Tablet setup on Linux

This topic provides details on configuring a Wacom tablet for Red Hat 5.4 and Fedora Core 11 Linux. These steps assume you are using a USB-style Wacom Intuos tablet.

The Linux Wacom drivers installed with RHEL 5.4 support most tablets. If you have an older tablet you can use these stock drivers, and complete the following steps to configure your tablet.

Attention: If you have a Wacom Intuos 4 or Bamboo device, you need to recompile the most recently released kernel driver to support the device before you configure xorg.conf. Follow the instructions at http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index.php/howto/debwacomnosrc to build and install the tablet driver before completing the following steps to configure the device.

To setup Xorg.conf

1. To support a Wacom Intuos tablet under X windows, add the following sections to the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
   Note: This operation requires root (super-user) access.

   Section "InputDevice"
    Driver        "wacom"
   Identifier    "stylus"
   Option        "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"   # USB ONLY
   Option        "Type"          "stylus"
   Option        "USB"           "on"                  # USB ONLY
   EndSection
   

   Section "InputDevice"
   Driver        "wacom"
   Identifier    "eraser"
   Option        "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"   # USB ONLY
   Option        "Type"          "eraser"
   Option        "USB"           "on"                  # USB ONLY
   EndSection
   

   Section "InputDevice"
   Driver        "wacom"
   Identifier    "cursor"
   Option        "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"   # USB ONLY
   Option        "Type"          "cursor"
   Option        "USB"           "on"                  # USB ONLY
   EndSection
   

   Section "InputDevice"
   Driver        "wacom"
   Identifier    "pad"
   Option        "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"   # USB ONLY
   Option        "Type"          "pad"
   Option        "USB"           "on"                  # USB ONLY
   EndSection
   

   Section "InputDevice"
   Driver        "wacom"
   Identifier    "touch"
   Option        "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"   # USB ONLY
   Option        "Type"          "touch"
   Option        "USB"           "on"                  # USB ONLY
   EndSection 
   

2. Modify your server layout with the following lines:

   InputDevice    "stylus"    "SendCoreEvents"
   InputDevice    "eraser"    "SendCoreEvents"
   InputDevice    "cursor"    "SendCoreEvents"    # For non-LCD tablets only
   InputDevice    "touch"     "SendCoreEvents" 
   InputDevice    "pad"   # For Intuos3/CintiqV5/Graphire4/Bamboo tablets
   

3. (Optional) If your Red Hat system confuses the new device with an input mouse, change any reference to /dev/input/mice to /dev/input/mouse0 in the inputDevice section of xorg.conf.

   This prevents the Wacom device from being passed into the input device, which will convert the values into relative versus absolute.

4. Restart the computer with the Wacom Intuos tablet device plugged into the USB port.