326 lines
19 KiB
HTML
326 lines
19 KiB
HTML
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Mozilla/4.06 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.0.30 i486) [Netscape]">
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<TITLE>Graphics Muse
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<!-- =============================================================
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This Page Designed by Michael J. Hammel.
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Permission to use all graphics and other content for private,
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non-commerical use is granted provided you give me (or the
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original authors/artists) credit for the work.
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CD-ROM distributors and commercial ventures interested in
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providing the Graphics Muse for a fee must contact me,
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Michael J. Hammel (mjhammel@csn.net), for permission.
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============================================================= !--><A NAME="musings"></A>
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<TABLE>
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<TD>
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<H2>
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More...</H2>
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<IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/musings.gif" ALT="Musings" HEIGHT=52 WIDTH=247 ALIGN=LEFT></TD>
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<TABLE>
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<TD>
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<H2>
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X Input ...</H2>
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</TD>
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</TR>
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</TABLE>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" >
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<TR>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT WIDTH="100%"><FONT SIZE=-2>© 1998 <A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@csn.net">Michael
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J. Hammel</A></FONT></TD>
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</TR>
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<TR>
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<TD VALIGN=TOP BGCOLOR="#000000" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN=LEFT></TD>
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</TR>
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</TABLE>
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The configuration line <B>AlwaysCore</B> for the SubSections WacomCore
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and EraserCore will essentially set this configuration to allow both the
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pen and eraser on the Wacom pen to act as your core pointer at the same
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time as your mouse. In other words, this configuration lets you use
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either the pen or the mouse to move the pointer around the screen.
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The pen can be used to post menus from your window manager or click on
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buttons in applications just like the mouse, although the raw coordinate
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system of the tablet makes it a bit strange to use as the core pointer
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initially. Where you might move the mouse, pick it up and the roll
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it again, with the pen and tablet you always need to place the pen exactly
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in the right coordinate on the tablet to get the right coordinate on the
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screen. For example, to move to the upper left corner of the display
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you must place the pen in the upper left corner of the tablet. Once
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you have your tablet configured you'll see what I mean. I found the
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use of the pen as my core pointing device a little difficult to get used
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to but you may not.
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<P>After the <B>SubSection</B> line is the line defining the device port
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to use. My tablet uses a serial port and I suspect most of the other
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tablets do as well. In this case, /dev/ttyS1 is my second serial
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port. Although you may be able to use the /dev/cua1 device here as
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well, I've read that it is recommended to use the cua devices only for
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modems. If you use a multiport serial card, such as the <A HREF="http://ftp.leidenuniv.nl/linux/tsx-11/packages/comtrol/">Comtrol
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RocketPort</A>, and have the device connected to one of those ports then
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the device name will be different. The Comtrol controller sets up
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ports with names running from /dev/ttyR0 to /dev/ttyR15 (depending on how
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many cards and ports you have installed).
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<P>The <B>Mode Absolute</B> line is required. Unfortunately I don't
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really have any information as to what would happen if you didn't include
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this line. The last line, <B>Suppress</B>, is used to set the movement
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sensitivity of the pen. Higher values mean that the pointer on the
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screen won't move as quickly as you move the pen around the tablet.
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I experimented with the default value (from the X Input Howto) of 9 and
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found the pointer jumped too quickly for my taste. A value of 17
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seemed to work more to my liking.
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<P>These are the only changes you'll need to make to the XF86Config file.
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We'll test this configuration in a moment but first lets make sure you
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have the hardware connected properly. The PenPartner, at least, has
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two connectors that have to be connected to your system. One plugs
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into your keyboard connector and allows your keyboard to be connected to
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it. This is used to get power to the tablet. The other connector
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is a typical serial connector and should be plugged into the port specified
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by your Port line in the XF86Config file. Be certain you don't have
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the power on when you attach the plug that goes to the keyboard connector.
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If you do you can cause damage to the tablet. After the keyboard
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and serial connectors are in place you can power up your computer.
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<P>In my setup I have only two serial ports, with one of those dedicated
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to the mouse. The other port is shared between a modem, a PalmPilot
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cradle and the Wacom PenPartner. I have each of these connected to
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an AB switch box. This configuration works just fine but be certain
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that the switch box is set to the tablet port before starting your X session.
