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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Ubuntu makes Draw Tablet installation easy as could be

So I own a Wacom Cintiq 12WX draw tablet. Yes, it is a very expensive toy and I use it in Linux.

Prior to switching to Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty, the process involved with getting my tablet to work was somewhat involved.

  1. Plug in the device
  2. Throw some generic config lines into /etc/X11/xorg.conf to enable the input devices
  3. Compile the latest Linux Wacom Project drivers myself and load them into my kernel
  4. Change my nvidia settings to accommodate my new display
  5. Restart KDE
  6. Enable the input device in The Gimp

Oh yeah: I also needed to make sure I had the darn thing plugged (usb and vga/dvi) in properly. (I have missed it a few times among all my other cables).

Not a lot of work and the compilation is pretty simple.

But now with Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty, my job is much simpler:
  1. Plug in the device
  2. Change my nvidia settings to accommodate my new display
  3. Restart KDE
  4. Enable the input device in The Gimp
Let me tell you, it does not get much easier than this. I mean, plug it in and go!

I am having a minor configuration issue with simultaneously using my tablet input and my mouse to work on the same drawing area. It seems that somewhere along the way, the tablet input takes precedence and disables using the mouse to affect the Gimp Drawing area. I'm looking for a solution and I will post it when I know it.

2 comments:

  1. This is excellent news! Reading up on it I was beginning to think it was not going to be possible to use a Cintiq in Linux.

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  2. BTW: Are you going to post some of your work using the tablet??

    ReplyDelete