<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
The tip of your pen
<ITEM>
The eraser of your pen
<ITEM>
A mouse like the Wacom products lens cursor, 4d-mouse, graphire-mouse
<ITEM>
The airbrush
</ITEMIZE>
<P>
The  penpartner and graphire products simply recognize the type of a device,
but they can not distinguish them. For example, you can not use two different
pens, say, one configured red  and one configured blue - all what these
products say is: &quot;I found a pen tip on my surface&quot;, or &quot;I found
an Eraser on my surface&quot;, or &quot;I found a mouse on my surface&quot;.
<P>

XInput maps the device types to devices, these device types are later
specified in the XF86Config as a subsection in the Section XInput:
<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
<TT>
	WacomStylus
</TT>
 Tip of a pen or airbrush
<ITEM>
<TT>
	WacomEraser
</TT>
 Eraser of a pen or airbrush
<ITEM>
<TT>
	WacomCursor
</TT>
 Mice, like graphire mouse, lens cursor, 4d-mouse
</ITEMIZE>
<SECT1>
DeviceName
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765708"  >

You must give every configured device a unique name. This name will be used
later in your program to talk to that device. You can choose this name free.


<SECT1>
Port
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765709"  >
XInput wants to know at which serial port this device can be found. This
allows me to use two different tablets at the same time, for example a graphire
connected to /dev/ttyS0 and a penpartner connected to /dev/ttyS1.

<SECT1>
DebugLevel
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765710"  >
This statement controls how verbose the Wacom driver is. The Level goes from 0 to
10. If this statement is not given, DebugLevel 0 is used, which logs the very
less.
<P>
<bf>Example:</bf>
<TSCREEN>
<VERB>
SubSection "WacomStylus" # Pen
  DeviceName "PenRed"    # Name, choose it free
  ...
  DebugLevel 10          # be very verbose
  ...
EndSubSection
</VERB>
</TSCREEN>


<SECT1>
Serial Num (intuos series only)
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765711"  >
The intuos product is more efficient than penpartner and graphire because it
can distinguish many devices of the same type. This means that it is now
possible to use two pens, one configured red  and one configured blue. As you
see, the use of device types is not enough information to handle different
pens. Therefore, each intuos device, be it a pen, ink pen, mouse, or whatever
has a serial number, which you can specify to aid XInput in resolving the
right device. This would look like:

<TSCREEN>
<VERB>
Section "XInput"
  SubSection "WacomStylus" # Pen
    DeviceName "PenRed"    # Name, choose it free
    ...
    Serial 2609917443      # Serial Number of that device
    ...
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "WacomStylus" # another Pen
    DeviceName "PenBlue"   # Name, choose it free
    ...
    Serial 2609918664      # Serial Number of that device
    ...
  EndSubSection
EndSection
</VERB>
</TSCREEN>
<P>
It should be said that combined input devices like pens have only one serial
number. The driver uses the serial number it gets to recognize one specific pen
and the device type to distinguish the tip of that specific pen from its
eraser.
<P>

<SECT2>
How to find out the serial number of a device
<LABEL id="_Toc465765712">
<P>
<ENUM>
<ITEM>
Set DebugLevel to  6
<ITEM>
Start the  X-Server by typing  
<EM>
	X 2&gt;t
</EM>
<ITEM>
Tip all devices down on the tablet and make a notice of the order you tipped
them.
<ITEM>
Kill the X-Server (usually  Ctrl+Alt+Backspace)
<ITEM>
Do a 
<EM>
	grep serial_num t
</EM>
</ENUM>
<P>
You should get a list of your different numbers.
<P>

<SECT2>
Serial Num - Example of what has been logged
<LABEL id="_Toc465765713">
<P>
<TSCREEN>
<VERB>
BEGIN xf86WcmProc dev=0x8354d60 priv=0x833e3f0 type=stylus flags=9 what=1
xf86WcmProc pWcm=0x8354d60 what=ON
END xf86WcmProc Success what=1 dev=0x8354d60 priv=0x833e3f0
device_id=0x96 serial_num=2595227137 type=cursor
[cursor] abs prox=false x=0 y=0 z=0 button=false buttons=0
</VERB>
</TSCREEN>
(serial_num is in Line 4 Word 2).<P>

