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4. Tablets as Mouse-Replacement for the Linux-Console

4.1 Tablets and gpm

The gpm daemon supports allot of input devices, including tablets. If you want a list of the supported devices of your gpm, do a

gpm -t help
and you get it.

The Wacom driver of gpm 1.18.0 and below seems to be for the very old artpad models, the documentation does not say anything about this. I tested it with ultrapad, penpartner, graphire and intuos models but it did not work. I have rewritten the wacom driver for gpm, to use it you need at least gpm version 1.18.2 . Since 1.18.2, the old wacom driver has been replaced with my driver for wacom graphire, penpartner and ultrapad products.

However, if you own an old artpad, use gpm < 1.18.1 and try:

killall gpm ; gpm -t wacom -m /dev/ttyS0
and it should work.

If you own a graphire, use gpm > 1.18.1 instead and use

for the relative (mouse-like) mode:

killall gpm ; gpm -t wacom -o relative -m /dev/ttyS0
for the absolute (tablet-like) mode:
killall gpm ; gpm -t wacom -o absolute -m /dev/ttyS0

Of course, you get only the buttons and the movement function, pressure and tilt are not supported because they are not too useful in text-based applications.
There is no support for ultrapad macro buttons or graphire mouse wheel.

If you use gpm and XFree86, you may or may not run in problems, because normally a device can be opened only by one program at a time. There are two solutions for that:


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