Microsoft Pen Protocol support
I'm running Ubuntu 19.10 on a Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 Black Edition (7391). The laptop comes with a really nice stylus, the Dell PN350M Active Pen, which unfortunately does not work under my system at all. A little bit of digging around the web reveals that the pen uses the Microsoft Pen Protocol to pair with a laptop instead of Bluetooth. Are these supported? Google leaves me with no answers.
EDIT:
Below is an updated output of xinput. There's something suspicious here, in particular the "UNKNOWN" thing.
~> xinput list
⎡ Virtual core pointer id=2 [master pointer (3)]
⎜ ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer id=4 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ DELL0960:00 04F3:30E4 Touchpad id=9 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ CUST0000:00 27C6:0111 id=10 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ CUST0000:00 27C6:0111 UNKNOWN id=11 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ PS/2 Generic Mouse id=16 [slave pointer (2)]
⎜ ↳ M585/M590 Mouse id=18 [slave pointer (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard id=3 [master keyboard (2)]
↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard id=5 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Power Button id=7 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Video Bus id=6 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Dell WMI hotkeys id=14 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Intel HID 5 button array id=13 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Intel HID events id=12 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ Integrated_Webcam_HD: Integrate id=8 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard id=15 [slave keyboard (3)]
↳ M585/M590 Keyboard id=17 [slave keyboard (3)]
Solution 1:
I managed to create a python driver using the evdev and libevdev libraries. I'm creating a virtual device and then simply passing the events I found from the stylus. It's working with pressure events and tracking however I couldn't get the buttons to work.
Just copy this and mark it as executable and you shall see a device called "Custom Stylus" that should work. Futher to make it seamless I added it to the gnome-session-properties so that it runs the script on startup.
Hope this helps!
#!/usr/bin/env python3
import sys
import libevdev
import time
import evdev
from evdev import UInput, AbsInfo, ecodes
import os
def main(args):
p = 0
i = 0
devices = evdev.list_devices()
for dev in devices:
# print('%-12i%s' % (p, evdev.InputDevice(dev).name))
if evdev.InputDevice(dev).name == 'CUST0000:00 27C6:0118 Stylus':
i = p
p += 1
# i=int(input("Enter number: "))
device = evdev.InputDevice(devices[i])
print(device)
# print(mouse.capabilities(verbose=True))
device.grab()
x, y = 0, 0
dev = libevdev.Device()
dev.name = "Custom Stylus"
dev.enable(libevdev.INPUT_PROP_DIRECT)
dev.enable(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOOL_PEN)
dev.enable(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOOL_RUBBER)
# Click
dev.enable(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOUCH)
# Press button 1 on pen
dev.enable(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_STYLUS)
# Press button 2 on pen, see great doc
dev.enable(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_STYLUS2)
# Send absolute X coordinate
dev.enable(libevdev.EV_ABS.ABS_X,
libevdev.InputAbsInfo(minimum=0, maximum=5760, resolution=17))
# Send absolute Y coordinate
dev.enable(libevdev.EV_ABS.ABS_Y,
libevdev.InputAbsInfo(minimum=0, maximum=3240, resolution=17))
# Send absolute pressure
dev.enable(libevdev.EV_ABS.ABS_PRESSURE,
libevdev.InputAbsInfo(minimum=0, maximum=1023))
dev.enable(libevdev.EV_SYN.SYN_REPORT)
dev.enable(libevdev.EV_SYN.SYN_DROPPED)
try:
uinput = dev.create_uinput_device()
print("New device at {} ({})".format(uinput.devnode, uinput.syspath))
# Sleep for a bit so udev, libinput, Xorg, Wayland, ...
# all have had a chance to see the device and initialize
# it. Otherwise the event will be sent by the kernel but
# nothing is ready to listen to the device yet. And it
# will never be detected in the futur ;-)
time.sleep(1)
# Reports that the PEN is close to the surface
# Important to make sure xinput can detect (and list)
# the pen. Otherwise, it won't write anything in gimp.
uinput.send_events([
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOUCH,
value=0),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOOL_PEN,
value=1),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_SYN.SYN_REPORT,
value=0),
])
# Says that the pen it out of range of the tablet. Useful
# to make sure you can move your mouse, and to avoid
# strange things during the first draw.
uinput.send_events([
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOUCH,
value=0),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOOL_PEN,
value=0),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_SYN.SYN_REPORT,
value=0),
])
for event in device.read_loop():
code, val = event.code, event.value
if code == ecodes.ABS_MT_POSITION_X:
uinput.send_events([
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_ABS.ABS_X,
value=int(val)),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOUCH,
value=1),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_STYLUS,
value=0),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_STYLUS2,
value=0),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOOL_PEN,
value=1),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_SYN.SYN_REPORT,
value=0)])
# vpen.write(ecodes.EV_ABS, ecodes.ABS_X, int(val))
if code == ecodes.ABS_MT_POSITION_Y:
uinput.send_events([
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_ABS.ABS_Y,
value=int(val)),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOUCH,
value=1),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_STYLUS,
value=0),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_STYLUS2,
value=0),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOOL_PEN,
value=1),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_SYN.SYN_REPORT,
value=0)])
if code == ecodes.ABS_MT_PRESSURE:
uinput.send_events([
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_ABS.ABS_PRESSURE,
value=int(val)),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOUCH,
value=1),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_STYLUS,
value=0),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_STYLUS2,
value=0),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_KEY.BTN_TOOL_PEN,
value=1),
libevdev.InputEvent(libevdev.EV_SYN.SYN_REPORT,
value=0)])
device.ungrab()
except KeyboardInterrupt:
pass
if __name__ == "__main__":
main(sys.argv)
Solution 2:
have the same question. I am on the 15" silver. had an idea that you could potentially use wacom drivers that use that protocol? but other than that you would somehow have to get your hands on the mpp drivers, although im not sure where