Running SUSE Linux Professional 9.1 on a Tablet PC that has a Wacom based tablet

Novell Cool Solutions: Trench
By Tony Graham

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Posted: 19 Apr 2005

Here is the scoop on running SUSE Linux Professional 9.1 on a Tablet PC that has a Wacom based tablet. SUSE Linux Professional 9.1 by default has Wacom support built in. The problem is it does not anticipate the "tablet" to be a built in one such as exists on a Tablet PC. I'm not sure on the technical whys, but Tablet PC's appear to use a special protocol called ISDV4. When you enable a tablet via YaST it sets the protocol to Auto. So here's the cut to the chase:

This document assumes you haven't yet mucked around trying to install using the documents at linuxwacom.sourceforge.net. If you have, you've likely already broken it beyond repair. I'd suggest starting over.

Start up YaST.
Go to Hardware, Select Graphics Card and Monitor
Click the Change Button
Select Input Devices and then Tablet
Select Wacom, then select Graphire/Intuos (SERIAL)
Click the Add Pen checkbox
The Viewsonic Tablet runs on /dev/ttyS0 by default so you can ensure that is in the Port selection. If you know your Wacom runs on a different serial port you should be able to set it here.
Click Finish
Click Finalize
Click Save on the Test settings screen
Click Okay on the configuration change acknowledgement popup.
Click Accept back at the Desktop Settings Screen. It may tell you that you have to restart X before the changes will take effect. You can ignore that at this time. You can close YaST at this point.
Next you'll need to open a shell and su to root.
Go to /etc/X11 and vi your XF86Config file (you may choose to make a copy first. cp XF86Config XF86Config.old or something like that.)

The config file prouced by YaST will have a section like this:

InputDevice

Driver	"wacom"
Identifier	"Mouse[3]"
Option	"BottomX" "30000"
Option	"Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option	"InputFashion" "Tablet"
Option	"Mode" "Absolute"
Option	"Name" "GRAPHIRE / INTUOS (SERIAL)"
Option	"SendCoreEvents" "on"
Option	"Type" "cursor"
Option	"Vendor" "WACOM"

InputDevice

Driver	"wacom"
Identifier	"Mouse[5]"
Option	"BottomX" "30000"
Option	"Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option	"InputFashion" "Pen"
Option	"Mode" "Absolute"
Option	"Name" "GRAPHIRE / INTUOS Stylus (SERIAL)"
Option	"Protocol" "Auto"
Option	"Type" "stylus"
Option	"Vendor" "WACOM"

You will need to change this section to look like this:

InputDevice

Driver	"wacom"
Identifier	"Mouse[3]"
Option	"Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option	"Name" "GRAPHIRE / INTUOS (SERIAL)"
Option	"ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option	"Type" "cursor"
Option	"Vendor" "WACOM"

InputDevice

Driver	"wacom"
Identifier	"Mouse[5]"
Option	"Device" "/dev/ttyS0"
Option	"Name" "GRAPHIRE / INTUOS Stylus (SERIAL)"
Option	"ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option	"Type" "stylus"
Option	"Vendor" "WACOM"

That's it! You're done. You can either init 3 and then init 5 to test it or just reboot. As you can see this is an extremely easy thing to do. Hopefully this problem will be sorted out in the next SuSE release.

A question you may ask yourself now would be, how does one login with a stylus and no keyboard (in the case of true "tablets" or slate PC's). In order to login using a virtual keyboard you can do the following:

Using YaST go to Install/Remove Software
In the search field put xkvbd
Click "Search"
In the results window check the box next to xvkbd
Click accept in the lower right corner to install xvkbd
Finally you will need to open a shell, su to root
Go to the directory /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm and edit the file "Xsetup"
Somewhere in there add the line /usr/X11R6/bin/xvkbd &

I chose to add it in the Background section but it could be placed elsewhere. Here's an example:

# Background picture for plain xdm:
# Store your preferred picture in XPM format (see xv(1) or ppm(5))
# You can run gzip on the file BackGround.xpm to save disk space.
#
background=${XDMDIR}/BackGround.xpm
/usr/X11R6/bin/xvkbd &

This will create a virtual keyboard when X launches. Obviously you cannot login via a text based login with a stylus unless there is an equivalent keyboard available that uses curses or something.

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