HOWTO setting up ubuntu 8.10 intrepid on the HP tx2z tablet pc

[glurgle]

Important!
Though I will endeavour to keep this post updated with any changes to this guide, the absolute up-to-the-minute version can be found here on my blog: http://goatonabicycle.com/rambles/?p=74

Installation was pretty straightforward, but the touchscreen/digitizer and sound took some tweaking to get working properly. There was also a bit of a glitch with suspend/resume.

I chose to enable the closed source ‘fglrx’ driver for the ATI chipset using the “jockey” tool that comes with Ubuntu. Just click the icon in the notification area and choose to enable the driver, and the rest of the install is handled automatically.

At the time of this writing, Stylus input works excellently via the linuxwacom driver after installing Rene Mayrhofer’s pre-compiled packages (available at his Latitude XT page).

However, his packages contain an fdi file that will cause the digitizer to be auto-configured by HAL, thus preventing the use of xsetwacom to rotate the orientation of tablet input and n > 1 device mapping the linuxwacom driver uses to enable touch and stylus input from the same device. So either move or delete /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/2Othirdparty/1O-wacom.fdi after you install the package.

Then (before you restart X) edit your xorg.conf to enable the input devices. Mine looks like this:

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
        Screen "Default Screen"
        InputDevice    "Trackpad"
        InputDevice    "stylus"
# I've commented out the eraser because it either doesn't exist or doesn't work
#        InputDevice    "eraser"  # "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice    "touch"
EndSection                                 

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Monitor		"Configured Monitor"
	Device		"Configured Video Device"
	DefaultDepth	24
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load	"glx"
	Load	"dri"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"Configured Video Device"
	Driver	"fglrx"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Trackpad"
	Driver      "synaptics"
	Option	"Device" "/dev/input/by-path/platform-i8042-serio-1-event-mouse"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Driver "wacom"
        Option "Mode" "Absolute"
        Identifier "touch"
	Option "Touch" "on"
        Option "Type" "touch"
 	Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
	Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.5-usb-0:2:1.0-event-mouse"
#        Option "USB" "on"
	Option "TopX" "0"
	Option "TopY" "0"
	Option "BottomX" "9600"
	Option "BottomY" "7200"
	Option "DebugLevel" "8"
 	Option "Button1" "1"
 	Option "Button10" "1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Driver "wacom"
        Identifier "stylus"
        Option "Mode" "Absolute"
        Option "Type" "stylus"
 	Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
 	Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.5-usb-0:2:1.0-event-mouse"
 	Option "TPCButton" "on"
        Option "USB" "on"
        Option "Button2" "3"
        Option "Button3" "core key alt F2"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Driver "wacom"
	Identifier "eraser"
	Option "Mode" "Absolute"
	Option "Type" "eraser"
	Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
	Option "Device" "/dev/input/by-path/pci-0000:00:14.5-usb-0:2:1.0-event-mouse"
 	Option "TPCButton" "on"
	Option "USB" "on"
	Option "Button1" "2"
EndSection

The sound device is recognized and seems to work just fine at startup, but often when playing sound the card goes mute after less than a second, and won’t come back on without rebooting. Adding the correct option for modprobe seems to have fixed it though:

sudo echo "snd-hda-intel model=toshiba" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

Also on the subject of sound, the built-in beep speaker is absolutely horrid. So make sure you get rid of that by editing another modprobe.d file to blacklist that little bugger into oblivion (I really hate the pc speaker):

sudo modprobe -r pcspkr
sudo echo "blacklist pcspkr" >> /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base

These settings won’t take effect before you reboot, but there’s one other thing to take care of first. You may have stumbled upon this already, but if you suspend the machine, the keyboard and touchpad no longer work on resume. To fix this, we need an additional kernel option to reset the i8042 controller that manages the keyboard and touchpad. So you will want to edit /boot/menu/grub.lst and add i8042.reset to the default kernel options like so:

# kopt=root=UUID=42519078-9aec-4171-a2bd-5ba1667357b7 ro i8042.reset

After this, go ahead and reboot, and everything should be smooth as silk.

[Vincent_Lin]

Hi,

I just want to chime in. Got this piece of machinery for my birthday!!

