[hardy] Pen crazy in tablet PC

[Liken Otsoa]

Binary package hint: xserver-xorg-input-wacom

Frequently pen stops working correctly and it goes crazy in my IBM thinkpad X41 Tablet.
When you put pen near to screen it appears selected areas (gnome) and a lot of strange clicks are sended to desktop.
/etc/init.d/gdm restart does not solve the problem, it's necesary reboot the computer.

[Nick Ellery (nick.ellery)]

Hi Liken,

Bugs must be confirmed by somebody else who is can confirm at least one of the following:
      Is there a patch that claims to fix the bug?
      Are there sufficient log files and crash dumps, as outlined in DebuggingProcedures?
      Can you reproduce the bug yourself?
      Does another distribution have a complete and confirmed bug?
      Does the upstream author have a complete and confirmed bug?

[Nick Ellery (nick.ellery)]

In the mean time, please provide the following:

The version of Ubuntu your are using
The version of wacom-tools

[Liken Otsoa (liken)]

xserver-xorg-input-wacom 1:0.7.9.8-0ubuntu3
wacom-tools 1:0.7.9.8-0ubuntu3
Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Uptodate

I cannot reproduce it. It seems aleatory, but frecuently after several hours. I have this problem from the beggining, Hardy Beta releases. To restart X does not solve the problem, so my impression is that driver maybe corrupts wacom hardware state. I rule out hardware issues because in windows o.s. there is not this problem. if I can try something more or send some logs let me know please.

[fenderguy (fenderguy)]

I also have this problem on the same computer, an IBM x41 tablet, and using fully updated hardy heron as well. I have the exact same versions of wacom stuff and the problem is the same: after a few hours of normal use, the pen will stop functioning, when you bring it to the screen it will jump back and forth from where you are pointing to a random corner of the screen and be clicking so it will erratically click things and drag boxes on the desktop.

I haven't found one way to reset wacom or fix the problem without having to completely reboot (even then its purely chance whether or not it will function properly once booted or how long it will last) It is very inconvenient.

[Liken Otsoa (liken)]

This bug persists.

xserver-xorg-input-wacom 1:0.7.9.8-0ubuntu3
wacom-tools 1:0.7.9.8-0ubuntu3
Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Uptodate

[Luca Magnani (luca-magnani)]

FYI, the current production-level driver on linuxwacom is now 0.8.03, released on 2008-05-24. There are several additions and improvements, and early testing with the Intrepid Ibex kernel seems to be giving good results.

Also, check the Wacom entry and the other input sections under xorg.conf.

[jgordon510 (jeffreygordonchachacha)]

A few data points:

1) I had this problem under gutsy. I found that suspending and resuming my thinkpad x41t would fix it nearly every time.

2) I reinstalled with Hardy recently on the same machine and found that I was having suspend/resume issues. In previous versions of Ubuntu, I've had to add a setserial command to my resume scripts to get stylus back after suspend, but that didn't help in this case.

3) To furthure what Luca said: Grabbing the intrepid packages for the wacom driver (more recent version) seems to give me a completely problem free wacom stylus after 24 hour or so of testing. I have no erratic cursor movement and no suspend/resume problems. I still have the setserial command (/bin/setserial /dev/ttyS0 port 0x0200 irq 5 autoconfig) in a /etc/acpi/resume.d script. Since these packages can be installed under hardy with no dependency issues, I would recommend that anyone having trouble try that route.

http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/wacom-tools
http://packages.ubuntu.com/intrepid/xserver-xorg-input-wacom

[jgordon510 (jeffreygordonchachacha)]

An update to my previous comment.

After some more testing, I've got the jumpy mouse behavior described above, so the bug persists.

I will add, however, that suspending and resuming fixes the behavior (until next time).

[Luca Magnani (luca-magnani)]

Jeffrey,

Thanks for the update... here's hope things will improve soon.
In that regard, there's also a <A HREF="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/acpi-support/+bug/159026">bug #159026</A> concerning the X41 - I'm not so sure the two things are connected, but the accelerometer/ACPI issue caught my attention.

