GIMP Version: 2.6.11
Operating System: Linux
OS Version: Slackware 13.37
GIMP Experience: Beginner Level

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Hi,

I'm trying to get a Wacom Intuso 5 tablet to work with GIMP 2.6.11. I have finally gotten the device to be detected properly by the OS and now the next hurdle is to make it work with GIMP.

xsetwacom --list devices gives me:

Wacom Intuos5 M Pen stylus id: 8 type: STYLUS
Wacom Intuos5 M Pen eraser id: 12 type: ERASER
Wacom Intuos5 M Pen cursor id: 13 type: CURSOR
Wacom Intuos5 M Pen pad id: 14 type: PAD

I can use the tablet as a "mouse", touching the tablet surface is registered as a click.

The problem is I want pressure sensitivity in GIMP. I can use the tablet as a "mouse" in GIMP through the "Virtual core XTEST pointer" device, but this obviously only provides binary pressure sensitivity. If I disable the virtual core pointer and enable my stylus, eraser, cursor and tablet device I can still use the pen to point the cursor, but it doesn't seem to register at all any pressure, i.e. I can't draw anything.

My pressure curve is the default linear curve:

xsetwacom --get "Wacom Intuos5 M Pen stylus" PressureCurve
0 0 100 100

However I also tried with a more aggressive curve:

xsetwacom --set "Wacom Intuos5 M Pen stylus" PressureCurve 50 0 100 50
xsetwacom --get "Wacom Intuos5 M Pen stylus" PressureCurve
50 0 100 50

Just to see if the pressure was too low to register, but this didn't seem to help at all. I still can't draw anything.

As for the axes mapping, I'm using the default, X = 1, Y = 2, pressure = 3, X tilt = 4, Y tilt = 5 and wheel = 6, on all the devices.

I have tried both mode "screen" and "window", it yields no effect I can observe.

I'm using the very latest xf86-input-wacom (downloaded and installed today) and the latest Linux kernel (3.6.9), my Xorg version is 1.9.5.

I've made sure that the device is readable by the user running GIMP, before I got an error that permission was denied to read it, but I corrected that with chmod.

Interestingly I can use the tablet device to draw e.g. a rectangle in GIMP, and do other binary things like use the "move tool", but whenever I use anything that apparently supports pressure (like the paintbrush tool), it doesn't draw anything.

Some debug messages from the console when I'm trying to use the tablet to draw something:

Welcome to Gimp Chat malloc, I don't use a tablet but many Linux user around here do, someone should be along soon to help you out

You're using 2.6.11 version of GIMP and if you really want to take advantage of GIMP/Tablet duo power as a painting tool, switch to 2.8 version which has significantly better paint dynamics control, extended brush dynamic presets, brush outlines and much more. IDK if you're aware of GPS package (Gimp Paint Studio v2) or not, but it is a must have set of brushes and dynamics presets for the users who do mostly painting in GIMP. It works in 2.6 too but it is so much better with 2.8.
Here is the video tutorial at meetthegimp (episode 183) on using GPS brush dynamics by German science teacher Rolf Steinort. BTW, his whole blog on GIMP and his video tutes are priceless.
I've heard that GIMP 2.8 is still not included/supported in some distros of Linux, I hope Slackware is not the case.

malloc, I found a few interesting links on Linux, Gimp and Wacom Intuos5.
Peter Hutterer on the GNOME applet for Wacom tablets
Wacom drivers for X.org got Intuos5 support
The Linux Wacom Project

Thanks for the suggestions, I will examine them more closely as soon as I can.

Make sure you open Gimp with your tablet and not your mouse. This is a Gimp bug with 2.6. I don't know if they corrected it for 2.8.

I seem to be making some progress. Although I have no idea what is wrong.

When I start X and attempt to use GIMP I do not get any actual input from the pen. I have changed a few things around so that even binary tools now seem to have stopped working.

However as soon as I set the pressure curve, e.g. with "xsetwacom --set "Wacom Intuos5 M Pen stylus" PressureCurve 0 0 100 100" I get a pretty nice fine granularity input from the pen with various tools. However I didn't increase the pressure curve, the pressure curve was 0 0 100 100 before I set it, so the very act of just setting the pressure curve seems to trigger some event that makes input actually get all the way through to GIMP?

Also of interest is that the pressure curve seems to be fixed and I would want to have it set more aggressive than this (I'm afraid I'll damage the tablet or pen by pressing to hard into it, and it requires an uncomfortable amount of force to register close to 100%). However if I set the curve to e.g. 80 90 100 100 it seems to do nothing, even 100 100 100 100 does not actually change the experience of using it. Although the command seems to supposedly have changed the pressure curve:



Any ideas on what is causing this behavior?