Running Krita on Raspberry Pi 5 (26 Dec 23)
When looking at reviews of the Raspberry Pi 5 it looked like it might be a lightweight, inexpensive platform adequate for running Krita. I have created this post to share and document my experience with running Krita on a Raspberry Pi 5.
It is related to the following post about running Krita on alternative hardware:
(The Smartphone PC - One Device For Everything - #21 by DaverZ)
Objective
I requested a Raspberry Pi for Christmas so that I could draw using inexpensive processing hardware with my XP-Pen drawing Display tablet as a monitor in the Lounge room where the rest of my family typically reside in the evening (rather than at my work desk).
Hardware
The existing hardware I used:
- XP Pen Deco LW Pen Tablet (USB and Bluetooth wireless display-less tablet)
- XP Pen Artist 13 Pen Display (USB and HDMI display tablet)
- Samsung A21S Phone (Inexpensive phone)
The new hardware:
- Raspberry Pi 5 Kit (~AU$205), including:
Raspberry Pi 5 board 8Gb RAM,
SD Card preloaded with Pi OS
15W Plug pack,
Official case with fan - Raspberry Pi 4 kit leftover from a friend, including:
Official Raspberry Pi 4 keyboard and mouse,
Micro HDMI to HDMI Cable - [Later added] Mini Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad Mouse
XC4951 (~AU$35)
Bring-up Process
Today I managed to achieve most of what I want, and the experience was typical to relatively okay as far as problems arising when setting up a new computer system.
Here is the process I followed in case someone else wants to do it…
Connected up Pi in case with SD Card, Keyboard, Mouse per documentation with a HDMI Monitor.
Powered up and followed the predefined setup process to set up language, keyboard etc. Then moved on to Update Software.
Here the process failed with a message along the lines:
fails update unmet dependencies raspi-utils: breaks: libraspberrypi-bin.
I restarted the Pi. Got nothing but a black screen with a cursor.
I power cycled the Pi. It came up with the GUI desktop.
I tried using the software update through the GUI, but it failed with the same message.
Here I consulted this Forum post:
[SOLVED] RP5 installs then fails update unmet dependencies raspi-utils: breaks: libraspberrypi-bin - Raspberry Pi Forums
I used the following commands in CLI terminal:
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt autoremove
This updated the software and removed the unused dependencies.
On the menu I went to
Preferences → Add/Remove Software → Graphics
ticked the following items:
- Krita-1:5.1.5+dfsg-2
- Krita-data-1:5.1.5+dfsg-2
Applied and OKed, which installed Krita.
I was quite happy at this point to see the familiar Krita Splash screen. 
I ran Krita and controlled it with a mouse. It was a bit laggy and curves were a bit jerky.
Menu → Preferences → Right Mouse Button → Resolution
I changed resolution from 3840x2160 down to 1920x1280 which is the resolution of the Artist 13.
I connected Deco LW via USB and was able to control the cursor, buttons had an effect and pressure sensitivity worked (Cool!), but I couldn’t get connection via Bluetooth to work.
I connected Artist 13 via USB, to second Micro HDMI and a phone charger for extra power to the display. It didn’t output on the display immediately, and I power cycled and tried it with and without the monitor as well as changing display settings in the preferences. Eventually I was able to display on the tablet with and without the monitor. Probably mostly due to power cycling I think. I could draw with the pen on the display, but there was no pen hover cursor like there was with the Deco LW. I had both tablets running at the same time.
Bluetooth Keyboard using Phone
I moved to the lounge room away from my desk and monitor (a good mark of success at this point).
I downloaded ‘Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse’ App from Google Play onto my Android phone so that I could in future use the phone instead of the keyboard and mouse.
Bluetooth Keyboard & Mouse - Apps on Google Play
I couldn’t immediately make a connection between the two, but eventually did and was able to use the phone as a keyboard and to control the cursor.
Google Drive
I was able to use Chromium to download a .kra file from my Google Drive and edit it.