I followed this HOWTO and setup 8.10 on my tx2z and got all those mentioned working. THANKS.. I also installed broadcom (download from broadcom.com) proprietary 64bit driver and wireless works without ndiswrapper. Don't have any BT device, so I did not test it.

Absolute not working:
Resume after suspend - that i8042.reset appending kopt line in menu.lst is not working. I have not found a solution yet. No resume by opening the closed lid. Pitty! HELP???

Haven't tweaked much yet -
- X rotations,
- disable finger touch at will (when drawing using pen only)
- While we are at this, what is the way to enable middle-button mouse action on the pen? I have an application that uses all three buttons but I don't know how/where the middle button is. Through pen control, that it.
- handwriting recognition stuff (read somewhere that it is compared to the mechanism that MS offers).

BTW, this machine came with Vista. Out of curiosity, I ran it for about 12 hours, buy can not stand how sluggish it ran. I have another T42 with centrino 1.7GHz (ATI9600M) and 8.10 flies on it already - compiz, etc... Really can't stand the Vista running on a machine/hardware that is several generations advanced. How bad Vista could be??

Does anyone know if I can still request a MS tax refund? And where can I proceed?

Thanks.

Vincent

[Favux]

Hi,

Fat chance you'll get a refund out of MS. The letter writing recognition app I think you are talking about is Cell Writer. Search cellwriter in Synaptic.

Eraser only works if it's enabled in a specific program like gimp. In Xournal the eraser is your stylus side-switch (if it's set up as right-click).

I don't understand some stuff in the xorg. "Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"" is only for a serial tablet, I think. I don't think you want "Option "Mode" "Absolute"" either. Since it's a N-trig digitzer, I'm not totally sure. Also HAL should run your synaptics touchpad. Was there a problem? Is the touchpad new enough that there isn't a .fdi file to run it or something?

Finally the pci usb input path is the same for stylus/eraser and touch. In the TX2000/TX2500 stylus/eraser are suppose to be the same but touch is different. Do you want to find out if there is a separate "touch" pci input path?

So anyway I messed with your xorg.conf. If you're interested in messing around with it, give it a shot. Otherwise.

[Vincent_Lin]

Thanks.
Favux,

Thanks for the prompt response.


OK, got cellwriter to work now. Well, actually a couple click only. I am still training it.

Having installed fglrx downloaded from ATI website, xrandr works as advertised. There is an entry at (unofficial) ATI wiki site that documents the extra command to run before xrandr works.

http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Features

So I ran your scripts in Method 2 in another thread about rotating tablet on tx2000-ish. After X refreshes and the screen,
- stylus/cursor movement are synched, no miss-alighed issues,
- stylus moves cursor

except, a BIG EXCEPT, that
- stylus click does not trigger anything,
- keyboard does not accept any input.
- touchpad (below keyboard) does not rotate at all - acceptable since it is assumed that keyboard/keyboard are both covered by screen anyway

Other behaviour
- Gnome panel scales well,
- but the desktop did not get resized - meaning that any application/window stays where they were before rotating. But I am not sure since the screen/keyboard do not accept any input except cursor movement by stylus.
- BUT, there are some reactions on the screen if I stick/click style at lower-right corner. Some rubber-bands appear, as if some windows are coming alive but could not finish it.

Strange stuff
- caps-lock is not dead, as the LED toggles as you press it

- Num-lock is also alive, same as above

- Ctrl-Alt-Backspace DOES kill X and gdm restarts afterward without issues

- Ctrl-Alt-(left or right) for rotating virtual desktop causes the cursor to disappear and appear again later with repeated pressing of such combo.


OK, I suspect that Compiz is the problem.

Or, could this be also related to that no resume after sleep/suspend issues?

So I
- added i8042.reset back to kernel option line and reboot the machine. Well, this time gdm unlock window pops but still does not accept any input. Caps-lock is not accepted neither num-lock. Still no go on this.


- disabled Compiz by disabling Desktop effects. Success. Rotation is perfect and all input are intact.

WOW!!!

Compiz does not live well with fglrx or something!!??

Now I remember that you had mentioned somewhere else you do not run compiz at all. Am I correct on this? I should have read all the posts more carefully.

