Chapter 5. Tablets


You can manage Wacom tablets connected to your system from the Wacom Tablet settings panel in the GNOME environment.

Figure 5.1. The Wacom Tablet settings panel

Wacom tablet settings

The Wacom Tablet settings panel and the libinput stack use the libwacom tablet client library, which stores additional data about Wacom tablets that the system cannot obtain by querying the device directly.

If your tablet is listed in the libwacom library, it is visible in the Wacom Tablet settings panel.

If the Wacom Tablet settings panel displays This device is unknown and may present wrong capabilities, the tablet is supported by the underlying input stack but some functionality might be missing.

If the Wacom Tablet settings panel is empty, the tablet is not exposed by the kernel. In that case, contact Red Hat support.

5.1. Adding support for a new tablet

If the Wacom Tablet settings panel displays “This device is unknown and may present wrong capabilities", the tablet is supported by the underlying input stack, but some functionality might be missing.

To restore missing functionality for an unrecognized Wacom tablet, add a definition file for the device to the libwacom tablet information client library.

Prerequisites

  • The libwacom package is installed on your system.

Procedure

  1. List all local devices recognized by the libwacom database:

    $ libwacom-list-local-devices

    Make sure that your device is recognized in the output.

    If your device is not listed, the device is missing from the libwacom database. However, the device might still be supported by the kernel if it is listed in the /proc/bus/input/devices file.

  2. Optional: Check whether the device is supported at all by entering the libwacom-list-devices command, provided in the libwacom-utils package. This command lists all devices supported by your installed version of libwacom.
  3. Check whether the definition file is available in the /usr/share/libwacom/ directory.

    To use screen mapping correctly, support for your tablet must be included in the libwacom database.

    Important

    A common indicator that a device is not supported by libwacom is that it works normally in a GNOME session, but the device is not correctly mapped to the screen.

  4. If the definition file for your device is not available in /usr/share/libwacom/, you have these options:

    • Find the definition file in the linuxwacom/libwacom upstream repository and copy the file to your system.
    • Find a similar device in the linuxwacom/libwacom upstream repository and modify the definition file accordingly.
  5. Add and install the definition file with the .tablet suffix:

    # cp <tablet_definition_file>.tablet /etc/libwacom

    After the file is installed, the device is part of the libwacom database. The device is then available through libwacom-list-local-devices.

Instead of changing the settings in the Wacom Tablet settings panel, you can change the settings on the command line.

Wacom tablet and stylus configuration files are saved in the following locations by default:

Tablet configuration
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet:/org/gnome/desktop/peripherals/tablets/<vid>:<pid>/
Stylus configuration
org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus:/org/gnome/desktop/peripherals/tablet/stylus/<serial number>/
Note

By using <vid>, <pid>, and <serial_number> in configuration paths, you can configure tablets and styli independently.

Prerequisites

  • The libwacom package is installed on your system.

Procedure

  1. List local devices to display their IDs:

    $ libwacom-list-local-devices
    devices:
    - name: 'Wacom Intuos Pro M'
      bus: 'usb'
      vid: '0x056a'
      pid: '0x0357'
      nodes:
      - /dev/input/event6: 'Wacom Co.,Ltd. Wacom Intuos Pro M Pen'
      - /dev/input/event7: 'Wacom Co.,Ltd. Wacom Intuos Pro M Pad'
      styli:
       - id: 0x100802

    If a device does not support unique serial numbers, the stylus is identified with a generic identifier based on the tablet’s VID and PID:

    org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus:/org/gnome/desktop/peripherals/tablet/stylus/default-<vid>:<pid>/

  2. Determine the serial number for the particular device:

    # libwacom-show-stylus /dev/input/event6
    Please put tool in proximity
    Tool id 0x100802 serial 0x2380369c in-proximity: False
  3. List the available settings for the selected device:

    • For a tablet:

      $ gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet:/org/gnome/desktop/peripherals/tablet/<vid>:<pid>/
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet area [0.0, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0]
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet keep-aspect false
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet left-handed false
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet mapping 'absolute'
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet output ['', '', '']

      Replace <vid> and <pid> with the IDs of your device.

    • For a stylus:

      $ gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus:/org/gnome/desktop/peripherals/tablet/stylus/<serial_number>/
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus button-action 'default'
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus button-keybinding ''
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus eraser-pressure-curve [0, 0, 100, 100]
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus eraser-pressure-range [0, 100]
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus pressure-curve [0, 0, 100, 100]
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus pressure-range [0, 100]
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus secondary-button-action 'default'
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus secondary-button-keybinding ''
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus tertiary-button-action 'default'
      org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus tertiary-button-keybinding ''

      Replace <serial_number> with the ID of your device.

  4. Set an option to the value that you want:

    $ gsettings set <schema_name>:<path> <key> <value>

    Replace:

    • <schema_name>:<path> with the schema and path to your device.
    • <key> with the option you want to change.
    • <value> with the value you want to set.

    For example:

    $ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.tablet.stylus:/org/gnome/desktop/peripherals/tablet/stylus/0x2380369c pressure-range "[0, 75]"
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