Recommend model of graphic tablet for Slack 13?

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

> wexfordpress <john DeleteThis @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> <!-- graphics tablet -->
<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>
<!-- full height, but clipped at ~1638px -->
</match>
</match>
<match key="input.x11_driver" contains="wacom">
<match key="input.x11_options.Type" contains="eraser">
<!-- copied from above -->
<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>
<!-- full height, but clipped at ~1638px -->
</match>
</match>
</device>
</deviceinfo>

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

--
| Darren Salt | linux at youmustbejoking | nr. Ashington, | Doon
| using Debian GNU/Linux | or ds ,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| + Travel less. Share transport more. PRODUCE LESS CARBON DIOXIDE.

Never play cards with a man called Doc.

On Oct 31, 6:46 pm, Darren Salt
<n....TakeThisOut@youmustbejoking.demon.cu.invalid> wrote:
> I demand that Chris Davies may or may not have written...
>
> > wexfordpress <j....TakeThisOut@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> <!-- graphics tablet -->
>   <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>
>       <!-- full height, but clipped at ~1638px -->
>    </match>
>   </match>
>   <match key="input.x11_driver" contains="wacom">
>    <match key="input.x11_options.Type" contains="eraser">
>     <!-- copied from above -->
>     <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>
>       <!-- full height, but clipped at ~1638px -->
>    </match>
>   </match>
>  </device>
> </deviceinfo>
>

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

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

> On Oct 31, 6:46 pm, Darren Salt <n....DeleteThis@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.

--
| Darren Salt | linux at youmustbejoking | nr. Ashington, | Doon
| using Debian GNU/Linux | or ds ,demon,co,uk | Northumberland | Army
| + At least 4000 million too many people. POPULATION LEVEL IS UNSUSTAINABLE.

A feature is a bug with seniority.