[Luca Magnani (luca-magnani)]

Whoops, bad edit! I apologize.

Still, the remark stands. Given the suspend/resume problems you were also experiencing, I would check out power management issues before we settle for a "simple" driver fix - ACPI is still somewhat of a rocky boat under Hardy, I guess.

[Liken Otsoa (liken)]

This bug persists after update to intrepid versions of wacom-tools and input-wacom.
I have not suspended/resumed computer before jumpiness.
Jumpy mouse behaviour is slightly different now.

I can't see any relation with bug #159026.

[jgordon510 (jeffreygordonchachacha)]

I agree with Liken. Bug #159026 is a feature request for ACPI rotation scripts and has nothing to do with this issue.

As I said previously, I had this bug under Gutsy, so I'd love to see it resolved.

[fenderguy (fenderguy)]

how has this problem not found ONE solution yet!?

this is the one thing that ruins ubuntu for me... the stylus works fine on my x41 when its not jumpy but it never lasts long and then the only way to fix it is the reboot. even suspend and resume like some say won't work for me. This is a horrible bug... its the one and only thing keeping me stuck with windows for everyday computer with my x41

[Justin Dugger (jldugger)]

I can't even duplicate this. If you can, please attach the following:

* /etc/X11/xorg.conf (if it exists)
* /var/log/Xorg.0.log (after the bug exhibits itself)

[jgordon510 (jeffreygordonchachacha)]

Here's my /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

[jgordon510 (jeffreygordonchachacha)]

And here is /var/log/Xorg.0.log; the bug is currently active and twitching away on my X41t right now.

[jgordon510 (jeffreygordonchachacha)]

Someone on the linux wacom bug page is reporting that this is fixed in the newest version (0.8.1-2).

http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=2030106

I've compiled it. It's a tricky thing to get it compiled because of some unmeetable dependencies in Hardy, so it needs to be patched before compilation. See details to do that here:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=5469447&postcount=5

I'll post a debian package in a few days if it does indeed look fixed.

[jgordon510 (jeffreygordonchachacha)]

I've been testing for 3 days with 0.8.1-2 with no problems. It's rare that the stylus will go that long without erratic movement. I'm going to post the package I made for the wacom driver, but you probably want to remove your wacom driver first, because this package was built with the checkinstall default options, and I'm not sure that it will get along with the wacom packages in synaptic. Or, you can just compile it yourself using those instructions in my previous post.

[fenderguy (fenderguy)]

so far so good...thanks a ton for making a deb, very helpful

[jgordon510 (jeffreygordonchachacha)]

Well, unfortunately, it just started the behavior again, so it is not fixed even in 0.8.1-2.

Bummer.

[fenderguy (fenderguy)]

yeah i had high hopes too and then mine started doing it within an hour of use.... sucks.

[Justin Dugger (jldugger)]

jgordon, you may want to engage upstream with this. If you've been working with the latest release then upstream should be able to better help you. Their preference seems to be to write the mailing list however, rather than use the bug tracker.

[isabella (isabella)]

compiled/updated as per the instruction in this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=870640 and it still did not work. However did find a work around on the X41 anyways..

echo -x "\x03" > /dev/ttyS0 #typing this at console seems to reset the table ^_^

Also:
echo -x "\x00" > /dev/ttyS0 #disables it completely
echo -x "\x01" > /dev/ttyS0 #enabled but very erratic, can actually reproduce symptoms sending this
echo -x "\x02" > /dev/ttyS0 # also erratic

Since sending character 03 worked, stopped there. Thought sending data to the port might reset it, guess was right n_n..

hope this helps...

[G. Guzmics (g4b)]

Bug persists in Ubuntu 8.10 with my X41.

Will try the ttyS0 hacks mentioned.

Still can't really reproduce how fast it's happening. Sometimes worked for days, sometimes just minutes.

Since I do not use Gnome, but KDE, and restarting / killing / whatever the Xserver does not help, it seems to be a kernel-driver-bug.

[isabella (isabella)]

Nice to know, I've not updated to 8.10 yet because I wanted the LTS option of 8.04 and sort of felt it would be a waste of time since the updated driver did not seem to make any difference.