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If you don't then the X server won't see the tablet during initialization
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and you won't be able to use it.
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<P><B><I>Testing the configuration: xsetpointer and gsumi</I></B>
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<P>Ok, you've got your server up and the tablets connected. The first
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thing we want to do is make sure the tablet is being seen by the server.
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To verify this, run the following command:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>xsetpointer -l</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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The output, if you're configuration is like the one I gave earlier, should
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look like this:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>"pointer"
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[XPointer]</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>"keyboard" [XKeyboard]</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>"Wacom"
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[XExtensionDevice]</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>"WacomCore" [XExtensionDevice]</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>"ERASER"
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[XExtensionDevice]</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>"EraserCore" [XExtensionDevice]</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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If you see the Wacom and Eraser entries then you're all set. If not,
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you need to double check that you have your XF86Config file properly set
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up and that you have a 3.3.1 or 3.3.2 XFree86 server running and you have
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the proper modules loaded (from the XF86Config file).
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<P>If all this is in place and looks correct, try moving the pen around
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on the tablet. Does the pointer on the screen move too? If
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so, you're all set! If not, well, reread the first part of this article
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and then check the X Input Howto to see if you might have missed something.
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<P>Next we want to try an application with X Input support. The easiest
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one to try is gsumi, a simple black and white drawing program from Owen
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Taylor. In order to use gsumi you need to first have a version of
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the GTK+ libraries installed that include X Input support. If you
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don't have these, you can <A HREF="ftp://ftp.gtk.org">grab the source code</A>,
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build and install them. This is fairly easy to do so don't let it
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frighten you. The INSTALL document that come with the source code
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does a decent job of describing the build process, including the one additional
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option argument to the configure script that you need: <TT><FONT SIZE=-2>--with-xinput</FONT></TT>.
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So, taking the INSTALL information from GTK+ and modifying it, you would
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do the following:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% gzip -cd gtk+-1.0.5.tar.gz | tar xvf -
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# unpack the sources</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% cd gtk+-1.0.5
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# change to the toplevel directory</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% ./configure --with-xinput=xfree
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# run the `configure' script</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% make
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# build GTK</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>[ Become root if necessary ]</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% make install
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# install GTK</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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After this completes you're ready to build <A HREF="http://www.gimp.org/~otaylor/gsumi/index.html">gsumi</A>.
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This is easier to do that GTK+. Just unpack the software and run
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the following commands:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% configure</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% make</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>[ Become root if necessary ]</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% make install</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Now you can actually try an application that uses X Input. Start
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gsumi with the command
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% gsumi</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Figure 1 shows the gsumi interface.
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<BR>
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<CENTER><TABLE BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=5 COLS=1 WIDTH="100%" NOSAVE >
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<TR NOSAVE>
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<TD ALIGN=CENTER NOSAVE><A HREF="./gx/hammel/gsumi-large.jpg"><IMG SRC="./gx/hammel/gsumi-small.jpg" BORDER=0 HEIGHT=320 WIDTH=464></A>
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<P><B>Figure 1</B>: The gsumi interface - note the ...</TD>
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</TR>
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</TABLE></CENTER>
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<P>Setting the buttons on the pen to map to mouse buttons is done using
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the <B><I><FONT COLOR="#CC6600">xinput</FONT></I></B> program. With
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the PenPartner, try
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% xinput set-button-map Wacom 1 3 2</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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This sets the pen button as your right mouse click (assuming a 2 button
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mouse) and the eraser as button 3. Making changes like this may affect
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how your pen interacts with your applications so you may need to expermiment
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with the xinput program till you find a configuration you like.
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<P><B><I>Building the Gimp with X Input support</I></B>
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<P>Everything seems to be working now, so lets get the Gimp running with
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X Input support too. The first you thing you need to know is that,
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like gsumi, the Gimp needs to be compiled with a version of the GTK+ libraries
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that has X Input enabled. You've already installed an X Input enabled
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GTK+ earlier in this article. Now you just need to <A HREF="ftp://ftp.gimp.org">grab
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the Gimp sources</A> and recompile them. All of the Gimp plug-ins
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also need recompiling. If you downloaded any of the plug-ins on their
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own, for example from the <A HREF="http://registry.gimp.org/">Plug-In Registry</A>,
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and built them outside of the core Gimp source tree then you'll need to
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recompile them individually. If you do end up recompiling any of
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the plug-ins by themselves then you need to be certain that their Makefiles
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are updated to link with the X Input library using the -lXi option.
