Graphics tablets in Suse 12.2

English Hardware
1

I have a Wacom Graphire Serial Tablet which I have been unable to make work since SuSe 11.2. I have recently installed 12.2 and thought I would make another attempt but have had no success.
I have the following files installed:
kcm_table
libwacom-data
libwacom-devel
libwacom-tools
libwacom2
libwacom2-32bit
xf86-input-wacom

but kcm tells me “no tablet found”. I note that my etc/x11 contains a file called “xorg.conf.d” does this have any relevance to my problem?
Having read all the references to tablets I can find my head is reeling! I get the impression that in 12.2 the tablet should work but there does not appear be any specific reference to tablets in 12.2!
I would be very grateful if anyone could tell me what I have missed or should do next.
I should mention I have a dual boot system with windowsXP and the tablet works in windows. I only use windows very infrequently.

merkland.

2

“Serial” as in connected to a serial port? I.e. a COM port?

3

Yes that is correct.

merkland.

4

>> “Serial” as in connected to a serial port? I.e. a COM port?
> Yes that is correct.

hmmmm…how old is that tablet? (here comes some ignorance on my part)
does Wacom still make serial tablets?

or, is there such a thing as a serial > USB adapter cord/device ??

if so, have tried connecting your tablet via USB? (i connect an analog
mouse and IBM keyboard, both with PS/2 connectors to my netbook (which
has neither serial nor PS/2 ports) via a purpose made/sold Belkin® USB
Dual PS/2 to USB Adapter, FSU119vE1 works great, maybe they/someone
makes such for serial<>usb…now, whether or not there is a usb driver
for that tablet is a different question…why not check the wacom
forums…look for a forum with ‘linux’ in its name…)

and/or nose around here: http://tinyurl.com/9d37w32

–
dd http://tinyurl.com/DD-Hardware

5

dd@home.dk,

My tablet is the Graphire1 which was produced from 1999 until superceded by the Graphire2 in 2001 as It still works perfectly, but no longer in OpenSuSE, I see no reason to change it. I have thought about trying a serial to usb adapter but I have heard that these can be problematic and have no wish to purchase one unless it was guaranteed to work. The fact that the tablet worked perfectly until OpenSuSE 11.3 proves that it can work in the Linux environment. I am just hoping that someone will be able to tell me what to do to get it working in 12.2 because everything I have read suggests it should work.

merkland.

6

What is the purpose of etc/x11/xorg.conf.d which contains, amongst others, a file 50-wacom.con?

merkland.f

7

Is there no one who can en-lighten my darkness!?

merkland.

8

On 10/04/2012 10:36 PM, merkland wrote:
>
> merkland;2492700 Wrote:
>> What is the purpose of etc/x11/xorg.conf.d which contains, amongst
>> others, a file 50-wacom.con?
>>
>> merkland.f
>
> Is there no one who can en-lighten my darkness!?

sorry, i missed seeing your posts on the 2nd and 4th…

do you have a copy of the /etc/X11/xorg.conf which worked prior to 11.3??

the X configuration system changed around that time…previously
everything was in that one xorg.conf file…then it changed to be that
the various things supported by X were moved to their own, individual
file, like etc/x11/xorg.conf.d/50-wacom.conf

i’d guess there is a good chance you could pull the info out of the
working conf from 11.2 and i would allow you to use that tablet with
12.2–of course, that would assume you have a driver/kernel module
compiled against your newer kernel…

i recall threads in these fora which came about the time the
configuration switch was made–those might be helpful in determining
what info should be moved from the old xorg.conf to the new 50-wacom.conf

though i’m not at all sure how to solve the serial port driver problem…

–
dd http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat

9

On 10/02/2012 10:46 PM, merkland wrote:
> The fact that the tablet worked perfectly until OpenSuSE 11.3
> proves that it can work in the Linux environment.

when you discovered that it didn’t work perfectly in openSUSE 11.3 did
you submit a bug report on that?

if not (and if none of the developers/testers of the time didn’t have
your already ten year old hardware on their bench to test against) then
it is no wonder it won’t work on 12.2

you are probably aware that Linux normally supports old hardware far
longer than other operating systems available…but, that only happens
when the developers are aware of problems…

oh, by the way: that tablet may work great in some other linux
distros…OR, maybe it works ok if you attach it, power it up and then
boot the live CD?? (if so, be sure to get a copy of the working
50-wacom.conf) [by the way, no serial device should be attached or
unattached while power is ON in either the tablet or the computer]

also: maybe it works great in 12.2 32 bit, but not 12.2 64 bit.

