Thursday, June 18, 2009

A *rough* guide to getting the Digipro T-8000U Tablet to work with OpenSUSE

This post has been superseded by this new one. It fixes the bugs that were in this one.

This guide will get the Digipro T-8000U tablet working with OpenSUSE 11.1. However, following this guide will break a couple of things:

-X will fail if the tablet is not plugged in.
-Gimp will not longer allow you to draw with the mouse.

I think I know how to fix both. I'll test and post fixes for both over the weekend. Also, the calibration that I give here is specific to my tablet. I had to write my own code to get the correct calibration (the calibration included with the WizardPen driver doesn't handle pressures correctly). I'll post that as well this weekend.

1. Install the necessary prerequisites. As root:

yast -i gcc xorg-x11-devel xorg-x11-server-sdk


2. Get the latest version of the WizardPen driver, which as of now is 0.7.0a2. It is available on a Microsoft website (don't ask me why):

http://cid-43438aff38d34c29.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Public/wizardpen/wizardpen-0.7.0-alpha2.tar.gz

Untar, configure, and compile it. Do not install it.

tar xvzf wizardpen-0.7.0-alpha2.tar.gz
cd wizardpen-0.7.0-alpha2
./configure && make


3. The Makefile installs the driver where Xorg won't find it, so you have to install it manually. As root:

cp src/wizardpen_drv.la /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input
cp src/.libs/wizardpen_drv.so /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input


4. You need to find the device associated with the tablet. First, do:

grep Name /proc/bus/input/devices


And look for something that looks like your tablet. Mine was "Aiptek". Then do:

lshal | grep "input.product = 'Aiptek'" -A 20 -B 20 | grep input.device


This should produce a single line with your device. Mine was /dev/input/event7. If this doesn't work, do a "lshal" and search through the output until you find the string.

5. As root, edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Add a section that reads:

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wizardpen"
Identifier "WizardTablet"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event7"
Option "TopX" "0"
Option "TopY" "0"
Option "TopZ" "54"
Option "BottomX" "3000"
Option "BottomY" "2200"
Option "BottomZ" "511"
Option "MaxX" "3000"
Option "MaxY" "2200"
Option "MaxZ" "511"
EndSection


And in the ServerLayout section, add a line that reads:

  InputDevice  "WizardTablet"  "AlwaysCore"


---===Very Important===--- My xorg file already had two input device sections, one for my touchpad and another where it had detected the tablet as a mouse. I had to delete that extra mouse section before the tablet would be correctly recognized. Otherwise, Xorg uses the wrong mouse driver and your tablet will only half work.

6. Reboot.


The tablet should be working now. To use it in Gimp, you need to go to Edit, Preferences, Input Devices, Configure Extended Input Devices, and for the WizardTablet device, set the Mode to Screen.

Like I said above, this is a very rough guide. I'll clean it up in a few days and repost then.

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