TabletPC Digitizer Pen - how to make it work with Puppy?

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HitRSS
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TabletPC Digitizer Pen - how to make it work with Puppy?

#1 Post by HitRSS »

Hi there!

Just installed the Chubby Puppy on my TabletPC Toshiba M200's NTFS partition using the instructions from this forum and my 1400x1050 screen is being supported perfectly!

I'm only missing the Pen Digitizer to work with Puppy.

I found some websites on Toshiba and Linux that provide some info on how to get the Digitizer to work:

http://www.adebenham.com/laptop/toshiba_m200.html
http://www.xmission.com/~bmidgley/m200/
http://tuxmobil.org/toshiba_portege_m20 ... linux.html

but don't really know where to start...

Can some of the Puppy Experts provide me with some hints of where to start and what might/would work and I will try it and post results here.

I'm a linux newbie, but will definitely want to try this to work, just need some guidance and since many people know how "under the hood" puppy works, tips on where to start would be really appreciated.

I will post results here.

lickthefrog
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#2 Post by lickthefrog »

i also run puppy (still only sometimes) on a tablet pc, toshiba r15. i need to figure out pen support as well.

i'll add the link to the linux wacom project: http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index.php/main

and here's a link to someone who sorted out ubuntu on his r15: http://aleph-null.tv/go.php?doc=20050625-0102-56.xml

here also is a link to tablet pcs with linux: http://tuxmobil.org/tablet_unix.html

just thought if anyone else searches these forums for tabletpc stuff, this might help.

when i get the digitizer working, i'll try and describe how i do it.

i still have no idea where even to put drivers...wish me luck...

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Lobster
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#3 Post by Lobster »

8) good luck

I did try getting my wacom Pen Digitizer to work - so there may be some benefit in searching the format. I must admit I got bored and did not try that hard - it should certainly be possible. I am not sure if it might be better to use the 2.6 kernel based Puppy2 beta that will be out soon. I have a feeling it might be. Do report back if you run into difficulties.

Nathan who runs grafpup and the 1.09 community project that in one of the paradoxes of Linux will be going into beta after Puppy2 may be able to help. He is busy this week and will be working on the beta of 1.09 over the weekend - but certainly contact him for any advice.

Anyway once again - good luck :D
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

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lickthefrog2
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Specific Xorg Question for my TabletPC

#4 Post by lickthefrog2 »

Arf, arf! (a baby puppy greeting)

I feel like I've come a long way since imagining replacing WindowsXP Tablet Edition over a year ago. I was waiting for Puppy2 to come out and so I'm back at it.

Recently I flirted with ArchLinux in order to see if I could get my wacom driven TabletPC digitizer to work. I did. Then I broke something rather badly and was rescued a second time by Puppy (Muppy005, what I'm using now and what I'm hoping to build up to perfectly suit my Toshiba R15--so far I got my Alps synaptic driver configured properly).

So, now I'm stuck and can precisely name the point. I am attempting to compile (I don't even know if that's the correct term) linuxwacom. I got devx_212.sfs file and ran ./compile in the linuxwacom directory and much of it seems like it will work, but there is an error.

Code: Select all

------

checking for specifying Wacom X driver module path... ***
    *** WARNING:
    *** Unable to compile wacom_drv.o{o,so} without XF86 build environment
    *** or Xorg SDK.
    *** wacom_drv.o will not be built
    ***
------------

BUILD ENVIRONMENT:
        Xorg SDK - no /usr
    XSERVER64 - no
          dlloader - no

-----------------

BUILD OPTIONS:
     wacom.o - no
  ----
     tabletdev.o - no
     wacom_drv.so - no
     wacom_drv.o - no /usr/X11R6/lib/xorg/modules/input
I'm thinking that I can find Xorg SDK somewhere and then it will work.

Then again, maybe I just don't know into which directory to tell it to look.

I'm going to keep searching, but if someone has a tip, I'd be much obliged.

Thanks,
Lickthefrog

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lickthefrog2
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Got over the xorg-sdk problem

#5 Post by lickthefrog2 »

Found a package from which I extracted xorg-sdk.

Figured out where to put that and then got over the previous error. :shock:

Linux-wacom compiled (if that's the correct term), and things are not so dim on this lonely and winding path.

I have to admit, it's kind of fun trying to solve these problems and follow a complex set of instructions. I'm not really technical. :roll:

But I'm still stuck. I have a driver, a place to put it, and some xorg.conf settings but there are a large number of variables so I have a lot of configuring to do.

