How can i calibrate my wacom tablet laptop without using linuxwacom?

Question

i recently installed the xf86-input-wacom driver, however, once i installed linuxwacom or linuxwacom-dev my system won't load X anymore.
xf86-input-wacom is great, i have sensitivity and even the button on my stylus works.  there are still two problems, the eraser doesnt work and i don't know how to calibrate it for my tablet monitor.
where can i learn how to do this without installing linuxwacom or linuxwacom-dev?
...i use the hppavilion tx 2000 tablet pc
Last edited by originalsurfmex (2010-04-11 14:12:15)

Answer 1

Note that you can get all current values, formatted into shell script form, like this:
xsetwacom -s --get "Wacom PL550" all > setemall
Then you have to remove everything you don't want to set (e.g. read-only parameters, and things that will always be right by default).
I have an old Cintiq (actually a Hitachi StarBoard, which is just a rebadged Cintiq AFAICT) which I want to use under my main monitor.  By default when I move the stylus from the bottom of the Cintiq up to the top, the cursor starts on the Cintiq and then goes onto the main monitor, because it mapped the area of the Wacom tablet to the entire virtual desktop (some of which is not even reachable because my main monitor is wider than the Cintiq: 1920x1200 with 1024x768 "under" it means the virtual desktop will be 1920x1968.   Unfortunately there doesn't even seem to be a calibration utility so I had to do a lot of trial and error, fiddling with the X and Y ranges, to get the cursor confined to the Cintiq and pixel-accurate.  These settings worked for me, to fix that:
xsetwacom --set "Wacom PL550" Screen_No 1
xsetwacom --set "Wacom PL550" TwinView none
xsetwacom --set "Wacom PL550" xyDefault 0
xsetwacom --set "Wacom PL550" mmonitor 1
xsetwacom set "Wacom PL550" "BottomY" "4600"
xsetwacom set "Wacom PL550" "TopY" "2820"
xsetwacom set "Wacom PL550" "BottomX" "3320"
xsetwacom set "Wacom PL550" "TopX" "65"
So far I'm using separate screens rather than TwinView, but will try it again and see how that goes.  I was thinking of confining my mouse to the main screen as well, because being able to mouse beyond the bottom edge breaks some gestures (like slamming into the lower-left or lower-right corner to open a KDE flyout panel), and I will probably use the Cintiq mainly for drawing programs.  But being able to mouse onto it is kindof useful too, and I can always just turn it off when I'm not using it.  And I'm not sure how to confine the mouse to one screen, e.g. in xorg.conf... one would think there would be a way, and maybe the same technique could confine the stylus to the Cintiq's area of the desktop as well?
Which brings me to another problem: every time I turn it back on, it's re-detected by udev and then by X.  So I will need to run my setup script again when that happens.  Should be possible to get udev or hal to do it automatically somehow, maybe.
Yet another problem is that if I hold down the right-click button on the stylus and simultaneously press the stylus against the screen, the cursor jumps back to my main monitor.  Pressing that button on the side of the stylus is itself like a right-click, so it's not necessary to "click" against the screen at the same time, but that's still annoying behavior, and inconsistent with some types of tablets where the stylus buttons are like modifiers, and you do still have to press against the screen to actually "click".
It really rocks that X does such a good job detecting devices that come and go, though.  A few years ago, being able to turn it on after X was already running, and having it work, would have been unheard of.