Juan Pablo Bouza

Genius Tablet, Jaunty and Blender

Well, as you may already know, the Genius Wizardpen Tablet works great on Linux!

Here I´ll try to give you all the necessary information to make it work on your Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope, and most important of all, I´ll give you a couple of tricks that will make pressure sensitivity work in Blender!

(Please refer to the Links at the bottom to see where I extracted this info from)

Step 1 - Get the driver working!

First of all, get the driver…

If you have a 32 bits Ubuntu system you can try downloading this Deb package done by Giorgo Enrico:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/nyzyynygiyy/wizardpen_0.7.0-alpha2_i386.deb

(if this works for you, you can jump to the configuration section)

If you have a 64 bits system, or you want to compile it yourself, download the Source Code of the driver.

Source Code Link: 1, 2

*64 bits version by Guillermo Espertino! wizardpen-0.7.0_alpha2-1_amd64.deb

Compiling the Driver

Unpack it.
Grab the necessary packages: sudo aptitude install xutils libx11-dev libxext-dev build-essential xautomation xinput xserver-xorg-dev
Change directory to where you unpacked the source code.

In order to compile the driver in Jaunty, You have to delete parameter ‘xf86GetMotionEvents’ in file ’src/wizardpen.c’ on line 648:

if (InitValuatorClassDeviceStruct(dev,3,xf86GetMotionEvents,local->history_size,((priv->flags & ABSOLUTE_FLAG)? Absolute: Relative)|OutOfProximity)== FALSE)

The corrected line will look like this:

if (InitValuatorClassDeviceStruct(dev,3,local->history_size,((priv->flags & ABSOLUTE_FLAG)? Absolute: Relative)|OutOfProximity)== FALSE)

Compile and install the driver: ./configure –with-xorg-module-dir=/usr/lib/xorg/modules && make && sudo make install
Verify that the driver is installed correctly (Check for wizardpen_drv.la and wizardpen_drv.so):ls /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/wizardpen_drv.*

Step 2 - Configuring and using your Wizardpen

For Xorg7.3, the recommended way to configure your input device is by adding HAL fdi files, which in turn allows you to hotplug your Wizardpen.

Connect your Wizardpen tablet.
Find out the name of your tablet : grep -i name /proc/bus/input/devices
Double confirm that HAL captured the name of the tablet correctly as well: lshal | less

Create a new file with the name /etc/hal/fdi/policy/99-x11-wizardpen.fdi

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”ISO-8859-1″ ?>
<deviceinfo version=”0.2″>

<device>

<!– This MUST match with the name of your tablet –>

<match key=”info.product” contains=”NAME OF YOUR TABLE FROM PREVIOUS STEP”>

<merge key=”input.x11_driver” type=”string”>wizardpen</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.SendCoreEvents” type=”string”>true</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.TopX” type=”string”>5619</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.TopY” type=”string”>6554</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.BottomX” type=”string”>29405</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.BottomY” type=”string”>29671</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.MaxX” type=”string”>29405</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.MaxY” type=”string”>29671</merge>

</match>

</device>

</deviceinfo>

Reboot your computer.

That should get your Genius Tablet working. If necessary, you can calibrate the tablet.

Calibrating your tablet

Execute the following command: lshal | less
Search the section with the name of your tablet, as obtained from Step 2 in the configuration step. The line should read something like: info.product = ‘[Name of your tablet]‘
Scroll down until you find the following line: linux.device_file = ‘/dev/input/eventN‘ (N will be a number)
The source package contains a program called ‘wizardpen-calibrate’, which is in the ‘calibrate’ folder, which actually echoes the appropriate X11 calibration settings
Using a terminal/console, execute the calibration program: calibrate/wizardpen-calibrate /dev/input/eventN (*Note: Subtitute /dev/input/eventN with the one obtained from Step 3)
Follow the instructions issued by the program, which will ask you to touch the top-left corner and bottom-right corner. Once completed, the program will echo the corresponding xorg.conf setting
Edit the FDI file (/etc/hal/fdi/policy/99-x11-wizardpen.fdi) and subtitute the Top/Bottom/MaxX and Top/Bottom/MaxY values for the ones obtained from the wizardpen-calibrate command
Once done, restart your computer and test your tablet.

Well, that would be it… now for the most important part….Blender!

Step - 3 Making Blender Recongnize Pressure Sensitivity!

(note that this might work for any graphic tablet, it is not Genius specific)

This step is actually very simple, you just have to add the following line to your FDI file:

<merge key=”info.product” type=”string”>stylus</merge>

What this line does is naming your tablet ¨stylus¨, and that is exactly what Blender needs to recognize it.

