wacom tablet stylus input jumps to next screen prematurely in dual monitor set-up

[anomalous_underdog]

Binary package hint: wacom-tools

Ubuntu 8.10 (kubuntu)

The stylus can move in the left area of my 1st monitor fine. But when I move it to the right area, it jumps to the right area of my 2nd monitor; it never reached the right area of my 1st monitor. Likewise I cannot reach the left half of my 2nd monitor. See the added screenshot to visualize it.

Both monitors run a separate x screen each (non-Twinview).
My stylus is set to move in absolute mode.
If I set my stylus to relative mode, this bug does not occur.

From what I understand in the docs, the "mmonitor" property allows the stylus to move from one screen to the next, much like how a standard mouse can move the mouse cursor from one screen to the next when it reaches the edge of one screen. Moreover, turning "mmonitor" off actually solves my problem. (It is notable that wacomcpl does not expose the "mmonitor" property so users have to use the command line to edit this.)

However I do know that there are other users who like "mmonitor" on, i.e. they want that the stylus can reach both monitors, so I guess this should be fixed.

wacom-tools is probably not the real culprit, I'm guessing the wacom drivers also took part, I'm just not knowledgeable enough regarding the linuxwacom project.

wacom-tools:
  Installed: 1:0.8.1.4-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 1:0.8.1.4-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 1:0.8.1.4-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://ph.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
[lspci]
00:00.0 Memory controller [0580]: nVidia Corporation CK804 Memory Controller [10de:005e] (rev a3)
     Subsystem: EPoX Computer Co., Ltd. Device [1695:101b]
05:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: nVidia Corporation G70 [GeForce 7600 GS] [10de:0392] (rev a1)

[anomalous_underdog (anomalous-underdog)]

Regarding my pic, the dimensions of the red and blue areas are only approximate. I simply gauged them by eye.

[anomalous_underdog (anomalous-underdog)]

errata: in the picture it says "Passable only if stylus came from the right screen". It should say "left screen" not "right".

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automated message]

Hi anomalous-underdog,

Thanks for including an image to demonstrate the issue. Could you also please attach the output of `lspci -vvnn`, and attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from after reproducing this issue. If you've made any customizations to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf please attach that as well.

[jonim8or (ongewenstepostberichten)]

Have the same behavior in Kubuntu 8.10
Started with a clean X11 file (instead of copying my old one from prevous linuxes), and modified it for my dual screen setup (19" monitor and rotated 15" monitor). Tablet appeared to work out of the box without having anything about the tablet in Xorg.conf. Even pressure sensitivity works.

However, the tablet uses 2/3 of my 19" screen, and 1/3 of my 15" screen. When I move my mouse to the right in my big screen, it jumps to the other screen.
When using it in the Gimp, some strange thing happens which might give a clue to what is wrong:
I've configured the tablet to act relative to screen. When I paint, and drag my pen to the right, the paint cursor in the gimp moves faster to the right than the curser on the screen. The further to the right I get, the more difference there is. It appears that the Gimp uses the absolute position and the desktop width and height (2048X1024), where the x11 cursor places the cursor only on the used part of the screen.

In the zip file I have a picture of my screen layout, my xorg.conf and my lspci output.

I hope you can solve this bug.

[Alberto Milone (albertomilone)]

Try adding these lines to the InputDevice sections in your xorg.conf:

Option "Twinview" "horizontal"
Option "TVResolution" "1280x1024,1360x768"

and restart the xserver with your tablet plugged in. This will allow you to move the screen cursor from one screen to the other when the cursor reaches the edge of the tablet.

Furthermore you might want to set the mode to Relative (in the same InputDevice sections), otherwise you won't be able to leave the first screen with the cursor:

Option "Mode" "Relative"

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

We're closing this bug since it is has been some time with no response from the original reporter. However, if the issue still exists please feel free to reopen with the requested information. Also, if you could, please test against the latest development version of Ubuntu, since this confirms the bug is one we may be able to pass upstream for help.

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

I am re-opening this bug. It still exists in Jaunty. I just bought a Wacom Bamboo and the bug occurs right out of the box. I have separate X screens, just like the original reporter. My secondary monitor is to the left of my primary one though so the accessible regions are reversed: the right half of the primary is accessible and the left half of the secondary, but not the rest. I literally just plugged in the tablet and this bug was there, so everything is set to the default.

The last update from Alberto seems to be saying to turn on TwinView, but that's not a valid fix for me. Separate X screens and TwinView are very different and there are reasons to prefer one over the other. For example, separate X screens gives you a second gnome panel and also gives correct sync-to-vblank behaviour on the secondary monitor, which is essential for my home theater set-up. So the fix for this bug will need to work with separate X screens.

[Matthew Meyer (osarusan)]

This bug still exists in Karmic as well.

TwinView works just fine when using wacomcpl to adjust the stylus to match the screen. However, with Separate X Screens there is no way to make it work.

I agree that saying "Just use TwinView" is not a valid solution. I've used TwinView for a while, and I am overall unhappy with it. I prefer Separate X Screens, but I need my wacom to work with it.

