Piko
08-15-2006, 11:05 PM
I got a tablet from my work, and after yelling at Windows XP Tablet version for 7 hours I got sick of it, and decided to install Linux on it.
I figured this was going to be hard. Firstly it uses a Wacom Pen top. It's got a docking station with the DvD-ROM/CD-RW in it. I was most worried about the DvD drive not being able to be boot from, and the Pen top not working in Linux. Though SuSE quickly proved how great it is.
It boot from the CD no problem, but the installer wasn't able to use the pen top. So I had use the IR keyboard to get threw the install.
Here are the main tricks for people.
After the install X will start with a blank screen. This is because by default SuSE will use duel head mode, and be displaying X on the external VGA connection. All you have to do is turn off Dual head, or set it to clone mode. I don't really need dual so I turned it off.
Next the pen top won't work. Go into sax, and go to "Touch Screens". That's right, not "Tablets". Now add a Wacom(USB) touch screen. It should work after you restart X. You might have to calibrate the pen pointer with the "MaxY", and "MinY" settings.
Now if you want to use the wireless card with Network Manager you need to have it not configured! That's right don't configure it. Network manager will think it's a Wired card if you configure it threw Yast2. Just leave it not configured, and Network Manager will handle it on it's own.
Screen rotation is a tough one. The Intel i830 can't support xrandr. Though you can still rotate the screen by adding the lines
<code>
Option "Rotate" "CW"
Option "SWCursor"
</code>
To the device section, and then adding
<code>
Option "Rotate" "CW"
</code>
To all the input devices. You then have to restart X to get it to flip. Also you can't use hardware acceleration in this mode. Note the fact we have to set the cursor to Software mode so it rotates correctly.
To speed this up I wrote a quick application that just swaps one xorg.conf file out for another. I hope to make it just add the lines, or remove the line to the xorg.conf, and then restarts KDE. Though the only way to let users flip the screen is if you change the permissions on the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf. It has a nice little interface made with QT. I'll post it once I fix up somethings with it. Yes it'll be GPL.
This is also the same case for most ViewSonics Tablet PC. I hope this can helps some people.
I figured this was going to be hard. Firstly it uses a Wacom Pen top. It's got a docking station with the DvD-ROM/CD-RW in it. I was most worried about the DvD drive not being able to be boot from, and the Pen top not working in Linux. Though SuSE quickly proved how great it is.
It boot from the CD no problem, but the installer wasn't able to use the pen top. So I had use the IR keyboard to get threw the install.
Here are the main tricks for people.
After the install X will start with a blank screen. This is because by default SuSE will use duel head mode, and be displaying X on the external VGA connection. All you have to do is turn off Dual head, or set it to clone mode. I don't really need dual so I turned it off.
Next the pen top won't work. Go into sax, and go to "Touch Screens". That's right, not "Tablets". Now add a Wacom(USB) touch screen. It should work after you restart X. You might have to calibrate the pen pointer with the "MaxY", and "MinY" settings.
Now if you want to use the wireless card with Network Manager you need to have it not configured! That's right don't configure it. Network manager will think it's a Wired card if you configure it threw Yast2. Just leave it not configured, and Network Manager will handle it on it's own.
Screen rotation is a tough one. The Intel i830 can't support xrandr. Though you can still rotate the screen by adding the lines
<code>
Option "Rotate" "CW"
Option "SWCursor"
</code>
To the device section, and then adding
<code>
Option "Rotate" "CW"
</code>
To all the input devices. You then have to restart X to get it to flip. Also you can't use hardware acceleration in this mode. Note the fact we have to set the cursor to Software mode so it rotates correctly.
To speed this up I wrote a quick application that just swaps one xorg.conf file out for another. I hope to make it just add the lines, or remove the line to the xorg.conf, and then restarts KDE. Though the only way to let users flip the screen is if you change the permissions on the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf. It has a nice little interface made with QT. I'll post it once I fix up somethings with it. Yes it'll be GPL.
This is also the same case for most ViewSonics Tablet PC. I hope this can helps some people.