Setting up Wacom Tablets with Ubuntu

These are the steps required to set up a Wacom tablet with Ubuntu 16.04.

Install Drivers

You can find instructions to directly install or build Wacom driver for Ubuntu here. This should install xserver-xorg-input-wacom, libwacom2, and libwacom-common. Restart your computer once the drivers are installed. Upon restarting, you’ll know that the drivers are functioning properly if it appears under USB devices.

✦ lsusb
Bus 003 Device 002: ID 056a:0017 Wacom Co., Ltd CTE-450 [Bamboo Fun]

Configuring Driver Settings

You can use the driver’s CLI to configure your tablet, stylus, eraser, and cursor. Find your devices and set the options as desired. This guide provides an overview of the basic options.

✦ xsetwacom --list devices
Wacom BambooFun 4x5 Pad pad      id: 10 type: PAD       
Wacom BambooFun 4x5 Pen stylus   id: 11 type: STYLUS    
Wacom BambooFun 4x5 Pen eraser   id: 18 type: ERASER    
Wacom BambooFun 4x5 Pen cursor   id: 19 type: CURSOR

For example, you can change the softness of your styles with the following command.

✦ xsetwacom --set "Wacom BambooFun 4x5 Pen stylus" PressureCurve 0 20 80 100

Configuring GIMP

Now that you have your fancy tablet set up, you’ll likely want to use it with your drawing software. Open GIMP. Enable your tablet with the following steps. (Source)

• Edit → Preferences
• Input Devices → Configure Extended Input Devices
• Choose your device and set it to Screen mode
• Save, close, and try again.

Gimp’s Input Device settings

Create a new paint dynamic that maps pressure to brush size. You can find the steps here. With the brush tool active, set the Dynamic option to be your new dynamic. Also, make sure to choose Smooth Stroke under brush settings. Make sure you have your brush set as a visible paintbrush (e.g. not the clipboard option).

And voilà! You can now draw with pen pressure.