FAQ

Last edited January 2014

Why linuxwacom and xf86-input-wacom?

xf86-input-wacom was created as a fork of linuxwacom for the following reasons:

• linuxwacom has collected some amount of cruft over the years, including some amount of ifdefs that attempt to support every X server version since XFree86-4.
• xf86-input-wacom is an X11-only driver, the kernel driver is not part of xf86-input-wacom.

xf86-input-wacom is the preferred driver for X Servers 1.7 and later. linuxwacom will not compile against these servers without additional patches.

Which devices are supported?

See the Device IDs page.

How do I configure my device?

See Building the driver and Configuring X

Are there any graphical configuration tools?

Both GNOME and KDE configuration GUIs are available. See Graphical Configuration Tools.

How do I calibrate my tablet or tablet PC?

See Calibration.

How do I customize my tablet or tablet PC settings?

See the Tablet Configuration 0 Tablet Configuration 1 and Tablet Configuration 2: Example Scripts.

How do I get a xsetwacom configuration to survive a hotplug event?

In order to have your tablet configuration, set by run-time xsetwacom commands, survive the use of a KVM switch or other hotplug event the Linux Wacom Project hosts wdaemon. This is an update by Peter Hutterer of the original ''wdaemon'' by Aristeu Rozanski. The original wdaemon is linked at the bottom of the section Linuxwacom HOWTO#Hotplugging the device. Wdaemon is different from other solutions, such as daemons that monitor DBus for hotplug events and reapply a xsetwacom script, in that it provides a permanent virtual kernel device that looks exactly like the physical tablet to userspace. In effect it virtually disables tablet hotplugging.

How do I get the special features of my stylus to work?

There are many different types of styli, mice, and pucks. All of them work to varying degrees, so if you are running into trouble, please send an email to the mailing lists.

You may want to try the latest xf86-input-wacom release to see if support for your device has been added. If you are using a build of the linuxwacom backports, try the highest release number. The latest release is likely to support more tools.

Note, tilt is only supported with protocol V tablets, which includes the Intuos series and Cintiq 21UX/20WSX/12WX/21UX2. Any other tablets don't have tilt, no matter if you have the tilt option in your xorg.conf or not.

How do I rotate the screen and/or stylus on my tablet pc?

See Tablet PC Setup#Screen Rotation.

How do I set up my tablet with Dual or Multi-Monitors?

See Dual and Multi-Monitor Set Up.

I am left handed. How do I flip my tablet?

See ''Rotate'' in Xsetwacom and also Rotation.

Is hotplugging supported for my USB tablet?

Yes, but only for devices configured via Configuring X. If you have your devices configured in the Xorg.conf, you can work around this by switching virtual terminals after replugging your tablet. That is, press Ctrl + Alt + F1 together then release them (screen turns to console); and press Ctrl + Alt + F7 together then release them (screen returns back to normal). On some distributions (e.g. Fedora), the original X session runs on VT1, hence substitute the commands with Ctrl + Alt + F2 and Ctrl + Alt + F1.

My tablet isn't a Wacom. Will it still work?

The xf86-input-wacom driver does support some non-wacom tablets including those by Hanwang, N-Trig, and Waltop. For KYE and UC-Logic graphics tablet support and additional Waltop information see the [https://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/digimend/index.php?title=DIGImend DIGI''mend'' project].

Where is wacomcpl (the Wacom Control Panel)?

Wacomcpl is not packaged with xf86-input-wacom and will not work with it. For an explanation see External applications#Graphical Configuration Tools.

Who is responsible for this code?

You are. Linux Wacom is an open source project and driven by Linux users with Wacom tablets such as yourself. John Joganic took up the code in November of 2002 and created this project. The source code was written by at least two dozen individuals, most of them are not directly involved in the project any more. Ping Cheng has assumed the project administrator since 2003. You can help out by testing, reporting bugs, documentation on this wiki and of course by writing patches (see the mailing lists).