Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet working with Mint 16 [solved]

[aneurysm1985]

I am a former Mint 13 user who has just upgraded to Mint 16 Cinnamon 64-bit. The installation has gone fantastically, except I am having trouble getting my Wacom Cintiq graphics tablet working.

In case you don't know, Wacom Cintiq is a type of tablet where you can draw directly onto a second monitor. Looks like this.

Linux Mint recognition of the tablet
Out of the box, it seems as though Mint is recognising: 1) the stylus movements, 2) the touch strips, 3) the buttons of the tablet. However, all of these actions are occurring on the wrong monitor. i.e. instead of the mouse cursor 'following' my stylus around the Cintiq monitor, the movements occur on my primary monitor.

VirtualBox recognition of the tablet
In Mint 13, I primarily used my tablet in Photoshop via a VirtualBox Windows XP virtual machine. However, when I open up my old Windows XP image in Mint 16 VirtualBox (which worked fine in Mint 13), I get an error saying "A supported tablet was not found on the system." when I open the "Wacom Tablet Properties" application from the Windows XP Control Panel.

My current question
How can I correctly configure my Wacom Cintiq in Mint 16 Cinnamon so that it maps to the correct monitor, and so that the device is recognisable by VirtualBox?

This forum post reveals that Wacom tablets were not natively supported by Cinnamon 2.0. However, user mtwebster has recently been developing support for Wacom tablets. Does anyone know how long until those changes will be available to me via system updates through Update Manager repositories? Is it worth me installing those git packages? Could someone please tell me exactly how to install those git files, as I have never done such a thing before, and I can't understand the instructions in the post.

Thanks in advance. Let me know if you want me to provide more information.

[aneurysm1985]

Bump.

Anyone with knowledge into graphics tablets reading this board? Or at least, someone who can instruct me how to install those new packages via git? Thanks in advance.

[samriggs]

Howdy
Maybe Dee can help you out in this, I'm pretty sure he owns a Cintiq and has it running, other then that I wasn't sure if the base driver even supported Cintiq yet fully.
I use the intuos which works fine under kde but I haven't tried it under the new cinnamon version, but I heard that was fixed.
You might want to check the driver itself and what it supports.
But as you said, you did have it working under mint 13.
Maybe go to the git discussion and ask over there where the development is going on for it.
https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/issues/2686
I hope you find some help for it.
Sam

[aneurysm1985]

Thanks for that. I have just messaged David and posted a message to the github board.

Other users: feel free to jump in

[Deevad]

Hi,

I well receive your email message. Samriggs linked the right place : all the information available are here : https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/issues/2686 about the LinuxMint status. The only way if you want a GUI, is to test and build the branch. Or study xsetwacom command line mixed with xinput calibrator to do your calibration manually from terminal.

If you want something working out-of-the-box ; try Gnome 3.10 based OS ( Fedora last, Ubuntu Gnome 13.10 , Open Suse Gnome 13.1 , or Manjaro Gnome ). Still there is little workaround to do if you have Nvidia/twinview ( xsetwacom command line ) but that's minor compare to the pain of the other desktop environment and being fixed in dev versions since last week. KDE got a regression about it, it's reported, but the development for tablet input since not active anymore. So, only Gnome dev maintain and use this kind of device, that's why it's supported.

[aneurysm1985]

The only way if you want a GUI, is to test and build the branch.

OK, this is the part I need the help with. Can someone please explain the steps I need to take, in order to do this.

Thanks in advance.

[samriggs]

Hey Dee how is ya.

Thanks for helping out here.
KDE is not updating it anymore?
The one they have now works nice, but if they stop updating it, and it goes away I might have to switch to solydx instead and start using the gnome 3.10 one.
I'll have to read up on this.

Cool new avatar ya got there.

Sam

[Deevad]

@Samriggs Thx; for the avatar. By the way and a propos KDE : the kde-config-tablet module will works fine for most of users ( I mean , single screen + single tablet . KDE-Mint is still the best entry door to Linux for Windows user ). I only have trouble with the 2.0.x calibration way for dual screen. On 1.3.x series it was better working. I reported on bugKDE , but it feel the maintainer are away, or can't understand my issue...