–
dd

10

Thank you for your reply. Unfortunately I do not have an old xorg.conf file as this computer started life on 11.4.
i am determined to try and solve the problem this time so am going to attack from two angles:

  1. I have ordered a cheap serial to usb converter to try, if it does not work then to bad its just a cheap unit anyway.
    2.I have an old PC which I can resurrect and attach the graphics pad to, I will install 11.1, 11.2 or older depending on which O.S. I still have a copy of then fire it up. This should provide an xorg.conf file in which I can edit out everything except the necessary tablet details. My problem is knowing where I can safely place this new xorg.conf file for it to produce the desired result. Do I place it in /etc/x11 alongside the existing xorg.conf.d file or do I make it a new 50-wacom.conf within xorg.conf.d ?

merkland.

11

On 10/05/2012 11:26 AM, merkland wrote:
> i am determined to try and solve the problem this time so am going to
> attack

i LIKE your attitude…makes me more willing to help!

> 1. I have ordered a cheap serial to usb converter to try, if it does
> not work then to bad its just a cheap unit anyway.

yep, i did the same bought the cheapest PS/2 > USB thing (“patch cord”
or “converter” i think they called it) i could find (for my old IBM
keyboard) and it didn’t work…i asked some OLD friends and they said i
didn’t need a patch cord/converter but rather an “adapter”…

the difference is the converter is just wires from one side to the
other…but, the adapter has a wide spot in the cord which encloses a
small circuit board which draws the power it needs to ‘adapt’ one side’s
needs to the other…

hopefully, you ordered a converter which is really and adapter…

here: the URL to what i bought
<http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=156482> maybe
nose around there and see what they might have for a Serial > USB
adapter—who knows, maybe there is no such thing…or maybe you found
a converter with will work for you–hope so!!

> My
> problem is knowing where I can safely place this new xorg.conf file for
> it to produce the desired result. Do I place it in /etc/x11 alongside
> the existing xorg.conf.d file or do I make it a new 50-wacom.conf within
> xorg.conf.d ?

recognize ‘we’ are experimenting, so i would, in this order:

  1. search the forum to learn what there is to be learned about taking
    from the old xorg.conf to build the new 50-wacom.conf

  2. rename/copy the original 50-wacom.conf to (say) 50-wacom.conf.OLDoriginal

  3. open the now backed up 50-wacom.conf AND the 11.x produced, working
    xorg.conf and using the new format (or maybe it is the same, i’ve not
    studied it) copy/paste the appropriate date into the new 50-file

and, log out from the DE and log back in…

if that does not work–and, you might know before me if you actually do
the searching i mentioned in #1–you might try this:

-with a good copy of the old xorg.conf that you will be able to keep,
put a copy of it into /etc/x11 and strip out every section which is not
wacom related…that is, the old format was that each individual
section of the conf file began with a “Section [something]” and ended
with an “EndSection”, delete all those where [something] is not ‘wacom’
BUT do not delete any sections in which ‘wacom’ is mentioned…THAT is
because the tablet also ‘acts like’ a mouse sometimes…so, have a look
at everything

by the way, i AM guessing and when you have done #1 above, you or
Knurpht will be The Expert in this thread…

if i wanted to be the expert i would begin here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aforums.opensuse.org+xorg.conf+50-wacom.conf

and if i didn’t learn enough there i would move on to something like

https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aforums.opensuse.org+xorg.conf+50-*.conf

or even:
https://www.google.com/search?q=site%3Aopensuse.org+xorg.conf+50-*.conf
which will drag up stuff (33k+ hits) out of all of the forums, the mail
lists and the wiki (those above only get 150 to 11,000+ hits only from
the forums…

by the way, in addition to my caveat below, i also can not promise you
success…but, you will learn a lot, and that is a good thing!

