Wacom kernel module update

[Carlos A. Paramio]

I have a Wacom Graphire tablet that, as I supossed, wasn't detected by Ubuntu.
Then I proceed to configure it manually. this are the new entries I added to
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4, as usually I did in other Linux distributions:

Section "InputDevice"
        Driver "wacom"
        Identifier "cursor"
        Option "Device" "/dev/input/event2"
        Option "Type" "cursor"
        Option "USB" "on"
        EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
        Driver "wacom"
        Identifier "stylus"
        Option "Device" "/dev/input/event2"
        Option "Type" "stylus"
        Option "USB" "on"
EndSection
Section "InputDevice"
        Driver "wacom"
        Identifier "eraser"
        Option "Device" "/dev/input/event2"
        Option "Type" "eraser"
        Option "USB" "on"
EndSection
Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier "Default Layout"
        Screen "Default Screen"
        InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice "Configured Mouse" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

But when gdm starts, the cursor goes to the upper right corner of the screen,
and if I try to move it to any other place, it goes again there. It seems that
wacom driver don't stop to send messages, because I cat /dev/input/event2 and I
obtain a lot of chars without moving the cursor (in the past, I got some, but
not so many). Deactivating the other USB mouse doesn't resolve the problem.

I think this may be a dual error, for the kernel-2.6.8 and the XFree86 wacom
driver. For the last one, there is a project in
http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index.php/howto/main with improved drivers for
wacom tablets. And for the first one, probably the patch I will attach will fix it.

[Carlos A. Paramio (carlos-paramio)]

Created an attachment (id=492)
Patch from gentoo-dev-sources for wacom kernel module

[Carlos A. Paramio (carlos-paramio)]

Version info, reported by XFree86:

(II) LoadModule: "wacom"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/input/wacom_drv.o
(II) Module wacom: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
        compiled for 4.3.0.1, module version = 1.0.0
        Module class: XFree86 XInput Driver
        ABI class: XFree86 XInput driver, version 0.4
(II) Wacom driver level: 26-j0.6.4 $

[Daniel Stone (daniels)]

I strongly suspect it's to do with the kernel module, given we just updated the
XFree86 driver to the latest available sources.

[Juerd (ubuntu-juerd)]

Yes, it is a kernel thing. I have a Wacom Graphire I and a Graphice II and
somewhere between 2.6.6 and 2.6.7, the Y-axis stopped working (pointer gets sent
to the topmost row and moves horizontally in it). However, it would be nice if
Ubuntu patched this. I've been wanting to give this brand new system a more
serious try. :)

It'd be great if this were released as an update for Warty. Some people
(including me and some friends) use Graphires as their only pointing devices.

Also, I am starting to wonder if there is any open source project that Daniel
Stone isn't working on. Hi, again. :)

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

Warty will only receive updates for critical bugs, and lack of hardware support
for a particular device (such as this one) is not considered a critical bug.

Is there any indication that the kernel driver is buggy, or could we have a
problem where the updated xfree86 driver requires a newer kernel driver?

[Juerd (ubuntu-juerd)]

I have the same problem on vanilla Debian (sid). With a constant XFree86 and
differing kernels, it becomes clear that between 2.6.6 and 2.6.7, it starts
breaking.

Note by the way that it is not lack of support for this device. The device is
recognised correctly, but the driver is broken.

[Lukas Kolbe (lucky)]

See http://www.ubuntulinux.org/wiki/WacomTabletIssue for an explanation of how
you can work around it - it seems that it is basically a problem with the
wacom-module, that doesn't work correctly when evdev is loaded first.
If evdev gets blacklisted, it eventually gets loaded as a dependency of the
other input-modules.
So, if wacom.ko gets loaded, it loads evdev.ko as a dependency and everything
seems to work ok.

--
Lukas

[Chuck Short (zulcss)]

This has already made it into 2.6.12-rc3. I turned on the option.

chuck

[Chuck Short (zulcss)]

New kernel will hit the archive soon for breezy.