Good night.

- lickthefrog

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lickthefrog2
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#6 Post by lickthefrog2 »

Success!!! :D

I can't really believe it myself. But I did it! I can use the TabletPC feature of my Toshiba R15 running Puppy Linux (Muppy005)!

So obviously it's possible. Took a lot of trial and error on my part and a whole lot of searching through forums (mostly this one, but some devoted to other distros).

This process has educated me somewhat, which has the greatest value.

I will offer any tips to someone who wants to try to set up what I have done; however, I'm not really sure I can be of much help since half the stuff I did, I can't really explain. :roll:

Well...I can't really describe how I feel yet. There are about two or three more steps I have to go through before I can really be happy because I want to replicate the good and efficient system I have going for grading papers (my real job) using WindowsXP Tablet Edition.

Yeah!

Lickthefrog
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Lobster
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#7 Post by Lobster »

We could do with a how to / dotpup for wacom tablets

I tried before to get my wacom working - it was time consuming :)

also these progs might be of interest
anyway well done on getting it all working 8)
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

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lickthefrog2
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#8 Post by lickthefrog2 »

Thanks Lobster,

I was contacted by theinfamousj who is trying to do a better job than I did of getting it up and running. By that I mean, he mentioned he is writing up what he is doing (I'm assuming theinfamousj is a he).

For me, I was really confused by the linux-wacom site instructions, but obviously I got it working somehow. It took a lot of trial and error.

So while I offer it, I doubt I'll be of much help.

A dotpup would be cool. One thing, though, is that Tablet PCs are different from USB Tablets because the TabletPC wacom digitizer is a serial connection.

Here's a link to a page with some software I'm trying to play around with: http://groundstate.ca/node/370

The program I used to make the image is jarnal, which is java based so even a newbie like me can run it without knowing the correct way to install linux packages.

- lickthefrog2

John Doe
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#9 Post by John Doe »

lickthefrog2 wrote:A dotpup would be cool.
Yes it would.

It would be even COOLER if we could just get it going for everyone, "out of the box".

Did you add anything or just change some settings?

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lickthefrog2
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#10 Post by lickthefrog2 »

John Doe wrote:
lickthefrog2 wrote:A dotpup would be cool.
Did you add anything or just change some settings?
The main thing was getting Xorg SDK. I eventually found a debian package that I opened up and pulled the appropriate folder out of.

Beyond that, I just followed as best I could the directions from the linux-wacom site.

But my stylus button still isn't working properly as a right-click mouse button. I keep meaning to try to fix it, but haven't had time.

- lickthefrog2

theinfamousj
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#11 Post by theinfamousj »

I'm a she, but apparently my username is almost always taken as male. Maybe I'm too egotistical to be a female online. Who knows.

Anyway, a dotpup would be super. Right now, I'm stuck at the Xorg SDK part. So if anyone knows where I might find it, or has it to send to me directly, please do. I found a debian package that claimed to include it, but then couldn't actually find it in the package. Grrrr ...

Right now I've thrown up my hands and said: If my USB tablet is a HID device, why can't it just be a HID mouse? I don't even want all the cool tilt and whirl functions. Anyone know?

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lickthefrog2
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#12 Post by lickthefrog2 »

Again, sorry, I'm not the best person for this because I really don't know what I'm doing,

I'm trying to get to you the directory I think you need. I zipped it up but the forum won't let me post it as an attachment, nor can I attach it to a PM to you. If you PM me your email address, I'll send it off to you.

As far as I know, the Xorg SDK thing is just a directory labeled "Server" that goes in the lib directory according to this page http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index ... wacomnosrc:
The xorg SDK in the case of FC3 is located in /usr/X11R6/lib/Server and we can
tell the configuration script this

./configure --with-xorg-sdk=/usr/X11R6/lib/Server
So I just took that folder from the debian package and put it there and then I no longer got the XorgSDK error.

Let me know if you want me to email you the archive. Otherwise, browse into that debian package, find the directory and copy it over.

Let me know if I can be of further assistance.

- lickthefrog2

HitRSS
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#13 Post by HitRSS »

Hello everyone, hello lickthefrog2!

I'm the orignal poster of this post and I'm back here and back with an interest of installing Wacom digitizer on my M200's newest Puppy!

OK, lickthefrog2, I know you wrote you didn't know exactly what you were doing but I'm sure that's not the case since you made it work. First of all - congratulations!