–
dd http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat

12

Thank you very much for your assistance.
It may be a little while before I can report back, currently having some problems with my attempts to resurrect the old PC.

merkland.

13

On 10/05/2012 09:26 PM, merkland wrote:
> currently having
> some problems with my attempts to resurrect the old PC.

probably need a new bios battery, and a chickens foot, a frogs eye, a
newts tail, a pint of branch water and some swamp gas mixed together and
bubbled gently over an open fire, at night, in the woods, at least a
mile from the nearest paved road, during a full moon with AC/DC on the pod.

–
dd

14

I have the same problem
a Wacom Intuos GD-1212-R wich worked with openSuse 11.2 and the following xorg.conf:
(file: /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-wacom.conf )


#Section "InputClass"
#    Identifier "Wacom Tablet"
#    MatchVendor    "Wacom|WALTOP|WACOM"
#    Driver    "wacom"
#EndSection

#Section "InputClass"
#    Identifier "Wacom Tablet 2"
#    MatchProduct    "WACf|FUJ02e5|FUJ02e7"
#    Driver    "wacom"
#    Option    "ForceDevice"    "ISDV4"
#EndSection

#Section "InputClass"
#    # N-Trig Duosense Electromagnetic Digitizer
#    Identifier "N-Trig Tablet"
#    MatchProduct    "HID 1b96:0001"
#    Driver    "wacom"
#EndSection

#Section "InputClass"
#    Identifier "Wacom serial class"
#    MatchProduct "Serial Wacom Tablet"
#    Driver "wacom"
#    Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
#EndSection

################
# Wacom Tablet #
################
Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "wacom"
  Identifier   "cursor"
  Option       "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
  Option       "InputFashion" "Tablet"
  Option       "Mode" "Relative"
  Option       "Name" "INTUOS v1+2 (SERIAL)"
  Option       "Protocol" "Auto"
  Option       "SendCoreEvents" "on"
  Option       "Type" "cursor"
  Option       "Vendor" "WACOM"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "wacom"
  Identifier   "stylus"
  Option       "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
  Option       "InputFashion" "Pen"
  Option       "Mode" "Absolute"
  Option       "Name" "INTUOS v1+2 Stylus (SERIAL)"
  Option       "Protocol" "Auto"
  Option       "Type" "stylus"
  Option       "Vendor" "WACOM"
  Option       "Button2" "3"
  Option       "Button3" "2"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
  Driver       "wacom"
  Identifier   "eraser"
  Option       "Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
  Option       "InputFashion" "Eraser"
  Option       "Mode" "Absolute"
  Option       "Name" "INTUOS v1+2 Eraser (SERIAL)"
  Option       "Protocol" "Auto"
  Option       "Type" "eraser"
  Option       "Vendor" "WACOM"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier   "Layout[all]"
  InputDevice  "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
  InputDevice  "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
  InputDevice  "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

This worked until openSuse 11.3, where I had to compile a patched version of xf86-input-wacom-0.10.6
Later on (openSuse 12.1) I did not use it.
Now I want to resurrect it and found several hints that recompiling something is necessary again:
A kernel driver for legacy Wacom serial tablets

I hope the xorg.conf above is usefull for you (so you don’t need to go into the woods at night ;))

15

OK, its working and it requires a bit recompiling.

