Trackball and graphics tablet recommendations

[Jon Mercer]

On Fri, 2005-06-10 at 22:11 -0500, Vulpes Velox wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Jun 2005 02:00:06 +0100
> Jon Mercer <jon.mercer at achean.com> wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 2005-06-10 at 19:05 -0500, Vulpes Velox wrote:
> > > On Fri, 10 Jun 2005 13:57:56 +0100 (BST)
> > > "Jon Mercer" <jon.mercer at achean.com> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > 
> > > > On Fri, June 10, 2005 12:14, Mario Hoerich said:
> > > > > # Vulpes Velox:
> > > > >> "Jon Mercer" <jon.mercer at achean.com> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > [ graphics tablet and FreeBSD? ]
> > > > >> > Only restriction is that it has to be relatively recent
> > > > >> > (i.e. still in the shops) and most of the functionality
> > > > >> > should work. PS2 or USB doen't matter.
> > > > > [...]
> > > > >> Not sure about tablets. You may want to check on the USB
> > > > >> list to see what the status of the Wacom ones are.
> > > > >
> > > > > USB tablets won't work, I think (see
> > > > > <URL:http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index.php/howto/all>).
> > > > > |
> > > > > | I recognize that FreeBSD and similar systems have USB
> > > > > support; | however, until someone can bridge the gap between
> > > > > the FreeBSD | kernel and the XFree86 driver, the problem is
> > > > > largely unsolved.
> > > > >
> > > > > I've googled quite extensively for that a while back and came
> > > > > up with pretty much nothing (except for some posters whose
> > > > > questions about tablets remained unanswered).
> > > > >
> > > > > I'd actually love to be proved wrong here. ;)
> > > 
> > > I remember doing the same several months back. From what I
> > > remember finding is that it was fixed in netbsd. No clue if it
> > > ever got copied over.
> > > 
> > > > > Cheers,
> > > > > Mario
> > > > > --
> > > > >  "Für Gegner der Reform wird ein Wagen, der an die Wand
> > > > > gefahren wurde, nicht dadurch wieder flott, dass man zwei
> > > > > seiner Räder für intakt erklärt."
> > > > >            -- Hermann Unterstöger, SZ, über die
> > > > > Rechtschraipreform
> > > > >
> > > > 
> > > > Well I've done a bit of research now and decided on a Logitech
> > > > Optical Trackman and given up on the idea of a tablet, the
> > > > serial ones cost around £400 and that's too much for the use
> > > > it'd get. Shame, I'd have enjoyed a new toy...
> > > 
> > > See if you can find a old Acecad Acecat Flair. It is serial but
> > > works pretty decent.y
> > 
> > I'll keep an eye out. Shame about the Wacom USB ones (albeit
> > they're not cheap), they look pretty good. A case of the more you
> > see the more you want...
> > 
> > On a really positive note I have to retrain myself to use a scroll
> > wheel with the trackman optical cordless now I got it working. I'm
> > still going to the right every time I want to move down.
> > 
> > In fact the documentation or getting odd rodents working under X is
> > not well documented in the handbook. Anyone wanna take me up on
> > that in the doc list?
> 
> I just plugged my mouse in and it worked. AFAIK you don't have to do
> any thing moused if it is started at boot time. You will have to mess
> with X to get the scroll wheel working.
> 
> 
> Section "InputDevice"
>         Identifier  "Mouse0"
>         Driver      "mouse"
>         Option      "Protocol" "auto"
>         Option      "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"
>         Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
> EndSection
> 
> 
> 
> Hmm... I wonder if that is in the handbook...

Sadly it's not that simple. I agree that for most mice that should be
sufficient, however it looks as though the sysmouse mechanism doesn't
provide for a number of things when it's USB, when it's cordless (God
knows why that makes a difference,) etc.:

The section I've got in xorg.conf now looks like this:

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "X.org Configured"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Touchpad" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "USBMouse" "AlwaysCore"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
...
Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "USBMouse"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "Auto"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/ums0"
        Option      "Buttons" "10"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
        Option      "DragLockButtons" "6"
        Option      "AngleOffset" "-7"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Touchpad"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "Auto"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/psm0"
        Option      "Buttons" "6"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

That seems to do it for X, but only if you disable moused, not only in
rc.conf, but also by commenting out the mouse line in usbd.conf as well,
otherwise X cannot communicate directly to the device in /dev and will
fail to start. E.g.;

# The entry below starts moused when a mouse is plugged in. Moused
# stops automatically (actually it bombs :) when the device disappears.
#
#device "Mouse"
#       devname "ums[0-9]+"
#       attach "/usr/sbin/moused -p /dev/${DEVNAME}
-I /var/run/moused.${DEVNAME}.pid -z 4 5 ; /usr/sbin/vidcontrol -m on"

Without doing this I can use the trackball, but not the scroll wheel.

Well it works for me anyway.

Jon




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