Bug 29543

Summary: Send tablet key events for XInput ABI >= 7
Product: xorg Reporter: Olivier Samyn <olivier>
Component: Input/aiptekAssignee: Xorg Project Team <xorg-team>
Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX QA Contact: Xorg Project Team <xorg-team>
Severity: normal    
Priority: medium    
Version: git   
Hardware: Other   
OS: All   
Whiteboard: 2011BRB_Reviewed
i915 platform: i915 features:
Attachments:
Description Flags
Generate keyboard events for XInput-ABI >= 7 none

Description Olivier Samyn 2010-08-12 17:27:53 UTC 
Created attachment 37829 [details] [review]
Generate keyboard events for XInput-ABI >= 7

The current git code of this driver lacks support for keyboard events generation.

Some changes are needed to get the tablet functions keys working.

Attached to this report is a patch that adds the needed code. Currently, as the tablets reports it's events through linux evdev, pure evdev keycodes are sent to the server; and xkb translates them to keysyms.

This works well for F1 to F12. For F13 to F24, keycodes are translated to other keysyms (key works but not with the expected symbol). I will need some help to solve this.
Comment 1 Peter Hutterer 2011-07-07 15:18:34 UTC 
sorry for the late answer. Is this still a problem, do you still have this device and are you still using it?
aiptek is barely maintained and tested, it might be beneficial to get the driver supported properly by the kernel and then use evdev or the wacom driver for this device.
Comment 2 Olivier Samyn 2011-07-08 03:16:02 UTC 
I still have the device and I use it from time to time.

I also thinked modifying in kernel code to directly use evdev or emulate wacom driver (but this requires more work than just patching the current xorg driver).

I will investigate how to do this in the coming weeks (but it's holiday time here...) and let you know the result. 

Probably Bug #26584 can be closed as fixed, and keep this one open for proper key support, be it in kernel or via xorg driver.
Comment 3 Jeremy Huddleston Sequoia 2011-10-17 02:00:24 UTC 
Oliver, can you please send this patch to xorg-devel for additional eyes to 
review it?

Thanks.
Comment 4 Olivier Samyn 2011-11-01 08:57:48 UTC 
Sorry for the delay,

I just checked the current kernel driver behaviour (on a fedora 15 x86_64), and it can works with the evdev driver (in fact the kernel driver already send evdev events).

I think the evdev driver can replace the current aiptek driver in most cases.
The only extra features provided by the aiptek driver are mostly software stuff (response curves, screen to tablet coordinates matching, ...). Maybe those features can be added in some way in the evdev driver (and can be used by any tablet like device).

When trying to use the evdev driver with gimp and inkscape, I noticed that the pressure is given by valuator 4, and gimp expects valuator 3 by default. Is there something that need to be done at kernel level to change this ?

For the rest, all the tablet keys are working as expected (except the F13 to F24 are mapped to other keycodes, but I suppose I have something to change in the keymap for that device).
Comment 5 Jeremy Huddleston Sequoia 2011-11-01 23:21:23 UTC 
If I recall, there's an xinput control panel for the tablet in gim somewhere, 
and you can use that to change that behavior.

Closing as wontfix for aiptek since evdev will work for you.

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