Linux FAQ

It is recommended that you check General FAQ first before continuing.

Also check out Linux App Specific FAQ for app-specific instructions.

My tablet is supported but not detected?

Read General FAQ first before continuing below if you haven’t already.

Common Problems

If your tablet is connected properly and is supported, but is still not detected, check logs for any errors or warnings. If you find any, try finding for a match and its accompanying solution below:

Another driver is found

Symptoms:

Another tablet driver found: <driver>

Solution:

Insufficient permissions

Symptoms:

Not permitted to open HID class device at /dev/hidrawX

Solution:

Tablet is detected but not working?

Fresh Install

If this is a fresh install and you have not configured your tablet yet, check logs for any errors or warnings. If you find any, try finding for a match and its accompanying solution below:

Missing uinput device

Symptoms:

Failed to initialize virtual tablet. (error code ENODEV)

Solution:

  • Reboot your computer.

Missing uinput device support

Symptoms:

Failed to initialize virtual tablet. (error code ENOENT)

Make sure that your kernel has uinput support. If you are using a custom kernel or builds kernel from source, make sure that you have enabled CONFIG_INPUT_UINPUT in your kernel configuration. Refer to your distro’s documentation regarding kernel configuration.

Missing uinput device permissions

Symptoms:

Failed to initialize virtual tablet. (error code EACCES)

Solution:

Non-fresh Install

Try disabling your filters one-by-one and see if input finally works.

Display mapping behaves unexpectedly on a multi-monitor setup

OpenTabletDriver’s virtual device might be getting picked up by your desktop environment, which could be mapping its area to another monitor.

In order to avoid the two from conflicting, you will need to map one of the display area editors to all screens:

In desktop environment

  • Find your desktop environment’s tablet settings page and, if possible, map the virtual device to all screens
  • Set your intended area in OpenTabletDriver

Note that some desktop environments might not allow for such a configuration.

In OpenTabletDriver

  • Right click the display area editor
  • Select Set to display -> Virtual Display
  • Save or apply your settings
  • Set your intended area in your desktop environment’s settings

Tablet is working but there is no pressure

Pressure support is available by changing the output mode of OpenTabletDriver to Artist Mode:

  • Change output mode (at the bottom left of OpenTabletDriver) to Artist Mode.
  • Remove the tip binding in the Pen Settings panel by opening the advanced binding editor (press ... next to the binding), then press Clear
  • Save or apply your settings, and then try drawing in an application that supports pressure.

See here for setting up bindings for Artist Mode.

Mouse button bindings are not working when using Artist Mode

Artist mode does not support regular mouse buttons. You will need to use artist mode pen bindings in the advanced binding editor instead of regular mouse buttons.

How to autostart daemon on boot?

systemd

Make sure that you have enabled the systemd service:

systemctl --user enable opentabletdriver.service --now

If the daemon doesn’t reliably autostart on boot, then the desktop environment is not configured correctly to integrate with systemd.

In such case, refer to your desktop environment’s documentation on how to autostart processes on login using the instructions below

Other init systems

OpenTabletDriver offers no official support for other init systems. Refer to your init system’s documentation on how to autostart processes on login. The command to execute on login is:

otd-daemon

This command should be run as user, not root.

The cursor feels slow on Artist Mode

If you are using a release version of OpenTabletDriver v0.6.4.0 or older, this is expected, and a workaround exists below.

On newer versions (v0.6.5.0 and up), this is fixed in packaging.

With OpenTabletDriver Version 0.6.5.0 or newer

Smoothing on the virtual tablet provided by OpenTabletDriver should already be disabled via packaging. You can verify that the attribute is set with the libinput quirks list <path> command.

Figuring out the path is left as an exercise for the reader, but it is typically one of the newest (not necessarily highest numbered) event## device in /dev/input/.

If this attribute is not set correctly, please report it the person responsible for packaging OpenTabletDriver for your Linux distribution.

With OpenTabletDriver Version 0.6.4.0 or earlier

With OpenTabletDriver v0.6.4.0 and earlier, using Artist Mode will result in some minor smoothing due to libinput’s tablet handling, for which the quirk is not officially included in packaging.

To disable this smoothing manually, add the contents below to /etc/libinput/local-overrides.quirks:

[OpenTabletDriver Virtual Tablet]
MatchName=OpenTabletDriver*
AttrTabletSmoothing=0

You should restart the OpenTabletDriver daemon after updating this file.

Still have problems?

If you are still encountering problems with OpenTabletDriver, it will be easier to help you over in our Discord server. We will guide you in doing certain debugging steps and will give you different instructions to help resolve your problem.