Issue with stylus not firing pen-released event

[UbuntuJackson]

Krita version: 5.2.11, Appimage

Tablet Model: CTL 6100WL

Drivers: I haven’t updated them since I don’t know if Wacom provides new ones

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Hello dear Krita community. I have been using Krita for about 2 years on my Linux Mint 21.1 and have recently overnight started noticing how the tablet doesn’t appear to notice my stylus has left the surface. This causes various confusing effects, like:
-not being able to snap out of tools
-Not being able to select new tools
-Not being able to undo, because you can’t undo while doing a stroke
-Double undoing because what seemingly was 1 stroke is now 2 strokes because according to the program, pen never left the tablet
-And more.

One thing I noticed this morning when I turned off the stabiliser, this bug didn’t happen even once. I also tried in gimp, and it doesn’t happen there either.

I have also noticed that when this issue occurs, and I hover the pen over my window-bar, it actually grabs it. I have no idea if that means it’s my tablet that is broken, but it’s something to consider.

So, I don’t know if it has always been this bad, but I feel like maybe it has gotten a bit worse lately and my patience started to run out. I can still draw okay images, but it’s very tiring when you’re not in the best mood and this keeps happening when you draw.

Also this happens randomly, so I thought it was a performance spike at first, but who knows at this point. Let me know if you have any further questions. I also uploaded a video of the issue, please watch from 3:00, as you see it seems like somethings up with the stylus not wanting to select the transform-tool, causing me to awkwardly draw a big dark line over my painting instead, and then when I start trying to draw the hat and eyes, that’s where the issue I described earlier happens and you can see how the cursor shows like, a circle even when above the HUD. That only happens when the stylus is pressed down, try it for yourself, draw a stroke, and then hover over the HUD without releasing. At the end of the video the entire window freaks out as the cursor is pressing all the time despite not doing anything different with my hand as far as I can see.

bug

With kind regards, Jackson.

[Michelist]

The panel exists that users like you provide us with a bare minimum of information about their working conditions, AND to make requests like mine for this information gratuitous/needless. It also can help us to help users quicker because it spares us asking the same questions to get the information requested in that panel over and over again because of thought and careless users like you. Users who haven’t read our rules, where they are asked to provide this information when creating topics like yours. Because you still have to answer the questions for us …
But you prefer to give us more work, even though it is more than clear what this panel is for, it even comes with its own explanation.

Mint is at 22.1 in between, wouldn’t it be good updating?

What version of Krita do you use?

Which kind of distribution is it? AppImage, snap, Flatpak, repository, Steam, etc.?

What is the manufacturer of your graphics tablet?

What is the exact model of your graphics tablet?

Have you updated the driver provided by the manufacturer?

If there exist an alternative driver for your graphics tablet at OpenTabletDriver or DIGImend - Digitizer Mending, have you tried it? Does it solve your issue?

Michelist

[UbuntuJackson]

Krita version: 5.2.11, Appimage that you get from the Krita website, but this occurs with older versions too.

As for manufacturer, I don’t have the box I, but xsetwacom --list devices outputted this:
Wacom Intuos BT M Pen stylus id: 16 type: STYLUS
Wacom Intuos BT M Pad pad id: 17 type: PAD
And with very faint text on the backside it says Model: CTL 6100WL
So I have the Model, but I dunno about manufacturer, since I assume Wacom isn’t the manufacturer, since I already said it’s a wacom drawing tablet in the original post.

It’s pretty old so I have considered the possibility of it being a bit worn, which would mean the issue is not the fault of krita

As for drivers:
If I type lsmod to see which drivers that are loaded, there’s one called ‘wacom‘. I don’t know where that one came from, I certainly didn’t install it manually. At the same time, when you go to the following URL, you will see it only shows you a download for Windows and Mac. So I have no idea what is going on when it comes to drivers, I might even need some directions when it comes to that, which is part of why I’m asking. I’ll edit my original post and add the information that I do know.

drivers

[Michelist]

Entering CTL 6100WL will cause most search engines to return Wacom Intuos wireless as the result. This means it is a wireless Wacom Intuos, and in my experience, these are extremely durable, but not indestructible. The maximum age of seven years is not particularly old, but constant intensive use can naturally lead to signs of aging.

If you don’t need a wireless connection to your tablet, i.e., you don’t need to use the tablet via Bluetooth, the OpenTabletDriver driver will provide you with all the tablet’s functions, so it’s worth a try. OTD drivers are considered excellent, but as they are not the manufacturer of the respective hardware, the people at OTD cannot always support all functions for every tablet, as the hardware manufacturers do not always reveal their cards.

Furthermore, yes, a stylus can break, and the pen release event not triggering could indicate this. Therefore, I would see if you can borrow a Wacom-compatible stylus from someone you know or test your own there, or if you can test your pen on one of the demonstration models at a store in your area.

Krita itself as culprit is unlikely, because if it were a Krita issue, then we would already be buried in lots of support requests of your kind.
But one thing came just to mind, in the case that you use Krita with Brush Smoothing, and have it set up to insane high values when using Weighted or Stabilizer, then some strange things can happen. Don’t use values above 70-80 for Distance of the Weighting option, and the same is true for the setting Delay of the Stabilizer option, at least if you don’t have an extremely powerful workstation and paint murals of far above 10k square-pixels in size. But the bigger your canvas gets, the higher you can go with these settings, but they can “offer” some performance impact.

Michelist

[UbuntuJackson]

Hello Michelist, thank you for your response. I actually have a wire to my tablet, so even if it has a wireless feature that I’m unaware of, it doesn’t require charging and is currently plugged into my computer with a USB. It also only has one port.

As for drivers, I will give OpenTabletDriver a try if my other troubleshooting attempts fail.

Anyway, I’m gonna ask a relative if they’re willing to lend me their tablet for a week or so, so that way I’ll be able to rule out a few more possibilities. As for canvas sizes and stabilizer settings, I usually go with a 3000x3000 canvas, both for normal images and animation.My stabiliser settings might look something like the attached image below.

Also, I trust your sentiment that Krita being a culpit is unlikely, if it isn’t a culpit, then it might just be that certain applications are made in a way that makes it more visible that my tablet is breaking. For example, Gimp allows you to Ctrl+Z while stylus is held, so if I used gimp the whole time I might notice this happening less. So I shouldn’t get ahead of myself and blame Krita immediately.

With kind regards, Jackson.

[Michelist]

Your stabilizer is set up very sane and should not be the cause.

If you have the possibility to try another tablet, then you should use it to see if it will not face the same problem.

Krita handles all inputs via a Qt library, and Qt is the API that allows Krita to work on all the platforms it is available for. And sometimes it feels as if this API, especially that for input devices/HID’s is more sensitive than the interfaces used by other programs, but that’s just an impression I have without being able to back up my assumption with concrete data.

And I have to admit that I don’t really have an idea what exactly causes your problems.

Michelist