Type of device: Graphics Tablet Brand and version of the device: Wacom Intuos Pen and Touch M (CTH-680) System: Linux Mint MATE Desktop 19.1
Heya all! I hope there’s someone here who also uses Linux Mint / Ubuntu Linux as their main workstation. I would like to ask some help regarding configuration of Express Keys on my Wacom Intuos M.
So currently, I’m using Linux Mint MATE 19.1 (yea not Cinnamon), so there’s no GUI for Wacom setitngs (but if anyone knows if there’s a downloadable GUI for Wacom in MATE desktop, please help me on that one too, thank you!)
I’m using Wacom Intuos M (CTH-680) so I have 4 Express Keys on it. I originally didn’t need them because I was uncomfortable in using it, but for ergonomic reasons I need to use them more now… However, I don’t know how to customize them at the moment. I know it has to do with xsetwacom but I don’t know the exact commands to use.
What are the mappings of the buttons??? Which goes to where? Is, for example, Button 2 equivalent to the pen’s top button (or right click?). How would I know which is which?
You may be able to find a topic with more relevant detail by using the forum search tool.
Somebody may have a link to a good and useful article about this.
The tablet tester says that the stylus top button is B=2 but I’ve no idea how/why/where this gets translated into a right-click.
The buttons give binary bit values, 1, 2, 4, etc and if you press more than one button then they get added together so it looks like they’re setting bits in a driver interface.
From what little I’ve read about it, which I quickly ran away from, you need to do some knowledgeable editing of config files somewhere.
If you do find out, please write a Tutorial topic for it because I use the MATE desktop too
I was able to figure out how to after a few hours of reading some info within the topic links you provided and a tutorial on Youtube on how to configure them.
For those who might be using MATE, I did the following to get it working:
My initial problem was that I didn’t know which buttons my Wacom Express Keys were assigned to, so I found that Krita’s Tablet Tester (Config > Tablet > Test Tablet) can detect what the numbers of the buttons are (for example, my stylus’ buttons are assigned Button 2 or Button 4).
What I did find is it’s inaccurate, but it did help point me to the right direction.
Next, the command are the pretty simple.
Use xsetwacom --list devices to find the device name of the connected tablet.
The next thing you want to do is to tell the terminal to assign certain key combinations on your graphic tablet’s Express Keys.
Which brings a sample code: xsetwacom set "Wacom Intuos PT M Pad pad" Button 3 "key +space"
You just replace the device name with the appropriate ones as per the result of the --list devices command.
Now, I only have 4 buttons in my tablet, but the button numbers are not 1, 2, 3 and 4. I don’t know how else to get a list of which numbers the buttons are assigned to, so I had to make a trial and error. In the end, my button numbers are actually 1, 3, 8 and 9. Don’t worry, if you input the incorrect number, it wouldn’t push through anyway. So I just kept guessing.
When assigning key combinations, + and - signs do matter as well.
For example, I assigned the hand tool (space bar) to Button 3. I originally encoded it as xsetwacom set "Wacom Intuos PT M Pad pad" Button 3 "key space" and it didn’t work because the click was being read as a “single click” instead of “hold”.
In order to tell xsetwacom that I meant for it to be “hold”, I have to put a plus sign (+) before the space.
So it becomes xsetwacom set "Wacom Intuos PT M Pad pad" Button 3 "key +space"
I used to get my hands dirty with xsetwacom too but at some point I just switched back to KDE as a desktop because it has a Wacom setup tool ready and working. I can set up my profiles, screen and button mappings in just a minute, even for my Wacom remote. I used XFCE for a long time but just for the better Wacom integration switching to KDE was already worth it. Maybe you can install KDE libraries and the Wacom settings manager on your distro too. It saves so much time. Especially when you have mutliple devices and different screens setting up your tablet in a terminal like its 1990 is such a chore.