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Add this right before the -lX11 option (which all plug-in Makefiles are
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likely to have). For example, the Curtain plug-in has the following
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line in its Makefile:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>LDADD=-L/usr/X11R6/lib -lgimp -lglib -lm
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-lgtk -lgdk -lXext -lX11</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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You should modify this to look like the following:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>LDADD=-L/usr/X11R6/lib -lgimp -lglib -lm
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-lgtk -lgdk -lXi -lXext -lX11</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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If you don't rebuild the plug-ins they'll crash when you start the Gimp.
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All of the plug-ins that are part of the core source distribution will
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be rebuilt when you rebuild the core Gimp source.
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<P>Once you've rebuilt the Gimp with X Input support you can use the mouse
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or tablet to perform the same functions you're probably now very familiar
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with in the Gimp. There is one additional feature to the Gimp that
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can be added, however. This feature requires <A HREF="http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/xinput/patch-gimp-xinput.10.gz">an
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additional patch</A> and will allow you to make use of an Input Devices
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dialog from the Gimp. I wasn't able to get this properly working
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before this article had to be submitted so all I can do here is pass on
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the information provided by Owen. This information is also provided
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by Owen's <A HREF="http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/xinput/step-by-step.html">step-by-step
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instructions</A> for using the Gimp with X Input.
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<P>To apply the patch you need to first start with a clean source tree.
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Change directories to your Gimp sources and type
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% make distclean</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Now apply the patch. Here we assume the patch has been saved to your
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/tmp directory:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% gzip -cd /tmp/patch-gimp-xinput.10.gz |
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patch -p1</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% automake app/Makefile</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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If when you downloaded the file using a Netscape browser the file name
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was changed to remove the .gz extension, you may still have a gzipped file.
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To check this type:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% file /tmp/patch-gimp-xinput.10</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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If it tells you its a gzipped file then you can still use the two preceeding
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lines but leave off the .gz suffix from the patch filename.
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If its not a gzipped file anymore then use the following lines instead:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% cat /tmp/patch-gimp-xinput.10 | patch -p1</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% automake app/Makefile</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Then build the Gimp:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% make clean</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% make distclean</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% configure</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% make</FONT></TT>
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<BR><TT><FONT SIZE=-1>% make install</FONT></TT></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Aside from the Input Devices dialog there isn't anything to show you here
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in the way of screen shots. The effect of having done all this work
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is that you now have a version of both gsumi and Gimp that will respond
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to either the mouse or the drawing tablet as input devices. It turns
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out this isn't very hard to get working, but it can be a little time sonsuming,
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especially if you're not familiar with what should be happening when you've
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finished making your XF86Config configuration changes.
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<P>You can also apply another optional patch, patch-gimp-nopaintbrush,
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but only if the Gimp appears to run very slow after having applied the
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first patch, or you don't like the effect you get with the pressure-sensitive
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brushes. The pressure-sensitive paintbrush has been improved in the
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1.1 version of the Gimp (the developers branch of the source code which
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is not meant for public use at this time) but the patch-gimp-xinput.10
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file, meant for the 1.0 version of the Gimp, can produce a rather "dotty"
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output.
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<BR>In general, patch-gimp-nopaintbrush is not a recommended patch - it
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just reverses some portions of the main patch for those people who might
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need it.
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<P>For those of you with either the XFree86 source code or who have
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the glibc library installed on your system, Owen has a patch for the Wacom
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driver which you can pick up at <A HREF="ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/users/otaylor/xf86Wacom-owt-patch">ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/users/otaylor/xf86Wacom-owt-patch</A>
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(source code) or <A HREF="ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/users/otaylor/xf86Wacom-owt-linux-glibc.so.gz">ftp://ftp.gtk.org/pub/users/otaylor/xf86Wacom-owt-linux-glibc.so.gz</A>.