Some notes on the ttyS0 hack:
* Embarrassingly confused the -x with the -e option in my echo statement. Was intending to send control codes, but guess not. The -x may be omitted.
* The hack does not really ~fix~ the problem, what it does seem to do is slows the pen movement speed down to a point where it is no longer erratic. The side effect is that the pen does not track at full speed meaning things such at handwriting are difficult but it is 'usable' for some applications like simple graphics editing.

Tried googling for some type of whitepaper on the wacom interface but found nothing of relevance. If could find more technical information might be able to sort this insanely annoying++ problem. Examined the source code and tried sending a few of the obvious initialization strings to ttyS0 but nothing helped. u_u

[G. Guzmics (g4b)]

Tried suggested echos with 8.10.

For me this wont fix anything. I can deactivate the tablet with \x00, but \x03 does not seem to have any effect on the behaviour.

Also, to mention, I just saw that kernel module "wacom" isn`t even loaded.

restarting hal does nothing.
restarting X11 does nothing.

so for me even this fix is not a fix. Curious if it is a 8.10 issue, that it does not work anymore.

[Helge Willum Thingvad (helgesdk)]

Until yesterday night when it started to reapper, it had been a very long time since last time I experienced this bug.
I recently upgraded to 9.04, so I guess the problem came back in the new Jaunty packages.

I tried the ttyS0 hack suggested by Isabella and it worked like a charm on my ThinkPad X60t - thanks! :)
Now, I'll just put this in my .xinitrc

(while ((1)); do
  echo -x "\x03" > /dev/ttyS0
  sleep 10
 done
)&

[Helge Willum Thingvad (helgesdk)]

It appears that there is a new problem with my tablet, possibly related to this bug or the ttyS0 hack.

The cursor used to react instantly and follow the pen very quickly and precisely. It still moves instantly if I just tap the screen somewhere, but whenever I move the pen around continuously it lags behind. It is like the events from the pen movement take a long to process or something. Definitely not anything I have seen before.

[Helge Willum Thingvad (helgesdk)]

I have manually compiled and installed linuxwacom 0.8.3-3 in the hope of getting this fixed. I think it happens less often now, but it may just be coincidence.

I can usually fix the tablet by running a script containing this:

echo -x "\x00" > /dev/ttyS0
sleep 0.5
echo -x "\x02" > /dev/ttyS0

The pen becomes slower than "normal", but is still usable (unlike when sending \x03).

[Paul (www-breadboard)]

I'm glad I found this problem report, but not really, because this happening to me too.

I just installed Ubuntu KarmicKoala (9.10) on my x41, and aside from a dozen apps, or so, mine is a pretty-vanilla installation.

My behavior is just like others have described: crazy jumpiness; random mouseclicks.

One thing I've noticed is the pen likes to jump to the edges of the screen, and seemingly, usually to the left and top edges (something to do with stray zeroes being read for some reason?)

So, when I have a drawing program like xournal open and the problem manifests, I get this interesting series of "rays" or radial spokes emanating from the left edge. When I try to draw a curve, the rays keep jumping back and forth between ray and curve, ray and curve. It's kind of beautiful, but also maddening.

None of the ttyS0 commands seemed to do anything for me. I tried the suspend/wake trick just now, and it worked. Let's see how long this stays healthy!

[aras (arasbm)]

I am also facing this bug. I am running Ubuntu 9.10 on a X41 tablet. I've attached an screenshot of what happens in xournal when I try to slowly drow a vertical line. I tried it once, changes the color with my mouse and tried the pen again. It seems that my pen only jumps straight to the some edge of the screen that is to the left of the point i am pressing. Not sure if this helps debugging the problem, but I thought I throw it out there.

I really want this problem gone, since I only use ubuntu :). I am also willing to help test further to narrow down this annoying bug :)

[cristoperb (chris-mretc)]

After updating the BIOS on my Thinkpad X60 tablet (to version 1.15 from Lenovo), I am no longer experiencing this issue. It's only been a few days -- but it would be interesting to see if a BIOS update fixes it for anyone else.