I more or less followed the howto there:
[all variants] HOW TO Set Up a Wacom Serial Tablet in Ubuntu [Archive] - Ubuntu Forums](http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-1780154.html)

I combined the two packages from RoaldFre, wich provides a kernel module for wacom serial V devices (as the intuos) and the one from tokenrove, wich provides support for serial IV devices and a patched version of inputattach.

tokenrove and RoaldFre

Download both packages
https://github.com/RoaldFre/wacom_serial5
http://cipht.net/releases/wacom_serial-120327-1.tar.bz2

extract, copy

wacom_serial5.c

into tokenrove’s package,
add

wacom_serial5.o

just behind

wacom_serial.o

in the Makefile.
Now add the changes from the inputattach.patch in RoaldFre’s package to inputattach.c in tokenrove’s package. Same with serio-ids.h.

alternatively I packed all these things together:
http://access-design.selfip.org/arnold_saskia/uploads/temp-downloads/2012-10-11-wacom_serial_and_serial5.tar.xz


tar -xf 2012-10-11-wacom_serial_and_serial5.tar.xz
cd wacom_serial_and_serial5/
make all 
sudo mv /usr/sbin/inputattach /usr/sbin/inputattach_suse
sudo cp inputattach /usr/sbin/
sudo cp wacom_serial.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/input/tablet/
sudo cp wacom_serial5.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/input/tablet/
sudo depmod -a

Now run

sudo inputattach --wacom_v /dev/ttyS0

I’ve not tested, wether the 50-wacom.conf from my last post is necessary, I just left it in xorg.conf.d for now.

It’s possible that the kernel-module has to be rebuild after each kernel-patch.
If this doesn’t work, the howtos I mentioned in the beginning contain a lot more information.

Are there chances to get these patches into a release version? If yes, how?

16

On 10/11/2012 06:06 PM, geraet2 wrote:
> Are there chances to get these patches into a release version? If yes,
> how?

how about log a bug <http://tinyurl.com/nzhq7j> giving the problem and
your solution…

–
dd

17

Thanks for the further contributions towards fixing my problem. Have been away for a few days holiday so this has delayed any further progress. I managed to get my old PC running and installed SuSe 10.0 as this was the only version I still had that the tablet worked with. In 10.0 on the old PC the tablet works perfectly so I then attempted to save a copy of the xorg.conf file but immediately found a problem - the xorg.conf file would not copy to any transfer media and remain readable for further use. The only way I could make a readable copy was to open the file in Kwrite and take a digital photo of the screen!
With regard to the serial to usb adapter that I bought it has not had the desired effect although it appears to be the correct device for the job(when tried in Windows XP it is correctly identified and a driver is requested).
I have now installed 12.2 on the old PC and once again the tablet will not work, I am currently trying to find an effective way of using the saved xorg.conf file from 10.0. My general impression is that for some reason during the various O.S. developments the ability to read serial COM ports has been lost.
I will continue with my attempts and investigate the further suggestions although I am completely useless at working in terminal - I need pictures as I have reached the age where memory becomes unreliable!

merkland.

18

With openSUSE 12.3 the same procedure will work.

get the merged code as mentioned above:
http://access-design.selfip.org/arnold_saskia/uploads/temp-downloads/wacom_serial_and_serial5.tar.xz

install kernel-desktop-devel (kernel-headers) and the c++ toolchain: make, gcc

extract, compile and install (copy as the makefile does not contain information how to install ;))


tar -xf wacom_serial_and_serial5.tar.xz
cd wacom_serial_and_serial5/
make all
sudo mv /usr/sbin/inputattach /usr/sbin/inputattach_suse
sudo cp inputattach /usr/sbin/
sudo cp wacom_serial.ko /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/input/tablet/
sudo cp wacom_serial5.ko /lib/modules/`uname -
r`/kernel/drivers/input/tablet/
sudo depmod -a
cd ..

In addition there is a script to automatically run inputattach on boot:
Copy the file etc/init.d/wacom-intuos to your /etc/init.d/ and run the yast2 runlevel-editor to activate it on boot.

An additional remark: it’s not necessary to edit *xorg.conf *- after running inputattach the tablet will work.

19

Sorry, the URL changed.

http://access-design.de/arnold_saskia/uploads/temp-downloads/wacom_serial_and_serial5.tar.xz

I created a bugreport - but I don’t know how it works in OS13.1
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=785154