<SECT1>
Mode absolute, Mode relative
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765714" >
If you set a device in mode absolute, this means, that the active area of the
tablet will be mapped to the screen. Every time you go down to the tablet at
the same point with an absolute device the pointer will appear at the same
point of the screen.
<P>

If you set a device in mode relative, you will get the well known behavior of a
mouse. This means, that if you take the mouse off from the surface, move it and
go down again, the pointer does (ideally) not move.

<P>
<bf>Example:</bf>
<NEWLINE>
Mode Absolute

<SECT1>
Device Modes Extension, Core, AlwaysCore
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765715"  >

XFree knows two pointers: one with only the standard features (buttons,
moving-capabilities), which is used for selecting menus, text, clicking buttons
and doing other controlling stuff. This is the <em>Core Device</em>.
<P>
The other pointer is used by applications which want more information, like
pressure and tilt. 
<NEWLINE>
This is the extension device.
<P>

Starting with version 3.3.3.1, the Statement AlwaysCore tells the driver that it should send 
both types of events.<P>

If you do not specify Alwayscore in your XF86Config, then this device is
initially used as extension device, this means it is usable only in applications but you can not
control the menus of your window manager with it.
<P>

If Alwayscore is given, then your device acts as core pointer (in addition to the mouse) as well as it sends tilt and pressure information to applications which opened the device in extension mode. 
<P>
You can configure two different logical devices, one in Core-Mode and one in
Extension-Mode, to the same physical device.<newline>
To do so, simply type two identical sections, only the DeviceName statement must differ.  Then specify AlwaysCore
only for the last section.
<P>
<bf>Example:</bf>
<NEWLINE>
AlwaysCore

<SECT1>
HistorySize
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765716"  >
This statement sets the buffer size that is used to cache motion events.


<SECT1>
Suppress
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765717"  >
This statement specifies how many units the device must move before the driver
moves the pointer. This can be necessary if very large resolutions are used.
<P>
<bf>Example:</bf>
<NEWLINE>
Suppress 6


<SECT1>
TiltMode (intuos only)
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765718"  >
TiltMode enables sending of tilt information for intuos devices. If this
statement is missing, only pressure information is transferred.
<P>

<SECT1>
TopX, TopY, BottomX, BottomY Statements
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765719"  >
These four statements allow to reduce the active area of the tablet. My intuos
A4 oversize, for example, is so big that you can not do painting work with it
because the ways of  the pen are too long. I use these four Statements to tell
the driver that it should map only the lower left quarter of the tablet to the
screen.<newline>
It is possible to define more than one active area on the same tablet:
Define as many subsections as you need with the same Port Statement but with
different Top... statements and Devicenames. This results in multiple logical
devices all of them restricted to their individual bounds. You may use
one device in absolute mode and one in relative mode as well.<P>
<bf>Example:</bf>
<TSCREEN>
<VERB>TopX        0 #coord of top left point
TopY     5000
BottomX  5000 #coord of bottom right point
BottomY 10000</VERB>
</TSCREEN>
<P>

<SECT2>
Getting the maximal X, Y Values, current configuration, and the resolution
<P>
If you use the above four statements, you sometimes want to make some
calculations on the size and position of the rectangle to be defined. Often
the maximal tablet coordinates and the resolution are needed for this. To get
these values, start your server: <EM>
	X 2&gt;t
</EM>.
Kill the X-Server (usually  Ctrl+Alt+Backspace)
and do a 
<EM>
	grep &dquot;X=&dquot; t
</EM>
.You should get back the values in question.
<P>