My professional requirement are quite high compare to a normal developper usage , so I'm not surprise my case break from time to time ; and with this hardware, I can easily benchmark what GUI's are working or not. Here is what I use nowaday :
Dual tablet : Cintiq 21UX + Wacom Intuos M ; each mapped on their screen
Dual keyboard : two french Azerty's xD
Dual screen : a Adobe sRGB gamut screen capable + the Cintiq one ; color managed and with Nvidia twinview proprietary.
photo : http://i.imgur.com/c3NowmS.jpg

So, in a nutshell ; no surprise not a lot of D.E. can handle this , and Gnome 3.10 is nice about it. Most problem I had were reported on bugzilla, and Gnome 3.10.4 (or .5) will iron those, because the bug I reported were gently fixed. Here is my xsetwacom autostartup script on my current 'Ubuntu Gnome 13.10' distro:

My workaround : Set the stylus/eraser/pad on the Cintiq monitor ; and also put the first stylus button the Ctrl Key ( for color picking )

Code: Select all

#! /bin/bash
# stylus customisation
xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq 21UX stylus" Button 2 "key ctrl" # Color Picker
xsetwacom set "Wacom Intuos4 6x9 stylus" Button 2 "key ctrl" # Color Picker
xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq 21UX stylus" MapToOutput "HEAD-1"
xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq 21UX eraser" MapToOutput "HEAD-1"
xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq 21UX pad" MapToOutput "HEAD-1"

@Aneurysm1985 : I can't help with building it. The process is long , hard and risky. I never succeed. It looks to be : build cinnamon-settings-daemon, cinnamon-control-center from last sources, then checkout the branch Wacom ( https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/tree/wacom ) of cinnamon before building it. You should find all needed with a basic knowledge of GIT . git clone for getting sources from Github, then read readme for getting dependencies and building/installing. Then git checkout to switch branch before building Cinnamon. Good luck !
It's too much work for me to do compare to the benefit of getting it to work ( or not, it might be unstable as no one tested it ) . I won't recommend to do it in a virtual machine ; because it would loose making sens about the Cintiq hardware.

How can I correctly configure my Wacom Cintiq in Mint 16 Cinnamon so that it maps to the correct monitor, and so that the device is recognisable by VirtualBox?

In virtualBox ; I ignore totally.
But, if it works like for Nvidia card with proprietary driver ; you can attempt this from terminal :

Code: Select all

xinput list

It should return the name of your tablet input, then , try a command like this one :

Code: Select all

xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq 21UX stylus" MapToOutput "HEAD-1"

( note: replace Wacom Cintiq 21UX stylus by your tablet name , you get it with xinput list )
Does it map to the good monitor ? if not, try with HEAD-0, or even HEAD-2
if it works, you only have to paste this in an executable *.sh script and make it a startup script. ( the xsetwacom commands reset at each system boot ; you need to execute this preferences at each startup ).

Well, for conclusion ; LinuxMint Cinnamon and Ubuntu Unity get their own evolution/branch/independant-thing after forking Gnome 3.8 , but I'm not sure they 'll be able to follow the technical improvement made by Gnome. I wish !
I actually would love a 'Linux Mint Gnome' edition For the moment, I'm jumping between 'Manjaro Gnome' and 'Ubuntu Gnome' system at home....

I'll write an article soon about it in the detail on my blog.

[aneurysm1985]

Thank you for the detailed reply message!

Here is the output of xinput list:

Code: Select all

⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech USB Optical Mouse              	id=8	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Wacom Cintiq 12WX stylus                	id=11	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Wacom Cintiq 12WX eraser                	id=12	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Wacom Cintiq 12WX pad                   	id=13	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=7	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ UVC Camera (046d:0802)                  	id=9	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard            	id=10	[slave  keyboard (3)]

I then used the Terminal command xrandr to learn what my two monitors are named in Linux. (The main one is assigned "VGA-0", and the Wacom tablet is "DVI-0").

I then used a modified version of the command you suggested. (I read more info about the xsetwacom command here). Here is the command I used:

Code: Select all

xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq 12WX stylus" MapToOutput "DVI-0"

At which point the cursor started mapping to the Wacom tablet screen, rather than the main monitor!

That is 'problem 1' solved.

I will do some further investigations into 'problem 2' (VirtualBox recognising the Wacom Cintiq tablet as a USB device...)

[anandrkris]

Am not a Wacom user. Happened to see this post.Cinnamon-Daily PPA does not have this yet? Perhaps, if there is enough demand, can request the dev team to add it.

[Deevad]

@anandrKris : That's actually a really good point ; I didn't saw Mtwebster commited the Wacom portage he made to Git master ( on the 26 december , https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/commits/wacom ... wait ... 26 december ? no commit since ? weird ! I probably thought a lot of bug fix or feature where in way... they probably develop in branch and keep master clean good news ).
So yes, theorically adding a PPA like https://launchpad.net/~gwendal-lebihan- ... on-nightly should bring this wacom module to us , easy tester. Nice ! Now, I have to see if it's Gnome 3.8 wacom+colormanagement, or 3.10 because a lot of things get enhanced since 3.8.