[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.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

[This is an automatic notification.]

Hi Liken,

This bug was reported against an earlier version of Ubuntu, can you
test if it still occurs on Lucid?

Please note we also provide technical support for older versions of
Ubuntu, but not in the bug tracker. Instead, to raise the issue through
normal support channels, please see:

    http://www.ubuntu.com/support

If you are the original reporter and can still reproduce the issue on
Lucid, please run the following command to refresh the report:

  apport-collect 234466

If you are not the original reporter, please file a new bug report, so
we can work with you as the original reporter instead (you can reference
bug 234466 in your report if you think it may be related):

  ubuntu-bug xorg

If by chance you can no longer reproduce the issue on Lucid or if you
feel it is no longer relevant, please mark the bug report 'Fix Released'
or 'Invalid' as appropriate, at the following URL:

  https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/234466

[Saleel Velankar (sealv)]

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xf86-input-wacom/+bug/580719

Update for new bug in Lucid, is identical, thought I should link back here.

[Wisam F. Kadhim (wisam-fkadhim)]

Greetings to all... I have a Touchpad X41 Tablet with Ubuntu Maverick (recently upgraded from Lucid) and I was facing the same problem with stylus pen going crazy at random and only restarting would fix it again. I couldn't manage to generate the events at which the pen goes crazy. it just seems it happens at random. after digging alot and trying to build the wacom driver from their source code (btw.. on Linux wacom project archives, this problem was reported few times there but there seems to be no solution or a solid walk around for it) finally after several weeks of digging, I found this article http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=90725 after searching in google and it seems that one of the indications for this bug is some random touchpad (or trackpoint for Thinkpads) to go into a certain direction and it gets stuck there at a corner. A guy in the article suggested a link to Lenovo's website for a solution reported to this bug. But as it seems it didn't work as quite expected. Then another guy (thankfully) mentioned that the problem seems to be hardware related rather than software, he claimed that the current screening to shield the electromagnetic interference is not enough and he installed an extra screen (from aluminum foil) behind the touchpad screen. and that seems to solve his problem. So.. long story short, I decided to try that, I've installed a aluminum foil screen behind the touchpad panel and connected it to the earthing (with the existing touchpad). So far I haven't noticed the bug happening anymore. I will still keep monitoring the case to see if the bug would occur again.. But so far I feel it's been a success.

[Wisam F. Kadhim (wisam-fkadhim)]

Greetings to all... I have a Touchpad X41 Tablet with Ubuntu Maverick (recently upgraded from Lucid) and I was facing the same problem with stylus pen going crazy at random and only restarting would fix it again. I couldn't manage to generate the events at which the pen goes crazy. it just seems it happens at random. after digging alot and trying to build the wacom driver from their source code (btw.. on Linux wacom project archives, this problem was reported few times there but there seems to be no solution or a solid walk around for it) finally after several weeks of digging, I found this article http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=90725 after searching in google and it seems that one of the indications for this bug is some random touchpad (or trackpoint for Thinkpads) to go into a certain direction and it gets stuck there at a corner. A guy in the article suggested a link to Lenovo's website for a solution reported to this bug. But as it seems it didn't work as quite expected. Then another guy (thankfully) mentioned that the problem seems to be hardware related rather than software, he claimed that the current screening to shield the electromagnetic interference is not enough and he installed an extra screen (from aluminum foil) behind the touchpad screen. and that seems to solve his problem. So.. long story short, I decided to try that, I've installed a aluminum foil screen behind the touchpad panel and connected it to the earthing (with the existing touchpad). So far I haven't noticed the bug happening anymore. I will still keep monitoring the case to see if the bug would occur again.. But so far I feel it's been a success.

[Bjarke Todbjerg Nielsen (todbjerg)]

I personally do not think that it is hardware related, as I never had a problem when using the pre xorg-server-1.7 linuxwacom drivers. I think that I've fixed the problem by editing the xf86-input-wacom driver source code, though. When I say that I "think" I've fixed it, it is due to the fact that the problem seemed to occur at random. It hasn't occurred in the approximately two weeks that I've used this version of the driver, and it used to happen almost every day.
What I did was reintegrate the old wcmSerialValidate() from a pre xorg-1.7 version of the linuxwacom drivers into a recent copy of the xf86-input-wacom source code from git.