<SECT2>Getting Resolution - Example of what has been logged<P>
<TSCREEN>
<VERB>
(--) Wacom IV tablet maximum X=5103 maximum Y=3711 X 
     resolution=1000 Y resolution=1000 suppress=6
(--) Wacom tablet top X=0 top Y=0 bottom X=5103 bottom Y=3711
(--) Wacom tablet top X=0 top Y=0 bottom X=5103 bottom Y=3711
(--) Wacom tablet top X=0 top Y=0 bottom X=5103 bottom Y=3711
</VERB>
</TSCREEN>
<P>


<SECT1>
KeepShape
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765720">
This option uses the TopX, TopY statements (or their built in defaults, if
omitted) and adjusts the BottomX, BottomY statements so that

<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
The ratio height / width of the screen is the same ratio on the tablet
<ITEM>
The active area starting at TopX, TopY of the tablet is as big as it can be
with the above condition.
</ITEMIZE>
<P>
Any given BottomX, BottomY statement is ignored, because these values will be
calculated.
<P>

<SECT1>
Threshold
<P>
This is available since alpha 16 and is used to control the  minimum pressure that is needed 
to detect that a tool is pressed on the surface. It works with intuos and
graphire. Please note that the integer value has to be coded as String,
unlike all other integer values.<P>   
<bf>Example:</bf>
<TSCREEN>
<VERB>
Threshold "5"
</VERB>
</TSCREEN>

<SECT>
Changing configuration from within a running X-Server
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765721">
<SECT1>
Setting up the Gimp to use XInput devices
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765722"  >
<REF id="_gimp" name="Gimp">
 has built-in XInput support since Version 1.1.x.
<P>
Gimp must know which devices it should use and in what mode. You have to open
the
<EM>
	File/Dialogs/Input Devices
</EM>
- dialog for setting this up. You will find two listbox-controls at the top of
that window labeled
<EM>
	Device
</EM>
and
<EM>
	Mode
</EM>
. Choose the device to set up from the
<EM>
	Device
</EM>
control and choose a mode from the
<EM>
	Mode
</EM>
-control.
<P>
The modes are:

<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
disabled: Gimp does not use this device.
<ITEM>
window: Gimp uses this device. (The cursor is drawn by the application ???)
<ITEM>
screen: Gimp uses this device.   (The cursor is drawn by the X-Server ??? )
</ITEMIZE>

<P>
If you see two cursors linked to your device, you have two solutions:
<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
Use mode screen but you may or may not loose the special gimp-tool cursors; If
so, all cursors will be replaced by the pen cursor.
<ITEM>
Configure two different devices in the XF86Config file, one
<EM>
	AlwaysCore
</EM>
and one not. Tell gimp to use the later one in mode window. If you do so and
have one of the statements
<EM>
	TopX, TopY, BottomX, BottomY
</EM>
in your XF86Config, take care to use the same adjustments for that statements in
both logical devices. If you do not, then you get confused because X draws a
cursor of the one device while the other is active. the effect of this is a
cursor, very far away from the point of action (hotspot).
</ITEMIZE>

<P>
Below the two listbox-controls there is a tab-control with the two register
tabs
<EM>
	Axes
</EM>
and
<EM>
	Keys
</EM>
.
<EM>
	Axes
</EM>
assigns an axis a function, it is mostly not necessary to change this. But
think about a touch-screen device which is built in a table rotated by 90
degrees, then you might want to swap the x and y axis.

<P>
Some tablets have so called macro keys at the top which may hold some often used functions. The <LABEL id="_macrokeys">
<EM>
	Keys
</EM>
tab lets you assign a character to a macro key. For example, you can put Ctrl+Shift+R, to a macro key. If you 
activate this key, then the rulers are toggled. <newline>
The current Wacom driver supports only the macro keys of the ultrapad series,
the macro area of the intuos products is not yet usable for that. 