This is how my working FDI looks like:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”ISO-8859-1″ ?>

<deviceinfo version=”0.2″>

<device>

<!– This MUST match with the name of your tablet –>

<match key=”info.product” contains=”UC-LOGIC Tablet WP5540U”>

<merge key=”input.x11_driver” type=”string”>wizardpen</merge>

<merge key=”info.product” type=”string”>stylus</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.SendCoreEvents” type=”string”>true</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.TopX” type=”string”>5619</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.TopY” type=”string”>6554</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.BottomX” type=”string”>29405</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.BottomY” type=”string”>29671</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.MaxX” type=”string”>29405</merge>

<merge key=”input.x11_options.MaxY” type=”string”>29671</merge>

</match>

</device>

</deviceinfo>

Download FDI (in order to avoid problems with the format of the quotes when copy-pasting)

Well, I hope all this info helps you getting your wizardpen working!!

Thanks a lot to the people that contributed and still contribute to the developement and maintainance of the driver!!

(This article can also be found at the tutorials section)

References and Sources:

The Digital Blue Wave (Intrepid)

The Digital Blue Wave (Jaunty)

BlenderArtists

Matias

23 May 2009 at 11:29 PM

¡Funciona! ¡Gracias!

wivern

6 June 2009 at 4:38 PM

not working here :(
I installed the driver on Intrepid then after upgrade to Jaunti reinstalled it again and the tablet is working just fine. Presure sensitivity in GIMP, cursor moving ok.
But when I added the “stylus” line the cursor stops moving (when moving the pen, mouse is Ok) and when I tap the pen when cursor is over Firefox it does “go back one page” which I dont know how to perform with the mouse.
This happens every time. I add the line to the FDI plug in the tablet - no movement. I remove the line, plug in the tablet - all ok but no Blender pressure sensitivity :(

Any ideas?

jpbouza

6 June 2009 at 4:54 PM

Mmm…The only thing I can think of is the order of the lines…Did you put the line in the same position as of my example??
You could also try using the FDI I posted and see if it works.

Did you put the right tablet name in the first key line?

The first thing you will notice if the stylus trick is working, is that if you go to the input devices in the gimp, your tablet will be named stylus, and not U-Logic any more .

6 June 2009 at 5:13 PM

here is my FDI:

wizardpen
stylus
true
3000
4400
31000
31000
31000
31000

GIMP still shows UC-LOGIC Tablet WP4030U and not stylus. I copied the line from the web page.

6 June 2009 at 5:31 PM

sory, pasting the FDI didn work.
check it here http://pastebin.com/f43df6e1d

6 June 2009 at 5:50 PM

error found :)

as you can see here http://pastebin.com/f2f5ab504

copy/paste from the web page thru xterminal gave the wrong quotes - ” instead of ”

so I corrected the quotes and now it worka like a charm :)

Thanks Juan :)

6 June 2009 at 5:54 PM

damn, no visible difference in the quotes :( sorry guys just check line 7 at http://pastebin.com/f2f5ab504 and you will understand.

6 June 2009 at 7:46 PM

So it worked??

Here’s the link to my FDI file, so that you don’t have to do copy-paste through html

http://www.jpbouza.com.ar/downloads/99-x11-wizardpen.fdi

6 June 2009 at 7:56 PM

I added the link to the FDI file at the bottom of the post

efio

15 June 2009 at 12:57 PM

thanx a lot… now the tablet works again after upgrading to jaunty…!! muchas gracias!!

Rob

9 July 2009 at 11:58 PM

Thanks! It worked for me using Ubuntu 32 bit 9.04 with a DigiPro 8″ x 6″ tablet WP8060.

Again, thanks!

Flugphase » Graphiktablett angeschlossen…

24 July 2009 at 9:29 PM

[...] Artikel hat mir beim Anschließen meines Genius MousePen 8×6 unter Ubuntu 9.04 [...]

Azoic

27 August 2009 at 5:12 PM

Hey there, i was following your tutorial since its targeted for Blender users.. Niwaes i am using Ubuntu 9.04 64bit.. having some issues currently, with that stylus line added my tablet doesn’t respond at all.. without it, my genius g-pen m609 responds but i am guessing like another has said that there is no pressure sensitivity in Blender.. Also, the tablet pen buttons don’t work, this is defintely a problem since i can rotate the view etc without the left, middle click buttons. Is there a workaround to this? i have seen some other ubuntu/genius tablet tutorials that goes into mapping the buttons.. but i dun think they are using the fdi file.. i am a new linux user so somethings are defintely new to me.. appreciate the help if you are able to.

28 August 2009 at 12:32 PM

mmm…Did you compile the latest driver version?

I know that there are problems with the quotes format when copy pasting from the FDI that is shown in the post. Try downloading the provided FDI directly, and replace your fdi with this one. Well, of course you will have to edit it and change the name of the tablet with yours.

I used to have the problem you are talking about, but I had it with the previous driver, alpha 1, in Ubuntu Hardy. I have never had any problem in Jaunty with alpha 2…

Well let me know if it worked!

28 August 2009 at 1:11 PM

yes i am using alpha2.. and i did use the downloaded version of the fdi.. only thing was when nothing was happening to the tablet after the first reboot, i took out the extra stylus line and the tablet worked again, only problem was with the buttons. I’ll see how it goes, maybe i’ll give it another go when i have the time to troubleshoot..