Then I followed the instructions on this post to mount Google Drive so that it can be seen in the GUI and via CLI. It uses rclone
How to Use Google Drive in Linux | Baeldung on Linux
sudo -v ; curl https://rclone.org/install.sh | sudo bash
rclone config
Select n for a new remote, which is a named remote storage system
Enter a name for our remote, like gdrive
Enter the number for Google Drive, which is 18 in rclone 1.62.2
Leave client_id and client_secret empty unless we have our own Google API credentials
Choose 1 for full access
Leave the service_account_file empty
Avoid advanced configuration with n
Choose y to authenticate rclone with a browser
Avoid configuring a shared drive with n
Select y to confirm the configuration
Choose q to finish the configuration
If everything is correct, we can list the files and directories in our Google Drive account:
rclone ls gdrive:
mkdir mylocalfolder
rclone mount --daemon --vfs-cache-mode full gdrive:/ ./mylocalfolder/
In this way, the integration of Google Drive into the local file system is seamless both with the file manager – Nemo, in our case – and with any other application, such as LibreOffice. This is mainly due to the –vfs-cache-mode full option.
This made Google drive visible in CLI via mylocalfolder. In the GUI it was visible but didn’t automatically list folders and files one level down, but it would do name completion on the existing folders in the directory, then show files below that.
At this point I was getting what seemed like occasional resets. Note here that I believe the proper Pi 5 power supply is supposed to be 25 W which allows for more power to peripherals, however I don’t believe this has been approved for Australia yet and the one that is sold is the same 15 W supply for the Pi 4.
Summary 26 Dec 2023
With the Artist 13 as display (1920x1080) and drawing using the Deco LW, with one layer on A5, 300 ppi, the performance of Krita was quite usable, good enough for relaxed drawing in the lounge. Not quite as good as my desktop (Intel Pentium G3440 @ 3.3 GHz 2 cores, 8 Gb RAM with Win10).
I’ll update my experience as I do some drawings with the setup.
27 Dec 2023
Using the system for a little while longer I am experiencing many resets, it looks like it occurs when the temperature reaches 60 degrees C and the fan increases speed. It is not feasible to use it when it is doing this and I might have to use either a better power supply or try a powered hub for connecting the display tablet.
I also installed Aseprite, but it is terribly slow, like it is running in an emulator.
I have been trialling operating the Pi without the Artist 13 on an HDMI monitor for a period and haven’t had any resets, I have had the temperature up to 65C and heard the fan increase speed. So the Artist 13 does appear to be the culprit through some means. Unfortunately getting away from a monitor and using a drawing tablet is the intention!
If I had a powered Hub I would try using that between the Artist 13 USB and the Pi to see if providing USB power that way helps.
I notice a difference here that the colour picker works better as does flood fill, both of which were not working well with the Artist 13 connected.
I’ve been trialling a different power socket, different but same model plug pack for Artist 13 operating as display only, and using the Deco LW via USB for pen control, and haven’t had a reset yet. It’s been up to 65C.
Tablet Tester
I have discovered that the CLI command following brings up a GUI tester that shows that all the buttons and the two pen buttons are recognised.
libinput debug-gui
event9 - Hanvon Ugee Technology Co.,Ltd Deco LW Mouse: libinput bug: missing tablet capabilities: xy pen btn-stylus resolution. Ignoring this device.
