Bug 398876 - [mapping] Couldn't map a Cintiq13HD to a single screen.
Summary: [mapping] Couldn't map a Cintiq13HD to a single screen.
Status: CONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: systemsettings
Classification: Applications
Component: kcm_wacomtablet (show other bugs)
Version: unspecified
Platform: Compiled Sources Linux
: NOR normal
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Valerii Malov
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2018-09-20 15:06 UTC by David REVOY
Modified: 2024-12-18 20:06 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:
Latest Commit:
Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:


Attachments
[^ screenshot of the bug] (242.37 KB, image/jpeg)
2018-09-20 15:06 UTC, David REVOY
Details
[^ Photo of my three monitors setup (including the Cintiq13HD) ] (278.92 KB, image/jpeg)
2018-09-21 08:16 UTC, David REVOY
Details

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Description David REVOY 2018-09-20 15:06:04 UTC
Created attachment 115122 [details]
[^ screenshot of the bug]

Hi,
I compiled the git repo with the branch 3.1. My setup is the following:

regular monitor A: 1920x1080 at 0,0
regular monitor B: 1920x1080 at 1920,0 (on right of A)
Cintiq13 monitor C: 1920x1080 at 0,0 (clone of A)

This is a feedback of my attempt at mapping the Cintiq to the monitor A, or the built-in monitor of the Cintiq C (same thing, because both are 1920x1080 0,0 cloned) but I had hard way to find a way to do it with the  "Select a Tablet Area" dialog (screenshot attached).

I find the GUI confusing:
- The Screen area is OK: it does look like my setup but because I have two monitors cloned; it is hard to select a monitor (see overlap of name). But I guess it is ok because still accurate. 
- The tablet area propose me to resize things, I don't have a 59K pixel monitor ... so I guess it is "tablet unit". But it is a bit weird to get this type of Unit exposed without knowing what they refer. I'm still unsure if the "Tablet" frame depends of the "Screen" selected and how "Map Screen To" interact with what part.

Also, when I did a change assuming many things because I wasn't sure; I had to click "OK" on the dialog, then "Apply" on the parent dialog before getting a feedback of my change. It is a bit weird. Other part of the setting dialog are easier.

I feel the user interaction of this part (mapping) is the most difficult part of the wacomtablet plugin.
Comment 1 Valerii Malov 2018-09-20 15:53:00 UTC
Hi, thanks for feedback

I've been thinking of moving most of the "Map tablet area to screen" window to the settings tab, keeping only area selection in the popup. The UI indeed has too many levels and most people probably don't need to be exposed to manual tablet area settings. I plan on posting a mockup for feedback somewhere on KDE forums, but I don't have the ETA.

Only thing I didn't catch is that in the end did you succeed or not mapping the tablet as you wanted to, and if you did not, what were the results?
Comment 2 David REVOY 2018-09-21 08:16:16 UTC
Created attachment 115135 [details]
[^ Photo of my three monitors setup (including the Cintiq13HD) ]

> what were the results?

I could assign the area of the Cintiq to the Cintiq monitor. I attached a photo of my setup so you can have a better idea of my workspace (Cintiq and monitor in front are "cloned", so I can use the Cintiq as a Cintiq or as a regular tablet mapped to a monitor).

The problem I had was with the Calibration. I could calibrate (click on the target) but then the resulting calibration was off by a big centimeters. No idea why, I tried a couple of time, same result.

> About mockup for the future mapping part

In this article I wrote in 2011 (https://www.davidrevoy.com/article110/kubuntu-11-10-for-digital-painting) you'll see the Plasma4 GUI for tablet "kde-config-tablet". I was using it at the time and big advocate of it. It helped a lot of artist to get started into GNU/Linux! 

You can see on the screenshot the last tab about padding was not in a children subdialog windows but on the setting panel itself ( https://www.davidrevoy.com/data/images/blog/2012/01/2012kubuntu_live-cd_test05.jpg ). In case you need help with feedback for a mockup, let me know! I'll be happy to help at feedback.
Comment 3 Valerii Malov 2018-09-22 17:21:47 UTC
Can you please produce and share the following debug info:

1) Run kdebugsettings, type "wacom" in search bar and set logging for wacomtablet components to "All"
2) Restart KDE session or restart kded5 (press Alt+Space and run "kquitapp5 kded5 && kded5"), go to the mapping config, set mapping to full screen, click OK and Apply
3) Open mapping configuration again, run calibration

This should generate some calibration debug info in standard output, this is probably in ~/.local/share/sddm/xorg-session.log or ~/.xession-errors (this seems to be distribution specific).

Run "cat ~/.local/share/sddm/xorg-session.log | grep Calibration" (or ~/.xession-errors), and share the output here

As a temporary workaround for now I can only suggest either manually trying to tweak the numbers in "fine tuning" area or calibrating it with some other tool and using area numbers from it. You can get the "Wacom Tablet Area" property by running "xinput list-props 111" where 111 is your device number from "xinput list".
Comment 4 David REVOY 2018-09-23 12:35:18 UTC
Thank you for the detailed steps! It helps.
No worry for the workaround; I have a xsetwacom bash script with coordinate I made with xinput-calibrator and I can setup my tablet this way since a decade. But I hate it, not flexible, and hard to re:calibrate and change an option. That's why I'm really interested in the wacomtablet project.

Here is a short video screen capture of me using the mapping dialog:
https://share.kde.org/index.php/s/mnbttmSzYptKDDx
Description: First mapping resulted in a large offset, second one -identical way- was different and better (I could start to draw with it).
The relevant part of my ~/.xsession-errors: https://paste.kde.org/pbt547wwk

I think my issues are:
- The overlap of monitors on the GUI, making impossible for me to get a feedback of what monitor is selected (two names are overlapping).
- The wording of the GUI and disposition of the frame in the GUI dialog.
- The needs to click on two level "OK" then "Apply" to see/experience the changes.

I made a mockup with Inkscape to help:
- PNG here: https://share.kde.org/index.php/s/63aiTmNLBT8iajb
- SVG (source) here: https://share.kde.org/index.php/s/Kz99CZY69XNnXS4
Comment 5 Valerii Malov 2018-10-15 21:40:58 UTC
Hi,

For some reason logs didn't pick up calibration debug info, but tablet area settings from video probably should be enough for now.
I'll need some time to look into how gnome does calibration and check it against how it's implemented in wacomtablet KCM.

As for UI, I've made some changes to the mockup and posted it on forum: https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=285&t=155367
I'd suggest moving the discussion of the UI changes there so maybe more people will take part in it, and keep this bug about calibration issue.