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[littletank]

The Bamboo I have is the MTE450 and I wonder if it is possible, using Ubuntu, to customise the 4 buttons and the circle. I have downloaded the user manual but that is not any help. In lots of ways it would be nice to be able to put the keyboard on one side whilst using the tablet so, if it were possible to customise 2 of the keys, one for shift and one for control, it would be a great help. Could some kind person point me in the right direction for help, please?

[monoceros84]

The Bamboo I have is the MTE450 and I wonder if it is possible, using Ubuntu, to customise the 4 buttons and the circle. I have downloaded the user manual but that is not any help. In lots of ways it would be nice to be able to put the keyboard on one side whilst using the tablet so, if it were possible to customise 2 of the keys, one for shift and one for control, it would be a great help. Could some kind person point me in the right direction for help, please?

No guarantee, but somewhere I have read that exactly this is not possible. But let's hope together that somebody knows a way...

[eBrnd]

The Bamboo I have is the MTE450 and I wonder if it is possible, using Ubuntu, to customise the 4 buttons and the circle. I have downloaded the user manual but that is not any help. In lots of ways it would be nice to be able to put the keyboard on one side whilst using the tablet so, if it were possible to customise 2 of the keys, one for shift and one for control, it would be a great help. Could some kind person point me in the right direction for help, please?

No guarantee, but somewhere I have read that exactly this is not possible. But let's hope together that somebody knows a way...

Hmm, one way I can think of to make this possible is through the extended input device module in GIMP...

The other would be writing a program that listens to the input devices for button presses and translates them to some commands.

I don't have a tablet with extra buttons and I know no one near here who has one, so I can't have a look at it...

[littletank]

I have just had this drawn to my attention:-  http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/ I would be grateful if someone who understands these sort of things could have a look because I think it may be what we Linux users need.

[monoceros84]

I have just had this drawn to my attention:-  http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/ I would be grateful if someone who understands these sort of things could have a look because I think it may be what we Linux users need.

Have you sent a mail to those guys? Maybe they can tell you how to proceed... 

You can also look at http://sourceforge.net/forum/forum.php?thread_id=1412382&forum_id=236872 resp. the forum about this project in general: http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=69596

[littletank]

No, I have not made contact  and I am beginning to think that Ubuntu users may already be covered.
In Synaptic Package Manager there are 2 files listed as installed, wacom-tools and xserver-xorg-input-wacom. For wacom-tools it says this package provides utilities to test and configure Wacom graphics tablets. This suggests to me that, If I knew how to access wacom-tools, then it may be possible to make the buttons and circle work.

[Caspar]

...to customise the 4 buttons and the circle. [...] to customise 2 of the keys, one for shift and one for control, it would be a great help.

This is exactly I managed to do. I'm working on openSUSE 10.3, but I don't think the mechanics are different for Ubuntu. It is an X-thing, which means that the tablet will be configured in the /etc/X11xorg.conf file and /home/yourusername/.xinitrc

Assuming that you have the tablet in a working order already, and it is just your goal to configure the keys, add the following lines to your .xinitrc-file

Code:

# Define the Bamboo buttons
#
if [ -x /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom ]; then
  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Pad AbsWDn "Button 5" # touchpad scroll up
  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Pad AbsWUp "Button 4" # touchpad scroll down
  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Pad Button1 "Button 1" # key 1 (<) click left
  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Pad Button2 "CORE KEY  SHIFT" # key 2 (FN1) SHIFT
  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Pad Button3 "Button 3" # key 3 (>) click right
  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Pad Button4 "CORE KEY  CTRL" # key 4 (FN2) CTRL

  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Stylus TPCButton "off" # side switch mode
  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Stylus mode "Absolute" # positioning mode
  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Stylus Button1 "Button 1" # pentip click left
  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Stylus Button2 "Button 3" # Lower side switch click right
  /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom set Stylus Button3 "Button 2" # Upper side switch click middle
fi

The location of xsetwacom can be determined by

Code:

:~>whereis xsetwacom
xsetwacom: /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom

Saving the file and logging out and in again as your regular user, will restart X and the buttons should have the function you configured.

For testing purposes you can of course use this command on the commandline. In that case you don't need to restart X.

An alternative is to use

Code:

:~>wacomcpl

which gives you a rather simple gui. Select Pad>Tablet controls and configure the buttons as mentioned above. Left, Right and Middle speek for themselves. Ring clockwise must be Fifth and Anticlockwise Fourth. For Buttons 2 and 4 select Keystroke>Modifier>SHIFT an CTRL resp.
If you want to change the buttons of the stylus, follow the same procedure for the stylus. Changing the stylus buttons will change the eraser as well and vice versa.
This will have the same effect as editing the .xinitrc yourself, but maybe you will find this easier.