<P>
Now we should talk about how the devices can be used. Open the
<EM>
	File/Dialogs/Device Status
</EM>
-dialog. Open an image.
<P>
You set up each device independently from each other in gimp.
<P>
If you move the cursor with different devices in the image window you can see
the devices change in the Device Status dialog. If you pick a tool, brush,
pattern or color with a device, again the changes are reflected in the dialog.
You can save the settings in the Status Dialog, so that they will be restored
before your next session.
<P>

<SECT1>
The Switch Device
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765723"  >
This is a special device that is always present. It generates an event every
time a new device becomes the core pointer. It has a pseudo &dquot;axis&dquot;.
The &quot;value&quot; of  this axis is the id of the core pointer device. I do
not know what a user can do with it - this is mainly helpful for internal use.

<SECT1>
Buttons
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765724">
The buttons of the devices are as different as the devices are:
<NEWLINE>
A pen has at least a tip, but it may have one or two side switches and an
eraser. A mouse may have up to 32 buttons (but usually 3). Buttons are numbered
from 1 to the number of buttons. With the next two utilities you can change, to
what number a button is mapped.

<SECT1>
Button Mapping with xmodmap for Devices in Core Mode
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765725"  >
xmodmap will only modify the Core Pointer. As there is only one Core pointer at
a time, it makes no difference between the physical devices which may become
the Core Pointer. For the moment, let us forget the whole XInput stuff and
think of a left-hander who just wants to swap the left and right mouse buttons.
You would execute 
<EM>
	xmodmap -pp
</EM>
 to look what the current assignment is. You
should get the following table back:
<TSCREEN>
<VERB>
Physical        Button
Button          Code
1              1      # ( Left   Button )
2              2      # ( Right  Button )
3              3      # ( Middle Button )
</VERB>
</TSCREEN>

<P>
To swap the buttons, you do a 
<EM>
	xmodmap -e &dquot;pointer = 2 1 3&dquot;
</EM>
, and to get
back, 
<EM>
	xmodmap -e &dquot;pointer = default&dquot;
</EM>
. This should work with every device
with at least two buttons. Note that  the term 
<EM>
	&dquot;pointer = x x x&dquot;
</EM>
 has to be quoted
to prevent it from being changed by the shell.


<SECT1>
Button Mapping with xinput  for Devices in Extension Mode
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765726"  >

Back to XInput now. If you use the gimp, you may want to change the button
mapping for each device separately (may be you are happy with the mouse but
want to swap the two side-switches of the pen). Frederic Lepied has written a
utility called 
<REF id="_XInput" name="xinput">
 for that.
<P>
To swap the side-switches, you would do a 
<EM>
	xinput list
</EM>
 to get a list of the
devices and their current settings. Swapping is done with 
<EM>
	xinput
	set-button-map Pen1 1 3 2
</EM>
 where 
<EM>
	Pen1
</EM>
 is the Device to change.
<P>
Starting with XFree 3.3.2 this works also with devices that
are configured 
<EM>
	AlwaysCore
</EM>
 in XF86Config.


<SECT1>
xsetmode - changing absolute / relative mode
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765727">

<P>
With xsetmode you can change the mode of a device between absolute and relative.
<P>
<bf>Example:</bf><newline>
<EM>
	xsetmode GraphireMouse ABSOLUTE
</EM>
.


<SECT1>
xsetpointer - setting the default core device
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765728"  >

If you have none of your devices configured 
<EM>
	AlwaysCore
</EM>
 and you want
a device to become  the core-pointer, then xsetpointer must be used.
<P>
Do a 
<EM>
	xsetpointer Devicename
</EM>
. The old core-device (usually the
mouse) is not usable anymore and the one you specified should be active. For
example I can make the graphire mouse the standard core device from within a
running XFree.
<P>
<EM>
	xsetpointer -l
</EM>
 lists all devices and the modes they are in.