[Tristan Schmelcher (tschmelcher)]

This bug is not limited to Kubuntu. My system is Ubuntu and it has this bug too.

[Anne Hendrik Buist (ahbuist)]

I was able to make this work, which may also help to pinpoint the problem. I have had this problem at least since Jaunty (maybe also on Ibex, but def. not on Hoary), now also on Karmic (Ubuntu). Steps I took to make the tablet work on the first screen:

1. Download the attached custom_wacom.fdi and put it in the /etc/hal/fdi/policy directory.
2. plugin your wacom tablet.
3. Open the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file. Find this bit, or something similar:

(**) Option "Device" "/dev/input/event9"
Wacom Volito2 4x5 eraser Wacom X driver grabbed event device
(==) Wacom using pressure threshold of 30 for button 1
(==) Wacom USB Volito2 tablet speed=9600 (38400) maxX=5104 maxY=3712 maxZ=511 resX=1016 resY=1016 tilt=disabled
(==) Wacom device "Wacom Volito2 4x5 eraser" top X=0 top Y=0 bottom X=5104 bottom Y=3712 resol X=1016 resol Y=1016

3. Note down the "Bottom X" (5104 here) and "Bottom Y" (3712) values from the last line. Adjust the BottomX/BottomY values in the custom_wacom.fdi as follows:
 BottomX = Bottom X / 2 (=2552) (tip: if you make it +1 (=2553), it will be the last pixel of your screen, which is easy for scrolling in the edge of the tablet)
 BottomY = Bottom Y (3712) (you might want to leave it out altogether)

4. save, and unplug/plug your tablet. It should work properly now.

*My setup is a 1920x1200 monitor as the first device, and a 1920x1080 lcdtv as the second. I have a Volito2. Other settings in the fdi file might not be necessary, havent tested that.

Needless to say, I'm so happy with my returned tablet functionality!

[Anne Hendrik Buist (ahbuist)]

Forgot to say, no need to alter anything manually in your xorg.conf, this fdi file is the way to do it, it will be hotplugged into X by the HAL.

[Captain Chaos (launchpad-chaos)]

I'm affected by this bug too, in Ubuntu 9.10. Is any progress being made on fixing it?

My situation is a bit different. I have *three* screens, and the pen will move from the left third of the left screen to the middle third of the middle screen to the right third of the right screen. I *can't* use TwinView since I have two graphics cards.

I tried Anne Hendrik's workaround, but it makes no difference to the behaviour of the pen on my system (possible because I have a different table: a Wacom Graphire).

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Thank you for reporting this issue with wacom-tools, we are migrating it to the new xf86-input-wacom package which has replaced it in the development version of Ubuntu.

This would be a good point for you to re-test this issue against the new package to see if is still occurring. If not, you can mark it as Fix Released in Launchpad. If it is still an issue in the current development release and you're the original reporter, please reply and attach a fresh Xorg.0.log.

[Captain Chaos (launchpad-chaos)]

I would love to test it, but unfortunately Lucid Beta 2 seems to be nowhere near production quality yet...

1. It *still* does not recognize my second graphics card, so it only uses my center monitor by default. The tablet works fine on one monitor, but obviously I'd like to use all three of my monitors.
2. I can't install the NVIDIA proprietary driver. The "hardware drivers" applet fails with some unspecified error when I try to install it.
3. After installing all the latest updates (hoping that would fix the hardware drivers applet), Lucid now won't boot at all anymore. It immediately fails with the message "kernel panic-not syncing VFS:unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(0,0)"

I gave up after spending an hour trying to get Ubuntu to boot again. I hope the quality of version 10.04 will improve radically before it is released!

Is there a way I can test the new driver in Karmic?

[Captain Chaos (launchpad-chaos)]

I'm running Lucid now, and it's still not working, so I guess the bug still exists in xf86-input-wacom.

Behaviour exactly the same: cursor spread out over left one third of left screen, middle one third of middle screen and right one third of right screen. Making the tablet completely unusable.

How can I help in tracking this problem down?

[Benjamin Redling (benjamin-rampe-deactivatedaccount)]

Not working: NV44 + 2*1600x1200 + Wacom CTE-630 (Sapphire)
Is there any progress on this one?

As there anything to test? Merkat? Albeit I would like to stay with a LTS release.

[babygenius55 (babygenius55a)]

i was having the very same problem as most here. I went to the irc tonight and got some very welcome help from "whot". after some serching (the dependencies list are for fedora and thus do not match with deb/ubuntu perfectly) I got much closer to a viable fix. there are new drivers. They present a new problem, but you can use both screens while taking advantage of separate X screens. The only problem I noticed so far is that when at the very reaches of the right hand side of my main x screen the pointer will jump to the second x screen. after it does this I have to use the mouse (wacom grapphire 2) to return to the first x screen to use the pen if I need to. Not sure what the reason for this is, but I believe it to be a step in the right direction. Thanks "Whot".

P.S. My wheel on my wacom mouse still only scrolls down no matter which way I roll it.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Please test it on 12.04beta, the driver is much improved.

[Matthew Meyer (osarusan)]

I'm having no problems at all with the Wacom driver in 12.04. It really has improved a lot!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for xf86-input-wacom (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]