Hope this will do it for you too.

Caspar.

[eBrnd]

No, I have not made contact  and I am beginning to think that Ubuntu users may already be covered.
In Synaptic Package Manager there are 2 files listed as installed, wacom-tools and xserver-xorg-input-wacom. For wacom-tools it says this package provides utilities to test and configure Wacom graphics tablets. This suggests to me that, If I knew how to access wacom-tools, then it may be possible to make the buttons and circle work.

wacom-tools seems to be something different from linuxwacom for me. There are some tools to set wacom tablet options, but I haven't yet seen something for the extra buttons.

[littletank]

cmaessen -  Your code seems to be ideal, not that I really understand it. I have checked and found that while I do have xinitrc I do not have xsetwacom. I shall ask around until I find what is the equivalent in Ubuntu and then give your code a try.

[eBrnd]

xsetwacom is in the wacom-tools package

[Rolf]

I played a bit with the wacump today - and got strange results. There have been big changes in X in the last time.

If you want to see the files an installed package provides, right click on it in Synaptic and select "properties". There is a tab "installed files".

[littletank]

I have tried to customise my Bamboo with no success. using the code supplied by cmaessen. I am sure I must have done something wrong so I will explain what I did and then await the comments.

In Ubuntu there is no .xinitrc file in the home directory however, there is a file   /etc/X11/xinit/initrc so I put the code there. There was also also one line there  .  /etc/X11/Xsession which I left unchanged. The xsetwacom file is in /usr/bin  so I changed that part of the code accordingly and replaced /usr/local/bin/xsetwacom by /usr/bin/xwsetwacom. Finally, I made sure that the file properties were set to Execute. I then logged out and logged in again before testing the tablet in Gimp. Neither the buttons nor the circle worked. The pen actions were unchanged.

[eBrnd]

If you want to test something like that, you can also just enter the xsetwacom commands into your console and see what they do, before you copy them into your xinitrc or wherever - maybe that way you find out what went wrong.

Also, don't forget to set the device mode do screen in you GIMP extended input devices setup.

xsetwacom does work for me - I did some stuff there like changing the behaviour of the button on the pen and confining the tablet working area to one of my two monitors. But then again, I only have a Volito that does not have extra buttons.

[Caspar]

I have tried to customise my Bamboo with no success. using the code supplied by cmaessen.

Lets first test the setting of the buttons from the commandline like eBrnd suggested. By placing the commands in a script, you will be able to reuse it for future testing.

Code:

#!/bin/bash

# setbamboo
# Configure the buttons on the Wacom Bamboo with xsetwacom

/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Pad AbsWDn "Button 5" # touchpad scroll up
/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Pad AbsWUp "Button 4" # touchpad scroll down
/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Pad Button1 "Button 1" # key 1 (<) click left
/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Pad Button2 "CORE KEY  SHIFT" # key 2 (FN1) SHIFT
/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Pad Button3 "Button 3" # key 3 (>) click right
/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Pad Button4 "CORE KEY  CTRL" # key 4 (FN2) CTRL

/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Stylus TPCButton "off" # side switch mode
/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Stylus mode "Absolute" # positioning mode
/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Stylus Button1 "Button 1" # pentip click left
/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Stylus Button2 "Button 3" # Lower side switch click right
/usr/bin/xsetwacom set Stylus Button3 "Button 2" # Upper side switch click middle

exit

Copy these lines into a file in /home/yourusername/bin/setbamboo and give it execute permissions. Execute this script in a console

Code:

:~>setbamboo

If this works than go on. Otherwise we need to look into your /etc/X11/xorg.conf

In Ubuntu there is no .xinitrc file in the home directory however, there is a file   /etc/X11/xinit/initrc so I put the code there. There was also also one line there  .  /etc/X11/Xsession which I left unchanged.

see: http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index.php/howto/wacomcpl
 So the alternatives for ~/.xinitrc are: [...] started with xsetwacom in ~/.xinitrc (or ~/.xsession) to /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc (/etc/X11/xinit/Xsession).

If these locations don't do it for you, than there is the option to autostart the above script with every session you start. I do not know how to arrange that under Ubuntu

Caspar.

[littletank]

I have done as you suggested with no success. I am not very knowledgeable in these matters but I have a very strong suspicion that all is not well with xorg.conf. I had a look at this file and there is no reference to wacom there and I thought that there should be.