Thanks a lot for giving the directions for playing around this wonderful machine, and eventually getting somewhere with 8.10.

Sorry about this long verbose post. I still have my final two questions:

1. How to setup stylus to emulate middle button of a mouse
2. i8042.reset never fixed frozen(no-input-accepted)-on-resume-after-suspend issue. Does anyone have more ideas that I can messing around?

Thanks again.

Vincent

[Favux]

Hey Vincent,

Good about cellwriter.

Wow! Quite the post. Can't blame you, excited by your new toy. If you look at the top of the rotation HOW TO mememe says although the new "fglrx" do offer rotation, they don't work with Compiz. He meant that rotation doesn't work right, not that it won't rotate.

You might want to slow down before you get yourself in a mess. Although getting out of a mess can be kind of fun! lol

On the middle mouse button thing. Not sure, I'd have to go back and reread that stuff. I'll make a guess you can try, but no guarantees. Instead of:

Option		"Button2"	"3"  # make side-switch a right button

try:

Option		"Button2"	"2"  # make side-switch a middle button

I'm going to have to come back and reread your post. Too much to digest.

[Vincent_Lin]

Hi Favux,

Thanks for all the help you have there.

I created a couple scripts just like the HOW TO says and put them on Gnome Panel so that it is easy for me to rotate the screen in tablet mode. It is really wonderful to have rotation work at will. Unfortunately without compiz of course. But, for me anyway, compiz is for show off purpose most of the time, though I think it please my eye sights at a great deal so that my productivity is improved, a bit!!

The change in xorg.conf to assign "push" on styles to work as middle button works. Thanks.

I have not explored much in pressure sensitive setting yet, but I think it is just the matter of time to accomplish it. GIMP and Inkscape are the two applications I want to have this to work, and I already saw some instructions to set it. So, another matter in time to finish it.

I actually installed ubuntu studio 64 bit version on this machine. This distribution has focus on media (video, music, graphics) creation and is running on generic kernel. Obviously all the setup that works for regular 64 bit kernel works on this machine. I also need to spend some time to setup jack and midi stuff before it becomes my main workstation.

The only bummer is freeze-after-resume-from-suspend. I am still reluctant to install linux-rt package to bring all the goodies of realtime kernel.

Thanks a bunch.

later,

Vincent Lin

[Favux]

Hi Vincent_Lin,

It is really wonderful to have rotation work at will. Unfortunately without compiz of course.

Great! And don't give up on Compiz. ATI has released a bunch of stuff to open source so "radeon" should be making progress along with "fglrx". And the Compiz developers finally got organized, so look for progress there.

The change in xorg.conf to assign "push" on styles to work as middle button works.

Outstanding! Now I won't have to reread the stuff. I can pretend I still remember it!

[Vincent_Lin]

Favux,

Do you have any other ideas about fixing freeze-after-resume-from-suspend issue? i8042.reset really is not working for my tx2z. I also tried i8042.reset=1 and it does not fix it either. From reading other threads, I know tx2500 has some issues as well, so that it is required to disable acpi or something. Do you think they could be related?

Thanks.

Vincent

[Favux]

Hi Vincent,

Did you try the xorg.conf I posted? Did it work for you?

Does touch work for you? What I would like is for you to remove any attached usb devices and dock etc. and reboot. Then immediately get the output of:

dmesg | grep Wacom

or sometimes it's "wacom", with the small "w". And the output of:

ls -l /dev/input/by-path

And post the output of both as attachments.

I'm not sure I can help you with the suspension thing. Remember gurgle is using Feisty (7.04). I think Feisty used at most kernel 2.6.24. Maybe earlier. So it wouldn't surprise me if the i8042.reset line he used doesn't work right anymore with 2.6.27. That said you used your own UUID # not his, right? How much RAM do you have. How big is your /swap ?

[Vincent_Lin]

Hi Favox,

Thanks for the reply. the output of dmesg and the contents in /dev/input/by-path is attached.

To answer your questions and in turn hopefully, solve my problem ,

I did add i8042.reset on the tail of my kopt line, with my own UUID.

I bought this tx2z with 4Gb installed, and I set swap to be exactly 4Gb as well.

Cheers,

Vincent