I have attached my edited version of wcmISDV4.c, and I'd love to hear if it works for any of you.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Please send such patches to upstream (<email address hidden>), and also test the current code on 12.04beta.

[Bjarke Todbjerg Nielsen (todbjerg)]

I would, but I'm no longer certain that it was the patch that did the trick. Since I've upgraded to kernel 3.3.1 I haven't experienced the problem (it has been roughly 10 days) so I'll wait and see if the problem has indeed been fixed.

In this OpenSUSE bugreport ( http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-bugs/2011-08/msg00104.html ) it is stated that the problem didn't exist with 2.6.37.6 and kernels prior to that, which made me downgrade to 2.6.37.6. I compiled the kernel myself and used it for 1-1.5 months without any trouble. I then installed the same version from the ubuntu kernel PPA and the problem resurfaced, making me wonder if the Ubuntu kernel PPA people had backported the code that caused the trouble.

I'll report back if the problem resurfaces with the 3.3.x series.

[korgman (korgie)]

Similar or same problem here (ThinkPad X61 tablet)

I use the tablet as multi-user.

On "first" user [ctrl+alt+f7] the pen does not work
On "second" user [ctrl+alt+f8] the pen works.

So, it's not a hardware issue.

I don't know if it helps:
/var/log/Xorg.2.log:[ 15853.585] (EE) PreInit returned 8 for "Serial Wacom Tablet stylus"

[Bjarke Todbjerg Nielsen (todbjerg)]

korgman: Which kernel are you running?

[korgman (korgie)]

uname -a
Linux patty-ThinkPad-X61-Tablet 3.0.0-17-generic #30-Ubuntu SMP Thu Mar 8 17:34:21 UTC 2012 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

I will try mainline builds
http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/

I forgot to mention that the pen is unresponsive (in one user) after random time not always. If it gets unresponsive I cannot fix it unless I restart, or sometimes it works after stand-by.

[korgman (korgie)]

Same resutls with kernel from mainline
uname -a
Linux patty-ThinkPad-X61-Tablet 3.2.0-030200rc4-generic #201112012035 SMP Fri Dec 2 01:44:19 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux

xinput --list
does not list the pen on "first" user, only on second user.

grep WW.*tylus /var/log/Xorg.*.log
/var/log/Xorg.2.log:[ 30691.110] (WW) Serial Wacom Tablet stylus: Waited too long for answer (failed after 3 tries).
/var/log/Xorg.2.log:[ 30691.110] (WW) Serial Wacom Tablet stylus: Query failed with 19200 baud. Trying 38400.
/var/log/Xorg.2.log:[ 30694.363] (WW) Serial Wacom Tablet stylus: Waited too long for answer (failed after 3 tries).

grep EE.*tylus /var/log/Xorg.*.log
/var/log/Xorg.2.log:[ 30694.363] (EE) PreInit returned 8 for "Serial Wacom Tablet stylus"

[korgman (korgie)]

Things are better with ubuntu-12.04LTS. It seems that the pen halted only one time after the upgrade to 12.04.

grep WW.*tylus /var/log/Xorg.*.log returns no results.

grep EE.*tylus /var/log/Xorg.*.log
reports:
/var/log/Xorg.0.log:[ 40.881] (EE) Serial Wacom Tablet stylus: Invalid type 'cursor' for this device.
/var/log/Xorg.0.log:[ 40.881] (EE) Serial Wacom Tablet stylus: Invalid type 'touch' for this device.
/var/log/Xorg.0.log:[ 40.881] (EE) Serial Wacom Tablet stylus: Invalid type 'pad' for this device.

[Dražen Lučanin (kermit666)]

This is happening for me as well in Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS with a Bamboo CTH-670. I also reported the bug directly at the Linux-Wacom project's bug tracker:

http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&aid=3577383&group_id=69596&atid=525124