Gnome Flashback Services personalization on Ubuntu 14.04 LTS

 Here are the settings and adjustments I made on Gnome Flashback Services (with Metacity) to meet my needs:

Setting up HP Compaq TC4400's native features

Pen features

• Pen, eraser and button are recognized out of the box.
• Pressure sensitivity has to be set specifically for the software you use.
• Gimp setup for pen usage (pressure sensitivity and differentiation between the pen and the eraser:
  Gimp > Edit > Input devices > Serial Wacom Tablet eraser/stylus > set Mode "screen"

Screen rotation

• the code in my nautilus scripts works fine.

On-screen buttons

• Ctrl-alt-del button is recognized out of the box.
•  Jog dial for scrolling: the code in my previously published solution works fine.
• Pen activated buttons: not working. Linked solution have not been tested.
• Fingerprint Sensor: not working. No possible solution have been tested.
• Ambient Light Sensor: not working. No possible solution have been tested.

Setting up everything else

Terminal:

Terminal usage

• works as usual. 
• keyboard shortcut (native) to open: Ctrl+Alt+T

Bash scripts


Desktop:
 
 Workspaces:

• works as usual (although only in Metacity version of Gnome2 Flashback)
• to configure: right click on the workspaces icon in the bottom right corner of the screen > Preferences
• keyboard shortcut (native) to navigate between workspaces: Ctrl+Alt + arrow keys

Menu panel (top and bottom) customization:

• works as usual (except for how to reach the right click menu)
• Alt+ right click to reach the panel menu

Synaptic Package Manager

• install from Software Center
• works as usual

File manager 

Nautilus
Nautilus went through major changes since Lucid Lynx, so let's see what remains of it:

• Nautilus was renamed to "Files"
• Compact View --> removed
• File or folder selection by simply typing --> still exists
• New Document > Empty Document --> still exists
• Menu bar --> removed.
• Menu button --> added. It's a gear wheel icon in the top right corner
• ‘Go’ menu --> removed
• Enter Location... --> added
• F3 split screen --> removed (this is most annoying!)
• Tabs --> still exists.
• ‘tree’ view --> not default for List view, but you can set it in Preferences
• Bookmark menu --> still exists. Only shown if there are items in it. 
• Locations' default bookmarks --> added. Cannot be removed and icon cannot be changed, but name and location can be edited.
• Backspace shortcut to return to parent folder --> still exists.

Nautilus scripts

• Scripts folder was moved from /home/user/.gnome2/nautilus-scripts to /home/user/.local/share/nautilus/scripts
• Right clicking to reach Scripts menu only works when you click on a file or folder.
• Otherwise works as usual.
• A graphical user interface to manage nautilus scripts now exists.

 Nemo
 Nemo is an alternative to "Files" (Nautilus).

• can be installed from Software Center ("Files (nemo)")
• works just like the good old Nautilus, with F3 dual pane and every other feature.

Nemo scripts

• works just like Nautilus scripts.
• scripts folder is /home/user/.gnome2/nemo-scripts

I chose Nemo as my default Ubuntu 14.04 File manager.
To set Nemo to be the default file manager, you have to follow these steps:

1. To make Nemo the default file manager run in terminal:
   

   xdg-mime default nemo.desktop inode/directory application/x-gnome-saved-search

2. To make Nemo handle the desktop run in terminal:
   

   gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons false
   gsettings set org.nemo.desktop show-desktop-icons true
   

3. (Optionally) To remove desktop shortcuts created by Nemo run in terminal:
   

   gsettings set org.nemo.desktop home-icon-visible false; gsettings set org.nemo.desktop trash-icon-visible false; gsettings set org.nemo.desktop computer-icon-visible false; gsettings set org.nemo.desktop volumes-visible false
   

More information on Nemo can be found here and here.

Multi-screen tablet usage: configuring the displays

ATTENTION! THIS POST IS OUTDATED!
In later editions of xinput it is possible to map the input device to the tablet screen automatically by using the 'xinput --map-to-crtc <device> <crtc>' option.
Check device with 'xinput list' and check crtc with  'xrandr'.
In my case the sylus was '12', the eraser '14' and the laptop screen 'LVDS1'

---

I had some time to take care about this problem of configuring the tablet screen to be able to take notes while reading stuff from the external display.

Here's my solution:

Make a nautilus script. It makes life easier.
You'll have to run all codes every time, otherwise this won't work.

Here's the pattern to use:

xsetwacom set 'Serial Wacom Tablet' Rotate [NONE | CW | CCW | HALF]
xsetwacom set 'Serial Wacom Tablet eraser' Rotate [NONE | CW | CCW | HALF]
xsetwacom --set "Serial Wacom Tablet" "TwinView" none
xsetwacom --set "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser" "TwinView" none
xinput -set-prop "Serial Wacom Tablet" "Wacom Tablet Area" x1, y1, x2, y2
xinput -set-prop "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser" "Wacom Tablet Area" x1, y1, x2, y2

Here's how to do it:
The amount to multiply resolution pixel numbers is: 24,2
You multiply with this number, and than round the number to a whole.

