wacom stylus, etc. entries in xorg.conf generate spurrious X error messages in various programs

[Dave White]

Binary package hint: xorg

From console, attempted to run kate to edit a file.

[Dave White (db-white)]

X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 169
  Major opcode: 145
  Minor opcode: 3
  Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device

[Dave White (db-white)]

requested conf file.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

The BadDevice error doesn't seem to appear in the log - was that printed to stderr when running kate?
Could you provide more detail about how you were running kate, and how you determined it was an Xorg issue?

(The error messages in the attached log look like standard stuff about non-existant wacom tablets and such, that can be ignored.)

[Dave White (db-white)]

Similar error on Dell Dimension 4100 -

Kubuntu distribution. Open a Konsole. In the console, type kate and hit enter.
On this machine I get:
X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 167
  Major opcode: 144
  Minor opcode: 3
  Resource id: 0x0
Failed to open device

Type gimp and hit enter. Same message... Type k3b and hit enter. Same message.

The message indicates an X error. Either all the applications are out of sync or something didn't get configured properly in X. Occam's razor puts money on the latter.

[Dave White (db-white)]

The problem is due to the following lines in /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

    InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
    InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
    InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"

Once I comment them out and restart the X server, I no longer see the X errors.

Whatever program generated the original conf file seemed to think I had a wacom tablet and created an entry for a device at /dev/input/wacom
There is NO such entry in that directory, hence the bitching...

Can we get the configurator fixed and/or add this to the FAQ?
I'm sure I'm not the only one that likes their software when it doesn't talk back. Thanks!

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Ah, I understand. Yes, those wacom entries in xorg.conf can be safely deleted. I have no idea why they're always put there, but I do know what code does it. Other than the spurious error messages, they seem to be harmless. But I'll look into eliminating those entries from the xorg.conf file when I get a chance.

Thanks for the bug report!