@aneurysm1985 : Good news ! For the VirtualBox USB recognition ; I remember I had the issue too ; and I had to install a package from VirtualBox to get additionnal USB support + a sort of Guest ; also I had to give permission to a user group to get access to the USB device afair ... It was a long time ago, so I don't remember precisely the "how to do". I just know I found it while searching.

[aneurysm1985]

That is 'problem 1' solved.

I will do some further investigations into 'problem 2' (VirtualBox recognising the Wacom Cintiq tablet as a USB device...)

OK, now 'problem 2' seems to be solved. For the benefit of the internet (and probably me in 4 months time when I upgrade to Mint 17 ), here is what I did:

It seemed that the problem was that the VirtualBox software itself wasn't recognising my USB devices as inputs into VirtualBox. And therefore if VirtualBox wasn't recognising them as inputs, VirtualBox couldn't provide the signal from my USB Wacom tablet to the Windows XP client.

I'm not sure exactly what solved the problem, but I did these things:

• Installed the VirtualBox Guest Additions, allowing USB 2.0 input + other goddies. [Ref 1] [Ref 2]
• Added my Linux username to the "vboxusers" group. [Ref]
• I think I tried this too, (but don't think it is what fixed the problem).

Anyway, then I rebooted my machine. I logged into Linux, opened VirtualBox and started my Windows XP virtual machine...and it detected my USB devices (including the Wacom tablet). So it seems everything is working fine.

Thanks to everyone in this thread, particularly Deevad, who put me on the correct route of investigation and discovery!

[Deevad]

Nice aneurysm1985 ! Happy for you problem 2 is also solved.
Thank you for letting all the infos and links on the thread ; I'm sure this page will help future user with same issues.
Have a good painting time

[mefesto]

@aneurysm1985 I just wanted to express my gratitude for documenting this process. I had recently purchased a Wacom Cintiq 13HD which I couldn't get working on Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon. After searching around, I decided to switch to UbuntuGnome since it seemed to support the Cintiq out-of-the-box. A recent software update on that distro caused my Cintiq to stop working correctly again. I really didn't like Gnome 3 so I decided to attempt LM16 again. It wouldn't have been possible without this thread so thank you!

My process was mostly the same but with a few differences so below was the procedure I went through in order to get a fresh Linux Mint 16 (Cinnamon) installation up and running. I have two monitors in addition to the Cintiq. They are arranged horizontally. Below is the output of the following xrandr command:

$ xrandr | grep ' connected'

VGA1 connected primary 1920x1080+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 510mm x 290mm
HDMI1 connected 1920x1080+1920+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 531mm x 299mm
HDMI3 connected 1920x1080+3840+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 293mm x 165mm

NOTE: HDMI3 is the Wacom Cintiq on my setup. Yours may vary.

## CONFIGURING WACOM CINTIQ 13HD ##

1. Clean install of Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon x86_64.
2. Update all system packages via apt-get.
$ sudo apt-get update -y
$ sudo apt-get dist-upgrade -y
3. Reboot system so that I'm running on the latest kernel and all.
4. Install xinput calibration tool.
$ sudo apt-get install xinput-calibrator
5. Calibrate the Wacom Cintiq by first disabling all screens then running the xinput_calibrator. This tool displays a stylus calibration screen similar to that found in Gnome3. Unfortunately AFAIK, you cannot limit it to a single display. So in my case, it would span all 3 monitors. Disabling the other displays works around this.
$ xrandr --output VGA1 --off
$ xrandr --output HDMI1 --off
$ xinput_calibrator --device "Wacom Cintiq 13HD stylus"
# NOTE: the above command outputs the results of the calibration to the console. You'll need these values for the next step.
7. Next, I used the xsetwacom command to configure the Cintiq. I saved these to a script file:
$ vim ~/bin/wacom.sh
> xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq 13HD stylus" MapToOutput "HDMI3"
> xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq 13HD eraser" MapToOutput "HDMI3"
> xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq 13HD stylus" Area 414 258 59137 33291
> xsetwacom set "Wacom Cintiq 13HD eraser" Area 414 258 59137 33291

NOTE: The last two lines use the values from xinput_calibrator. The format goes: xsetwacom set "device name" Area MinX MinY MaxX MaxY

8. Run the script to test that the Cintiq is working and appears to be calibrated.
$ ~/bin/wacom.sh
9. Add the script to your startup programs so that you don't have to manually execute it after a reboot.
System Settings > Startup Programs > Add
10. Reboot system to ensure everything works as expected. All monitors will be enabled at this time.

## SUMMARY ##

That concludes my little journey to getting a Wacom Cintiq 13HD to play nicely with multiple monitors on Linux Mint 16 Cinnamon. The biggest pain is having to disable all displays except for the Cintiq when running the `xinput_calibrator` tool so that it only spans the Cintiq's display and not all monitors.