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How a kernel replace broke my stylus… Need assistance!

How a kernel replace broke my stylus… Need assistance!

2023-11-01 12:48:51

What’s the issue?

Briefly, after a Linux kernel replace (6.5.8-200.fc.x86_64 on Fedora KDE), I am unable to use the highest button of my pen on my pill. That is actually affecting my digital portray workflow!

Proper-clicking on the pen is an important a part of my workflow. Proper-click on a layer in Krita to get the menu, right-click whereas utilizing the Remodel device to get the transformation choices, right-click on the canvas to get the pop-up palette! …And I am not even speaking about how troublesome it’s to deal with information and the D.E. with out right-clicking.

And if that makes you smile, think about somebody hardcoding the behaviour of your predominant gadget just like the right-click in your mouse or touchpad (or anything you may have been utilizing for greater than 20 years) to one thing fully ineffective, and pushing it by way of kernel updates. And the icing on the cake, they left you with no consumer device to alter it again.

That is the place I’m now, and you’ll in all probability perceive why I made a decision to write down a weblog submit about it. As a result of my potential to make use of my pill and thus proceed my webcomic Pepper&Carrot below Linux is now tied to an older kernel, 6.4.15-200.fc38.x86_64, till a kernel developer fixes this case.


Grub web page at startup: I now have to pick the second kernel to flee the bug..

What occurred?

Context: My XPPen 24 Artist Pro is my default tablet for productiveness since April 2023. This pill does not have a correct pill driver below GNU/Linux. But it surely works because of a generic driver within the Linux kernel for the Uc-Logic/Ugee gadget; that’s the title of the digitiser contained in the pill, the circuit board in case you choose. I additionally prime this with some code from the Digimend-Kernel-Module. It requires a set of X11 guidelines and tweaks that I doc in my review, however as soon as that’s accomplished, you possibly can customise the stylus buttons utilizing the xsetwacom command line device.

Sadly, within the newer Linux kernel of my distribution (6.5.8-200.fc.x86_64), there have been some new commits that affected the behaviour of this generic hid-input.c driver. I do not know the place it got here from, however it was determined to hardcode a behaviour for styluses to have an ‘eraser mode’ as an alternative of a ‘right-click’ on the second (prime) button of the stylus.

For reference, right here is the default on GNU/Linux, and has been since a minimum of 2009 once I began drawing with it:

  • Button 1 (pen tip) = left mouse click on; to pick, to attract, and so forth…
  • Button 2 (down, on the facet of the pen) = a center mouse button, for panning the canvas or scrolling pages.
  • Button 3 (on the prime of the pen) = a proper click on, for context menus.


The stylus of the XP-Pen Artist Professional 24, with the placement of the second button underlined.

The place did the concept come from to map an eraser mode to a stylus button?

I can solely speculate about this, however so far as I do know, the sort of behaviour was launched by Microsoft for his or her Surfaces gadget on Ms Home windows as a possible workaround for being too low cost to place an eraser on the opposite finish of the stylus.

These Surfaces had been geared toward enterprise folks and, as you possibly can think about, the pen was not supposed for use for drawing, however for signing paperwork or annotating PDFs. A facet button eraser made sense to them. However what about right-clicking, you may ask? Effectively, these are ‘contact’ units; the consumer might at all times use their finger with a protracted press and set off a contextual right-click menu.

Quickly after, I feel Lenovo, HP and different pill PC producers had been fast to mimic this new behaviour as courageous sheep, and likewise to avoid wasting cash on making styluses and not using a correct eraser on the opposite facet.

So I can perceive why a kernel developer thought it might be a good suggestion to convey this to GNU/Linux units. Besides they did not simply add it as a function. It was forcing the behaviour on all customers of the generic driver on the lowest doable stage.

So I’ve misplaced my right-click on the second button of my stylus. And my gadget does not have a “contact mode”.

Worse, paradoxically it even forces this behaviour on the stylus of my newer XPPEN 16 Artist Pro (Gen2) that I am testing. Brace your self: a stylus with an actual eraser… This left me speechless.


The bug even impacts stylus with an Eraser gadget, as on this stylus of the XP-Pen Artist Professional 16 (Gen2).

Cannot you simply customise a button in your Linux system?

That is the most effective half: no, you possibly can’t.

Since you see, as an alternative of simply sending a single occasion that might later be customised by a CLI device like xsetwacom, a desktop surroundings like kcm-tablet Plasma Panel, or perhaps a udev rule; this sort of behaviour is hardcoded in, so the button sends too many occasions to map to something. The button does not set off a key, it switches the entire gadget to one thing else when pressed.

See Also

From my understanding; forcing this behaviour for the Uc-logic/Ugee generic pill has been accomplished for a very long time; however a “bug” stored the stylus of my XPPEN Artist 24 Professional out of it, and this commit probably fixed it in the worst for me. I now know it’s there for a very long time, as a result of even with the “outdated” kernel, my newer XPPen 16 Professional (gen2) additionally reacts this manner.

And no instruments can repair it now. Are we doomed to have an eraser on the second key?

Or is there anything we will do?

Please assist in case you can.

Replace:

2023-11-01 18:43: (Extra technical infos) Listed below are two evtest screenshots of the 2 units with the newer kernel whereas performing a prime button on the stylus (click on to enlarge).

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