How to define x1, y1, x2 and y2?

Sorting out input devices 4.

As I wrote in the previous post, the pen tip cursor started jumping.
This time I did not only separate the Eraser into a new cursor, but I did it with the Pen too, so now there are 3 cursors on my desktop, and I'm waiting for one of them to jump.

Cursor jumping around #2

Unlucky me...
I got my TC4400 back from the Service with a whole new screen and motherboard, and now - unlucky me... - the pen tip is the one causing the cursor jump and NOT the eraser as before. I was quite fine with not having an eraser as it solved my problems completely, but I'm pretty unsatisfied with not being able to use the pen tip, so I guess I'll have to do a big workaround and hope for the best.

As for differences, now the cursor jumps when it's caught by the pen too.

Sorting out input devices 3.

Okay, so the cursor jumped again after the last changes.
I changed the /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-wacom.conf like this:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Wacom serial class"
MatchProduct "Serial Wacom Tablet"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/ttyS0"
Driver "wacom"
# Option "Device""/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option "Button2" "3"
# Option "Button3" "4"
Option "TPCButton" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Wacom serial class"
MatchProduct "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/ttyS0"
Driver "wacom"
# Option "Device""/dev/ttyS0"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option "TPCButton" "on"
EndSection

and now the system doesn't recognize the eraser. (this wasn't intended)
However, the jumping never happened ever since, and that was already about a week ago.

Sorting out input devices 2.

I didn't experience the cursor jumping jet today.
What I did today was

~$ sudo gedit /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-wacom.conf

now it looks like:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Wacom serial class"
MatchProduct "Serial Wacom Tablet"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/ttyS0"
Driver "wacom"
# Option "Device""/dev/ttyS0"
# Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option "Button2" "3"
# Option "Button3" "4"
Option "TPCButton" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Wacom serial class"
MatchProduct "Serial Wacom Tablet eraser"
MatchDevicePath "/dev/ttyS0"
Driver "wacom"
# Option "Device""/dev/ttyS0"
# Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option "TPCButton" "on"
EndSection

And works just right. We'll see what's gonna happen with the jumping.
What I basically did here was to add eraser and add proper device path, and remove unnecessary entries, like the one for supporting touch, and another one, which I don't know what it was for.

I didn't try removing the #-s jet. I jus put them in in case I want to adjust the file further to match what xorg.conf used to be before Lucid.

Sorting out input devices

The general problem is:
The cursor jumps around and clicks on things. As described here.
This post is dedicated to cornering and trying to solve the problem.
EDIT: as it turned out it was a hardware problem.

Cursor jumping around

I have this really "nice" problem since a while, and today I found out I'm not the only one in this situation.

Re: Mouse Jumping to corner on its own (TX2000 tablet PC)

2010-05-31 12:30 PM

Hi!

I've been having the same problem with my TC4400 tablet running Ubuntu Linux.

Here are my experiences:

- the cursor started jumping about 5 months ago. The computer is in my hands for exactly 2 years now, but it was a renew, so it's some time older, maybe half-1 year.

- the cursor first started jumping to the bottom right corner.

- it had a tendency to jump when I was using firefox watching sites like gmail or youtube, that used Java and/or Flash.

- about 2 months ago it started jumping (and clicking of course) not only when I used firefox with the mentions conditions, but also for other programs, and generally, at any time.

- about 1 week ago, I installed the newest version of Ubuntu (10.04), and since then the cursor started to jump to the bottom left corner too, so now it jumps to 2 different places.

- I also noticed, that the cursor does not jump when I use the pen. (there is no touch recognition, only the pen)

- I also noticed, that my computer started to became awfully hot at the corner of the ventilator, which is the corner, where the ESC button is.



So far I thought about disabling the touchpad and use the joystick instead, but they disable together, so I cannot do that.

I cannot afford to be without my computer, so I cannot put it to repair service. (I had a painful experience with them already anyway.)

The only way I can avoid the cursor from jumping is to hold the pen with one hand to the monitor, but this is pretty uncomfortable.



This whole cursor jumping thing is really annoying, and I'm relieved that I'm not the only one experiencing this.

Setting the pen button to work

As written here, in 10.04 we don't use xorg.conf anymore. We use

gksudo gedit /usr/lib/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-wacom.conf

instead.
And what we do is, that we put Option "Button2" "3" under the section that is for the pen, like here:

Section "InputClass"
Identifier "Wacom serial class"
MatchProduct "Serial Wacom Tablet"
Driver "wacom"
Option "ForceDevice" "ISDV4"
Option "Button2" "3"
Option "TPCButton" "on"
EndSection

An alternative solution is to put the

# Custom wacom settings.
xsetwacom set 'Serial Wacom Tablet' 'Button2' '3'

lines into our .profile file, in our home directory. (it's a hidden file)

I dropped my tablet pen.

The pen tip doesn't seem to be recognized anymore.
Now what to do? :-(