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The later file is a binary that just replaces the xf86Wacom.so in the /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/
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directory. Make a backup of the old one, as always. It fixes
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a number of problems related to button presses and the eraser. For
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tablets with two side switches it also modifies the button mapping to,
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more sanely, have the second side switch mapped to button 3, not button
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4.
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<P>Thats about it. The only thing left is to fill you in on a few
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of the caveats I ran into while using my tablet with the Gimp.
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<P><B><I>Tips on using X Input with the Gimp</I></B>
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<P>Using the Gimp with an XFree86 server configured as in this article
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doesn't required the use of the gxid daemon. However, you may need
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to manually set the pointer with xsetpointer if the server doesn't allow
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you to automatically switch between the mouse and tablet. I had this
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problem until I got both my XF86Config file and my AB switch box synced
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up correctly.
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<P>The Suppress option can be increased or decreased to adjust how sensitive
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the pointer will be to pen movements. I set mine to 17 and have just
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about the same response as my mouse.
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<P>Pressing hard on the tablet will get the PenPartner pen to act like
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a button 1 mouse click. I don't know if this is the same on other
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tablets. This means that when I move the pointer around I can post
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menus by pressing hard on the tablet. On the other hand, this doesn't
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work all that well in the Image Window to post the Image Window menu when
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I have a drawing tool selected. Sometimes the pointer gets stuck
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drawing and I have to tap it once to get it to stop. I don't know
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if this is an intentional feature or a possible bug, but I couldn't find
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a simple way to repeat it at will.
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<P>Wacom does not include tilt support in their 4"x5" tablets, including
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the PenPartner. Wacom's new Intuos line does include tilt support on the
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low end models, but it is not yet clear what the driver situation will
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be for those tablets.
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<P>When you use the pen to make selections you have to tap or press hard
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with the pen to clear the current selection. This doesn't always
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work and sometimes you get extremely small, almost pointlike, selections
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left in the window. You may have to use CTRL-Shift-Alt to clear the
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selection manually.
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<P>Be careful about having the pen too close to the pad when you try to
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use the mouse. It can confuse the server a bit and make it look like
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the mouse is not working properly.
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<P>For those who wish to try, the gxid daemon is supposed to allow other
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servers to work with gsumi at a minimum. If you use this option you
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have to compile GTK+ again, this time setting the with-xinput argument
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to "gxi" instead of "xfree". If you do manage to get this working,
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drop me a line with the details and I'll post it here in the Muse.
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<P><B><I>Where to get help: X Input Resources</I></B>
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<P>The first place to start when attempting to configure a tablet with
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X Input is the X Input Howto:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><A HREF="http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/xinput/howto/XInput-HOWTO.html">http://www.gtk.org/~otaylor/xinput/howto/XInput-HOWTO.html</A></BLOCKQUOTE>
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Owen Taylor maintains this Howto document, along with the gsumi application
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and Web site:
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<BLOCKQUOTE><A HREF="http://www.gimp.org/~otaylor/gsumi/index.html">http://www.gimp.org/~otaylor/gsumi/index.html
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</A>-
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GSUMI, an XInput example program</BLOCKQUOTE>
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There is an XInput page at XFree86 - <A HREF="http://www.xfree86.org/3.3.2/xinput.html">http://www.xfree86.org/3.3.2/xinput.html</A>,
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but its not very helpful.
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<P>And of course, the Wacom and Summagraphics Web sites: <A HREF="http://www.wacom.com">www.wacom.com</A>
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and <A HREF="http://www.summagraphics.com">www.summagraphics.com</A>, respectively.
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<BR>
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<BR>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" >
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<TR>
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<TD VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN="4" BGCOLOR="#000000" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><IMG SRC="../gx/hammel/cleardot.gif" ALT="indent" ALIGN=LEFT></TD>
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</TR>
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</TABLE>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" >
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<TR>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-2>© 1998 by <A HREF="mailto:mjhammel@csn.net">Michael
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J. Hammel</A></FONT></TD>
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</TR>
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</TABLE>
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</BODY>
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</HTML>
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