<SECT1>
Keys
<P>
<LABEL id="_Toc465765729"  >
Some devices have macro keys or pads on them, to which a scancode or string may be 
assigned. This works only for devices in extension mode and is therefore done
in the application you want use the keys with.<p>
<EM>xinput -l</EM> gives information about the number of keys and things 
like the first scancode.<p>
 
<SECT1>
Utilities to use more than one tablet and for toggle support on  / off
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765730"  >

I own myself 3 tablets of Wacom and use them on my notebook. Whenever no
tablets are connected and
I start X, I have to wait very long until the driver gives up. If xdm is used,
this increases to multiple of  that timeouts.
<P>
I have written two utilities which should make live easier with that:

<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
The shell script 
<BF>
	sx
</BF>
 for those who use startx. 
sx uses the dialog tool to present a nice menu where the user can choose:
<ITEMIZE>
<ITEM>
one of up to 10 devices (tablet, joystick, ...)
<ITEM>
for notebooks, which display to use (internal or external display)
<ITEM>
which window-manager to use
</ITEMIZE>
<P>


<ITEM>
The small gtk-application 
<BF>
	xinput-chooser
</BF>
 for those who use xdm.
xinput-chooser presents the user a menu whenever the xdm login screen is shown,
from which one of up to ten different configurations can be chosen.
</ITEMIZE>

<P>
The concept behind this is that a XF86Config file is split in at least a
XF86Config.bare file, which holds the information common to all configurations,
and various snippets, each of them holding the special information for a
particular configuration.
<P>
The two utilities will then concat the parts back to a working configuration.

<P>
You can get this packet from
<HTMLURL url="http://www.runkeledv.de/download" name="http://www.runkeledv.de/download">
, it is named xinput_chooser_sr.


<SECT>
XFree FAQ - Problems And Questions
<P>
<LABEL id="_xfreefaq">

<SECT1>
Gnome and Gimp only work like a usual mouse, without pressure and tilt.
Gimp Input Devices Dialog shows &dquot;No Input Devices&dquot;
<P>
It seems that you have not compiled your gtk with XInput-support.
Please rebuild gtk and use <em>./configure --with-xinput=xfree</em> for building the Makefile. Then do a <em>make && make install</em>. Then rebuild your gimp
so that it uses this extendet gtk.

<SECT1>
Is the wheel of the mouse (cursor) supported ?
<P>
Yes, it generates button 4 and button 5 events.

<SECT1>
How can I find out the intuos Serial Num of my tool ?
<P>
read the section about <REF id="_Toc465765712" name="Serial_Num">

<SECT1>
How do I change the action of each button of my tool?
<P>
Read the section about <REF id="_Toc465765724" name="buttons">.

<SECT1>
How can I use the intuos/artpad/ultrapad  macro area ?
<P>
You can not use the intuos macro area, sorry. <newline>
Only Artpad / Ultrapad Macro stripes work. 
Read the section about <REF id="_macrokeys" name="Gimp Keys">.

<SECT1>
Is it possible to define multiple active areas on the same tablet ?
<P>
Yes, read the section about the <REF id="_Toc465765719" name="Top... Statements">

<SECT1>
Can I use more than one tablet at the same time ?
<P>
Yes, read the section about the <REF id="_Toc465765709" name="Port Statement">

<SECT>
Gpm FAQ - Problems And Questions
<P>
<LABEL id="_gpmfaq">

<SECT1> 
NCurses programs only support cut and paste with my new gpm 
<P>
You probably mixed a new gpm with an old gpm library.
Or You use an old client which searches the socket gpmctl in /var/run
instead in /dev. In the later case you have two options: get new clients
and recompile them or change gpm.h so that it uses /var/run instead of /dev 
and recompile gpm and libgpm.<P>  

<SECT>
Further Information / Used Documents
<P>
 
<LABEL id="_Toc465765731">

<P>
gpm:
<NEWLINE>
gpm man page, gpm FAQ, source code file mice.c
<P>
XInput:
<NEWLINE>
XInput HOWTO by Owen Taylor
<P>
XFree and Wacom:
<NEWLINE>
XF86Config man page
<P>
Frederic Lepied's site
<P>
much, much, e-mails...
</ARTICLE>