HowTo- Enable wacom tablet support

First of all,this howto applies for wacom tablets.The procedure is simular for other tablet brands,but you need a different driver and different settings in xorg.conf.
If you have a wacom tablet- Congratulations! There are awesome things that you can make with this awesome tool.Having it work under linux is sweet...Applications that i use with it : gimp,mypaint,gogh,wine+artrage,photoshop and so on...)

Hope these simple steps help you get it running

0.check things
you first need to see if your tablet has been picked as a device.Plug it in and issue the following command as root:

Code:

lsusb

and then also try this command

Code:

cat /proc/bus/input/devices

with this commands you should see your tablet device listed among other input devices. There has to be something like this:

Code:

I: Bus=0003 Vendor=056a Product=00b0 Version=0102
N: Name="Wacom Intuos3 4x5"
P: Phys=
S: Sysfs=/class/input/input5
H: Handlers=mouse3 event5
B: EV=1f
B: KEY=1cff 0 1f000f 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=100
B: ABS=100 f00016b
B: MSC=1

if you see it there,then that means that your usb ports are alright and you can move on with this howto.

1.Installing/Compiling the driver.
Now there are two ways to install the driver.One is by compiling it yourself,the other is the easier- start gslapt and see if there is an avaiable package at the repository.If you are using vl-5.9 with kernel version 2.6.22 (or close,lol) here is the package that might work:
http://blurymind.googlepages.com/linuxwacom-0.8.0-3-i586-1vl59.tlz

Code:

installpkg linuxwac*.tlz

as root

if not,and there is no package at the repository,and the one i gave you does not work try compiling the driver.Download its latest stable (production) release from: http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/ untar it and

Code:

./configure --enable-wacom

and then make and make install/checkinstall (you know the drill)
Nothe that its better to do this before you install nvidia/ati driver on your linux box.If you do it after that,at linuxwacom wiki they say its a good idea to reinstall your nvidia/ati driver after installing the wacom driver.

just in case run this command as root:

Code:

modprobe wacom

2.create a symlink.
We need to create a file in udev,so when you plug your tablet, a simlink shows up as /dev/input/wacom:
as root

Code:

adie/mousepad(or any other text editor) /etc/udev/rules.d/10-wacom.rules

and paste the following:

Code:

KERNEL=="event*", ATTRS{idVendor}=="056a", NAME="input/%k", SYMLINK+="input/wacom"

save the file

3.Editing Xorg.
Now we have to add some lines to Xorg.These settings are different for different tablets. I am going to paste the ones i use,they say that they work on most USB wacom tablets.If your tablet doesnt use a usb cable,then you would probably need a bit different settings...

open xorg.conf file as root with your favorite text editor:

Code:

adie /etc/X11/xorg.conf

and add the following lines:

under section "server layout" add the lines

Code:

InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "pad"

wiki says that mouse should be set to "corepointer"

then paste these

Code:

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "Tilt" "on"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "Tilt" "on"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Tilt" "on"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "pad"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "pad"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

save the file and exit

4.Checking if things went fine
Now REBOOT your computer and make sure your tablet is plugged in ..

Now if you see that your tablet acts like one on the screen,you should also check if its pressure and tilt work. Enable your tablet in gimp to check that(see 5.) other than that you can run this command as root to see if its picked correct:

Code:

wacdump /dev/input/wacom

when you move and press with the stylus,the stats that come up should rapidly change ,depending on what you do.Note that for some reason in some cases (like the one with the latest driver) wacdump does not work and the stats will not change.That does not mean that pressure sensitivity wont work in gimp,krita and so on

5.Enable tablet support in gimp
start gimp and go to file>preferences>input devices>Configure Extended Input Devices

pick stylus,eraser,pad,and cursor and set them to "screen"... dont change anything else.Save settings and see if pressure works in gimp now.

6.Tablet support in wine
(artrage,open canvas,photoshop cs1,2...and so on)-
Your pressure sensitivity should work fine for you in those applications and that makes wine really great,because they are trully awesome drawing apps.If it doesnt,then something must be wrong with the version of wine you are using.

note:open canvas doesnt work very well in it,but artrage and photoshop are flawlessly running with pressure sensitivity enabled.