wacom tablet is choppy on my x61t

[Michael Fritscher]

Binary package hint: xorg

On Vista, it works fine.
But on Ubuntu, it only works partly if I run wacdump -f tpc /dev/ttyS0 parallel, but then its very choppy. if I exit wacdump it works for a few seconds fine, but then it stops. I get sometimes parity errors, too.
Perhaps the driver can't handle them?
[lspci]
00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation Mobile PM965/GM965/GL960 Memory Controller Hub [8086:2a00] (rev 0c)
     Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:20b3]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:2a02] (rev 0c)
     Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:20b5]

[Michael Fritscher (michael-fritscher)]

Sometimes, it works yust fine, most if after starting the computer and working with it for hours without the pen and then trying it

[Michael Fritscher (michael-fritscher)]

P.S. got lots of
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 5 v=fc l=9
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 5 v=fc l=9
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=c0 l=9
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=fc l=9
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=c0 l=9
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=8e l=9
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 0 v=0 l=9

in the Xorg.0.log

[ojb (olejorgenb)]

I have a similar (same?) issue. (on debian and archlinux though, haven't tried ubuntu)

Get's lots of bad magics, and only archive mouse like accuracy. wacdump spews lots of warnings and errors.

Every thing worked great in debian until I upgraded some pacakges. (not sure which) Now I always get bad accuracy.

This is a Toshiba M7 tablet pc.

I created a bug report here too: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2089862&group_id=69596&atid=525124

[ojb (olejorgenb)]

I partially resolved my issue by compiling wacom 0.7.6-4 from source. (wacdumps still spews errors, but when it's not running, input to eg. xournal is fine)

I think 0.7.6-4 requires an older kernel (.25 or somthing) but it should work if you have a serial tablet. (apperantly it only requires a .so). If you have a tablet pc, it's most likely serial

[Michael Fritscher (michael-fritscher)]

Error still exists (wacom 0.8.1.4-0ubuntu2).
IÄm trying out the tip in the last post (http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=409834) now

[Michael Fritscher (michael-fritscher)]

seems that this is only the usb driver, so it doesn't help

[Michael Fritscher (michael-fritscher)]

I made a silly hackfix which is available under https://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2161220&group_id=69596&atid=525126

It abuses a patches wacdump to watch on biterrors all 100 ms
It works with it, but as I said: that is NOT a bugfix, rather a bad workaround^^

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi michael-fritscher,

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.

[claus (claus2)]

Hi,

I have a similar/same issue here:
I use a thinkpad x60t. I will attach the output of "lspci -vvnn" but I'm not sure if it contains interesting information.

Usually the tablet does not work at all. Moving the pen over the display shows no effect. Only for two seconds after restarting X the pen works.

/var/log/Xorg.0.log shows tons of these lines:

xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 1 v=d0 l=5
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=f0 l=5
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=d0 l=5
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=f0 l=5
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 1 v=d0 l=5
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 2 v=82 l=5
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 1 v=8c l=9
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=d0 l=9
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=f0 l=5
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 1 v=d0 l=5
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=f0 l=5
xf86WcmSerialValidate: bad magic at 3 v=d0 l=5

If I do a "tail -f" I see these lines scroll by with approx. 3-5 new lines per sec.
If I put the pen close to the display surface the messages come in a lot faster.

If I run
 wacdump -f tpc /dev/input/wacom
and stop it again.
often the tablet suddenly works and stays usable (I have not done any long time testing). The error messages still appear in the log, but now there are only approx 1 new line per second.

[Michael Fritscher (michael-fritscher)]

The 2 files

[claus (claus2)]

I forgot to mention: I use Hardy with all updates installed:

$> apt-show-versions | grep wacom
wacom-tools/hardy uptodate 1:0.7.9.8-0ubuntu3
xserver-xorg-input-wacom/hardy uptodate 1:0.7.9.8-0ubuntu3

[claus (claus2)]

I am not sure if this bug is related:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/wacom-tools/+bug/234466

I have seen both behaviors:
a) tablet does not work at all
b) tablet goes crazy

So maybe both come from the same bug?

[claus (claus2)]

For those who still have this problem: I made up a script that does not fix the problem entirely, but that tablet is usable. Before I want to use the tablet I run the following command:

wacdump -f tpc /dev/input/wacom & CHILD_PID=$! ; sleep 1 ; kill $CHILD_PID ; sleep 1; kill -9 $CHILD_PID

This is just a stupid workaround. Maybe someone can analyze what wacdump does so we can track down the problem?

[Michael Fritscher (michael-fritscher)]

seem to work now