OK, we all want to make it work (at least I do) so let's start with it. Maybe we'll get to a dotpup phase in the end and prepare something for other fellow tableters!

So, please lickthefrog2, write as much as you can, try to write step by step what you did, I will try to do the same on my tablet and will keep you posted here of my progress... in the end we may come up with a full step-by-step guide on how to get wacom driver running on a tabletpc....

Again, congratulations lickthefrog2... and I can't wait to make it work on my tablet!

Please help me as much as you can.

- Michael

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lickthefrog2
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#14 Post by lickthefrog2 »

Hi HitRSS,

I'll write what I did. I actually did it twice, both times getting stumped, interestingly, at different points.

So I'll do it a third time, hopefully within a week. I'll write it as I go.

I still can't figure out the right-click pen button.

Back to my real job...

- lickthefrog2

HitRSS
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#15 Post by HitRSS »

Thanks for that!

I'd love to hear from you about it. I will try to do the same on my M200 and maybe we'll come up with an ultimate step-by-step guide on how to get it working.

I'll try to follow your steps once you've written something then. Have a great week!

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lickthefrog2
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#16 Post by lickthefrog2 »

One week later, status update:

I saw that Muppy007 came out, so I'm starting from scratch.

This leads me to a few intermediary steps before linuxwacom, so I'm running a bit behind.

By the way, for copying over firefox addons and profiles, I recommend FEBE

Now that I figured it out, I am that much lighter.

Note: I also tested QEMU-Puppy in order to just try to recompile the linuxwacom driver. Want to explore that more...but went for Muppy007.

Back soon...

lickthefrog2

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lickthefrog2
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#17 Post by lickthefrog2 »

I'm trying to get to this. I want to figure out the xorg-sdk thing again. I sort of remember how I got it the first time and suppose I could just copy it (/usr/X11R6/lib/Server) over from my working system to my new one. I will try that soon.

I would like to offer the file. I tried before but couldn't upload it to the forum. I will again next week (I'm on Windows this weekend). :cry:

In the meantime, I found this website: http://www.missirina.com/risujin/debian.php

I can't vouch for it, but I'm pretty sure the writer has more experience in Linux than I have. He/She offers a different way around the Xorg-sdk error.

Tablet Digitizer (Xorg7) top

If you do not care about rotation you can simply install the xserver-xorg-input-wacom package and it will enable your digitizer. If you do want rotation however, do not install this package.

To get your tablet digitizer working with Xorg7 you must download the LinuxWacom driver source (version 0.7.4 at the time of this writing). Tablet rotation support is planned for a future release but is only available as a patch for now. The patch you want to use can be downloaded from the Xournal homepage. Look for a link near the bottom of the page and get the patch file rather than the binaries.

The latest versions of the LinuxWacom drivers no longer have problems with the Debian paths and will compile just fine on their own. The procedure works as follows:

* Copy linuxwacom-0.7.2-rotate-patch into the src directory.
* Run patch -p1 <linuxlinuxwacom-0.7.2-rotate-patch to apply the patch.
* Now run ./configure, make, and make install. Make sure each of these returns no errors. If you are upgrading from X11R6 you may need to upgrade your X11 dev library packages to the latest versions.

That's it! The drivers should now be installed and the tablet will work when you start X11. You can test to see if the driver is working properly by running wacdump -f c100 /dev/ttyS0.

Tablet Digitizer (X11R6) top

This section is for X11R6 only!

It is not difficult to get the Wacom drivers working, however some work is needed to tweak them to support screen rotation. First of all we need to download the Linux Wacom drivers (version 0.7.2). These drivers do not support on-the-fly rotation and must be patched. The original location of the patch is down so I have uploaded a local copy. Download the patch and apply it to the drivers.

We can't compile the drivers just yet. Run ./configure and notice that it is missing various libraries (if it is not, you're set and can skip this part). The Debian paths for various libraries are different from other distributions so we need to make some changes.

