Recommend model of graphic tablet for Slack 13?

wexfordpress

unread,

Oct 31, 2009, 1:59:34 PM10/31/09

to

I am toying with the idea of adding a graphics tablet to my Slack 13
(or xubuntu) system.
I have never used such a beast so I am looking for recommendations
based on price,
ease of use, ease of install in that order. Wacom seems to be the
industry standard. I am not opposed to a used one from e-bay.

Thanks in advance.

John Culleton

Chris Davies

unread,

Oct 31, 2009, 6:55:41 PM10/31/09

to

wexfordpress <jo...@wexfordpress.com> wrote:
> I am toying with the idea of adding a graphics tablet to my Slack 13
> (or xubuntu) system.
> I have never used such a beast so I am looking for recommendations
> based on price,

FWIW my Wacom Bamboo works pretty nicely under Debian. Once configured,
Gimp even understands pressure (and possibly slant, too, but I've
not tried that). The tablet required a few tweaks to the xorg.conf,
but they're pretty well documented. The only thing people seem not to
be able to sort out is constraining & scaling the tablet to a single
window - it's full screen or nothing.

Chris

Darren Salt

unread,

Oct 31, 2009, 7:46:52 PM10/31/09

to

I demand that Chris Davies may or may not have written...

> wexfordpress <jo...@wexfordpress.com> wrote:
>> I am toying with the idea of adding a graphics tablet to my Slack 13 (or
>> xubuntu) system. I have never used such a beast so I am looking for
>> recommendations based on price,

> FWIW my Wacom Bamboo works pretty nicely under Debian.

I have one too, though I've not used it for much yet.

I don't currently have a working driver for it since I decided to test Xorg
1.7, which is in Debian experimental, but that's not a major problem. (I
might just see if I can hack the driver into shape.)

> Once configured, Gimp even understands pressure (and possibly slant, too,
> but I've not tried that).

Mine (MTE-450A) doesn't handle tilt/slant; however, it seems that Gimp does.
Pressure's fine, if a little tricky to get used to (perhaps I should play
with the pressure curve settings).

> The tablet required a few tweaks to the xorg.conf, but they're pretty well
> documented. The only thing people seem not to be able to sort out is
> constraining & scaling the tablet to a single window - it's full screen or
> nothing.

Not quite full-screen or nothing, given that I've had to constrain it to part
of the available display area (2560×1024), so I've told it to use the
left-hand 1638×1024, which matches the tablet's aspect ratio (which is 16:10)
while retaining use of the whole of the drawing surface. Here's what I put in
a file in /etc/hal/fdi/policy:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<deviceinfo version="0.2">
<device> 
<match key="input.x11_driver" contains="wacom">
<match key="input.x11_options.Type" contains="stylus">
<merge key="input.x11_options.TPCButton" type="string">on</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.Threshold" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.ClickForce" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.BottomX" type="string">23062</merge>

</match>
</match>
<match key="input.x11_driver" contains="wacom">
<match key="input.x11_options.Type" contains="eraser">

<merge key="input.x11_options.TPCButton" type="string">on</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.Threshold" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.ClickForce" type="string">1</merge>
<merge key="input.x11_options.BottomX" type="string">23062</merge>

</match>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>

Incidentally, I found that it's quite good for the likes of xmahjongg ;-)

Never play cards with a man called Doc.

wexfordpress

unread,

Nov 1, 2009, 4:23:27 PM11/1/09

to

On Oct 31, 6:46 pm, Darren Salt

<n...@youmustbejoking.demon.cu.invalid> wrote:
> I demand that Chris Davies may or may not have written...
>

On my Slack system /etc/pal/fdi/policy is a directory. What is the
file name for the above?

Darren Salt

unread,

Nov 1, 2009, 6:12:01 PM11/1/09

to

I demand that wexfordpress may or may not have written...

> On Oct 31, 6:46 pm, Darren Salt <n...@youmustbejoking.demon.cu.invalid>
> wrote:
>> I demand that Chris Davies may or may not have written...

[snip]

>>> The tablet required a few tweaks to the xorg.conf, but they're pretty
>>> well documented. The only thing people seem not to be able to sort out is
>>> constraining & scaling the tablet to a single window - it's full screen
>>> or nothing.
>> Not quite full-screen or nothing, given that I've had to constrain it to
>> part of the available display area (2560�1024), so I've told it to use
>> the left-hand 1638�1024, which matches the tablet's aspect ratio (which
>> is 16:10) while retaining use of the whole of the drawing surface. Here's
>> what I put in a file in /etc/hal/fdi/policy:
>> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
>> <deviceinfo version="0.2">

[snip XML]

> On my Slack system /etc/pal/fdi/policy is a directory. What is the
> file name for the above?

preferences.fdi, though I think that <anything>.fdi will work.

BTW, about the BottomX option: don't just blindly use the number which I've
used. Check what the wacom driver is using (xsetwacom in wacom-tools will
help), and calculate it for yourself. Of course, if your display's aspect
ratio matches that of the tablet, you can dispose of that setting entirely.

| + At least 4000 million too many people. POPULATION LEVEL IS UNSUSTAINABLE.

A feature is a bug with seniority.