(libinput-debug-gui:8703): Gtk-CRITICAL **: 18:34:50.948: gtk_widget_set_events: assertion '!_gtk_widget_get_realized (widget)' failed
info: event0 Hanvon Ugee Artist 13 (2nd Gen) Mouse added
info: event1 Hanvon Ugee Artist 13 (2nd Gen) Keyboard added
info: event2 Hanvon Ugee Artist 13 (2nd Gen) added
info: event10 Hanvon Ugee Technology Co.,Ltd Deco LW Pen added
info: event11 Hanvon Ugee Technology Co.,Ltd Deco LW Pad added
info: event6 RPI Wired Keyboard 4 added
info: event7 RPI Wired Keyboard 4 added
info: event8 PixArt USB Optical Mouse added
info: event3 pwr_button added
info: event4 vc4-hdmi-0 added
info: event5 vc4-hdmi-1 added
In Krita:
Krita → Settings → Configure Krita… Tablet Settings → Open Tablet Tester…
This also shows that the tablet is working, now for setting the button actions…
Setting up Button Actions
Thanks David Revoy (@Deevad) for this Blog which led me to the input device button mapping tool
XPPen Artist Pro 16 (Gen 2) - review on GNU/Linux - David Revoy
GitHub - sezanzeb/input-remapper: 
An easy to use tool to change the behaviour of your input devices.
To install the toolset in the GUI I used:
Preferences → Add/Remove Software → in search typed input-remapper
- Tick Input device button mapping tool (metapackage)
Press Apply and OK and the installation occurs.
Then I was able to go to
Preferences → Input Remapper
Enter my password and the GUI tool for remapping appeared.
I was able to select the Device as Hanvon Ugee Technology Co., Ltd Deco LW Pad.
Rename the rule for this device to DecoLWButtons and select Autoload so that the mapping would be applied even after reboot.
Then I could map DecoLW buttons (not stylus buttons) to keyboard combinations (it could also be mapped to mouse functions too). This was done by selecting Change Key, then pressing the tablet button to be programmed. The button number appears in the middle list, for example the top button causes Button 0 to appear. Then I selected keyboard as the type of action and entered the words Control_L + z (Undo, for example) in the command box. I mapped a number of buttons and then hit Apply.
I tried out the buttons in Krita and indeed now the top button performs undo in Krita.
I changed the device to Hanvon Ugee Artist 13 (2nd Generation) and was able to set up the buttons on the Artist 13 as well. Note that you can also remap the mouse and keyboard keys here!
I haven’t tried it but I believe the following would allow for key mapping based on the application:
GitHub - DreadPirateLynx/input-remapper-xautopresets: Automatic input-remapper preset manager for systems with access to xdotool and xprop
28 Dec 2023
At this point I have been using a different, less loaded power outlet, the Artist 13 as display powered by a different charger of the same model and the Deco LW via USB as the stylus drawing tablet, including button mappings. No drop outs experienced with this configuration and Krita runs decently. No problems with fill and eyedropper which the Artist 13 has.
It can’t do something like 4x multibrush, Wet Bristles with brush size 500 px, in lighten mode, that is asking far too much of it! The temperature goes to 65C when it is attempting to do this at a snail’s pace.
A thought regarding the drop-outs: I have noticed that when I pull the USB out on the Deco LW, the system immediately resets to the login and forgets all desktop windows (but not a full reboot). I’m not sure if this indicates that disturbances in power causes the reset or whether I have previously had a bad USB connection which has been causing the reset (or both). I don’t know how to properly remove a USB peripheral without just pulling the plug. I think the eject command is for memory devices. Can anyone familiar with Linux or Raspberry Pi help here?
29 Dec 2023
Mini Wireless Keyboard
I lashed out (AU$35) and bought a mini 2.4GHz wireless (not Bluetooth) keyboard, VZTech XC4951 from Jaycar, the local electronics store. It came with a USB dongle and it worked straight off. It is also possible to remap the keys as described above.
Very conveniently it has a touch pad in the centre for cursor control.
I am very happy with this addition, as it is the same length as a mobile phone and is just a bit wider. It is easy to use, wireless and takes up very little room.
It is unfortunate that I don’t have the Deco LW working over Bluetooth as that would really minimise cables. This setup has been stable.
13 January
I have been doing pretty much all my drawing on this system now, and have produced quite a few drawings and pixel art images. Thanks to asking Chat GPT I managed to get Aseprite more usable too. This required Edit → Preferences → General → Screen Scaling 100% rather than 200%. Now the cursor moves at the correct rate.