* First we need to make a fake X-Org SDK folder. Create the folder Xorg-SDK in your driver directory. Inside this folder, create a link to the Debian X-Org headers:
ln -s include /usr/include/xorg/
* Run ./configure --with-xorg-sdk=Xorg-SDK from the driver directory. The X-Org SDK errors should now be gone. There will still be errors about X11 headers.
* Now open src/Makefile in the driver directory and find this line:

DRIVER_INCLUDES = -I${XORGSDK_DIR)/include

For X-Org 6 change this line to read:

DRIVER_INCLUDES = -I${XORGSDK_DIR)/include -I/usr/X11R6/include/X11

The drivers should now configure, compile, and install just fine. To enable the Wacom device, open /etc/X11/xorg.conf and add the following to the ServerLayout section:

Section "ServerLayout"
...
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

For the Portege, the tablet screen is just a regular Wacom tablet connected over through a serial port. We can enable it just like a serial Wacom tablet by adding the following sections:

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
EndSection

Test if the driver is working properly by running wacdump -f c100 /dev/ttyS0.

Screen Rotation top

The following section should be added to the nVidia driver section in /etc/X11/xorg.conf in order to enable screen rotation:

Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA ..."
Driver "nvidia"
Option "RandRRotation"
EndSection

If you have properly performed the Wacom and nVidia driver installations you should now be capable of rotating the screen via the xrandr tool and also of rotating the wacom tablet coordinates via the xsetwacom tool.

I have compiled a rotate script for each Wacom patch that will do the work for you. If you're using the Xorg7 patch from Xournal use the Xorg7 rotate script. If you followed the old X11R6 instructions use the X11R6 rotate script. To use this script run it with one of the orientation names as an argument (normal, left, right, inverted) like this: ./rotate-xorg7.sh left.

The xrandr command will rotate the display via the nVidia driver and xsetwacom will rotate the tablet pointer orientation. Both commands are necessary although apparently only rotating the stylus is sufficient.
[/quote]

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lickthefrog2
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#18 Post by lickthefrog2 »

I gave a few hours up to this project and didn't get far.

I'm stuck compiling it because of a lib/cpp error, which I don't recall getting the first time I did it.

I read in these forums that the way around that is to create a new pupsave file, and that's when I crashed for the night.

Will try again soon. I'm spread too thin.

- lickthefrog2

John Doe
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#19 Post by John Doe »

lickthefrog2 wrote:Will try again soon. I'm spread too thin.
I can relate to that. Thanks for the updates, this is interesting to follow.

Just so you know (In case you don't) you can make an alien package once you get the drivers compiled like this:

mkdir /linuxwacom-0.7.4
make install DESTDIR=/linuxwacom-0.7.4
cd /
tar -zcf linuxwacom-0.7.4.tar.gz linuxwacom-0.7.4

Then you will have a file named linuxwacom-0.7.4.tar.gz at / which is your new driver alien package.

Sym links would need to be copied over to /linuxwacom-0.7.4 from their relative position in the / structure, prior to compression. They will appear broken but will be ok because their position will be different when one installs the alien package.

Config changes would be your only addition then.

If you still have trouble compiling, let us know exactly where you are downloading the source from and any patches you are using.

I wish I had a tabletpc so I could help ;-)

Braden
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#20 Post by Braden »

I bought a display model M200 just after Christmas to use as a laptop at school. It would be a big win for me to be able to work on my mostly C++ programming and UML assignments on a real Linux, rather than using Cygwin.

I'm eventually going to want to get the tablet working, though I imagine I'll continue using OneNote (shock, horror, thunder!) for classes, because I've grown pretty attached to it, plus I've got a good chunk of the term in there now.

I've got several questions, having not tried to do Puppy coexisting with Windows before.

First, I'm a little stuck as to the best way to get Puppy going on a laptop with no CD drive. I've got a desktop I can network the CD from if necessary. No USB CD or floppy drive, but I've got a 512MB USB key and a 1GB SD card if necessary. (I've read that you can boot

Second, I've tried to find on the forums details of Puppy/Linux in general's current state with NTFS. My understanding is that Puppy can write and read from NTFS, but anything it writes can't be understood by Windows, just Linux?
Is it worth trying to partition the drive, or should I just tuck my pup_save into a corner of the drive and install in Coexist mode?

Third, what's the most convenient way to get a dual-boot going? Is GRUB-for-DOS the way to go? Linux GRUB? Can Puppy do it out of the box or will some wizardry be involved? I definitely don't want to do any harm to my Windows install with any of this, I need the laptop for school.

Finally, I'll be grab to offer myself as another guinea pig for getting the tablet working. It doesn't seem like a DotPup we can publish as a one-stop Wacom Tablet (with rotation?) solutin is beyond reach, once we get the steps written down.

I'm mostly asking rather than answering right now, but hopefully I can bring a decently experienced Linux user (though I have much to learn), and a programmer to this little project.

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