Wrestling

[kerravonsen]

Apologies for not posting, there's been some Personal Stuff which is still ongoing (though right now I am Waiting for Feedback from Others in order Not to Do Something I Will Regret).

However, on a completely unrelated note, I spent yesterday setting up my Wacom Graphire 3 Tablet! Woot! Unfortunately I was up until 1:30am doing so... I could have actually avoided all this if I'd been content to just use the tablet as a mouse and lose all the special features like pressure-sensitivity, which I wasn't, so I slaved away at this...

What was needed was to download the source of replacement drivers, and compile them, and stick them into the spot-where-kernel-modules-go. Unfortunately, to do that, requires one to compile one's own kernel from source, and that was what took all-ruddy-day. The problem with compiling kernels is that nobody tells you what the settings for one's perfectly-working precompiled kernel are, and the kernel source package just comes set with the upstream default stuff. And then one finds that if one follows the prompts and just does the default, and one then reboots, then Stuff Stops Working. And then one has to go through the whole reboot(into precompiled kernel)-configure-compile-remove-install-reboot(into new kernel) cycle over again. And then find that certain options that one needs are officially Experimental (like the Vesa Frame Buffer which gives one really nice console fonts), and then one finds that if one reverts to don't-prompt-for-experimental in order to reduce the huge array of confusing options, that one then loses all the experimental settings one had before. (*headdesk*)

Seven times. And this was after I'd gone through this ten times on my laptop earlier this week. Arrrggggh!

And then the actual replacement module compiles I had to go through about three times; the second time I needed to recompile the kernel again first because it had a "name" which the module source parsed incorrectly, the third time because I found I needed to replace more than just the wacom driver itself.

And then, when I thought it was all working, I couldn't get Gimp to find the tablet. Turned out that the instructions I'd been given were for Gimp 1.2, and Gimp 2.0 has the Input Device settings under Preferences rather than Dialogues.

Hence the Very Late Night.

But at least I also got my washing done, and finished off reading "Ill Wind" by Rachel Caine.

I haven't actually used the tablet yet, apart from some test strokes with gsumi to see if it was working. It will require some practice -- my test-drive came out looking like a scribble from a three-year-old.

Comments

[bktheirregular]

I think that, in a nutshell, is what scares me about Linux: if you're not a programmer, and you want to do something a little nifty, you're pretty much frelled...

[kerravonsen]

But isn't that the same with MS-Windows, really? If you want to do anything out of the "norm", anything that messes with the just-out-of-the-box state, you're pretty much frelled too. In fact, I figure you're more frelled, because there isn't a helpful community with lots of web-pages and mailing lists telling you how to do this non-default thing, and because MS-Windows' behaviour is harder to change without causing chaos.

I do concede that if I'd been using MS-Windows, the tablet would have probably worked fine after putting in the provided CD and rebooting the machine a few times. But it's not as if everybody uses graphics tablets, anyway. And as I said, if I'd just wanted to use the tablet without the pressure-sensitivity, it would simply have been a case of plugging it in and rebooting once -- no need even to put in a CD -- the driver was already available. I expect that the enhanced driver will probably make its way into the main part of Linux in six months or so. I just didn't want to wait.

And even though I am a programmer, I didn't have to do any programming to do the above, so I'm not sure I understand your assertion that only programmers can cope with Linux.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yay! And don't worry, my first efforts looked really bad too. It's surprising how quickly you improve with a little playing practice though. I can now sketch almost as well as with pencil and paper, but with the added ability to erase or move bits.

[kerravonsen]

You encourage me.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

Do Nothing You Will Regret.

How's that?

[kerravonsen]

Ah, but I would regret doing Nothing, so I need aid in figuring out which Something is least likely to be regrettable...