3.1 - Testing Tablet Detection

In this section we will determine which driver, if any, claims control over the tablet. There are at least three drivers that are interested:
1) (usb)hid.o which may think it is an HID device,
2) usbmouse.o which may think it is an HID mouse (for kernel 2.4), and
3) the wacom driver which should identify the tablet as its own.

To see which driver is driving the tablet, issuing more /proc/bus/usb/devices should list something similiar to the following:

[jej@ayukawa wacom]$more /proc/bus/usb/devices
T:  Bus=01 Lev=01 Prnt=01 Port=01 Cnt=02 Dev#=  3 Spd=12  MxCh= 0
D:  Ver= 1.10 Cls=00(>ifc ) Sub=00 Prot=00 MxPS= 8 #Cfgs=  1
P:  Vendor=056a ProdID=0042 Rev= 1.15
S:  Manufacturer=Tablet
S:  Product=XD-0608-U
C:* #Ifs= 1 Cfg#= 1 Atr=80 MxPwr=140mA
I:  If#= 0 Alt= 0 #EPs= 1 Cls=03(HID  ) Sub=01 Prot=02 Driver=wacom
E:  Ad=81(I) Atr=03(Int.) MxPS=  10 Ivl=5ms

where Vendor=056a indicates a Wacom device. Driver=wacom means Wacom driver is in control of the tablet. If you see anything other than wacom after Driver=, at least hid-core.c needs to be updated.

On newer 2.6 systems, more /proc/bus/input/devices gives you

[jej@ayukawa wacom]$more /proc/bus/input/devices
I: Bus=0003 Vendor=056a Product=0042 Version=1.15
N: Name="Wacom Intuos2 6x8"
P: Phys=usb-0000:00:1d.1-2/input0
H: Handlers=event3
B: EV=1f
B: KEY=1cff 0 1f00ff 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
B: REL=100
B: ABS=f00017b
B: MSC=1

where, again, Vendor=056a indicates a Wacom device. Name="Wacom Intuos2 6x8" means an Intuos2 6x8 tablet reported to /dev/input/event3. If there is no Wacom after Name=, you need to update wacom.c.

On kernel 2.4 or older 2.6 systems, unplug then replug your tablet after issuing tail -f /var/log/messages, you should see a flurry of activity. The exact output depends a lot on your particular kernel and distribution.

This is Redhat 8.0 (2.4.18-17.8.0):

[jej@ayukawa usb]# tail /var/log/messages
Jul 05 21:26:11 ayukawa kernel: hub.c: USB new device connect on bus2/2, assigned device number 2
Jul 05 21:26:11 ayukawa kernel: input0: Wacom Intuos2 12x12 on usb2:2.0
Jul 05 21:26:11 ayukawakernel: wacom.c: Setting tablet report for tablet data
Jul 05 21:26:11 ayukawa kernel: wacom.c: input1: Wacom Intuos2  12x12 on usb1:6.0
Jul 05 21:26:14 ayukawa /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: Setup wacom hid for USB product 56a/44/115
Jul 05 21:26:14 ayukawa /etc/hotplug/usb.agent: Setup mousedev for USB product 56a/44/115

And here it is again on Redhat 7.2 (2.4.18-17.7.x):

[jej@sasami root]# tail /var/log/messages
Jul 05 21:28:38 sasami kernel: hub.c: USB new device connect on bus1/1, assigned device number 2
Jul 05 21:28:38 sasami kernel: input0: Wacom Intuos2 12x12 on usb1:2.0
Jul 05 21:28:39 sasami kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
Jul 05 21:28:39 sasami kernel: usb.c: registered new driver hid
Jul 05 21:28:39 sasami kernel: hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
Jul 05 21:28:39 sasami kernel: hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
Jul 05 21:28:39 sasami kernel: mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice

If all went well like above, the USB device was successfully detected and handled by the wacom driver. This presumably means that information like pressure and tilt will be received on /dev/input/event0. You are ready to configure the X driver Downloading the Code.

If instead you got any of the following lines in your log, the wacom driver did not get control. Either hid or usbmouse did.

	input0,hiddev0: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [Tablet XD-1212-U] on usb1:5.0
	input0: Tablet XD-1212-U on usb1:5.0