No button events emitted (Gnome Shell, X11, Ubuntu)

[Dipl.-Ing. Raoul Rubien, BSc]

Description

If a button on the pad is configured to emit X11 mouse button events, this events are not emitted. In contrast if configured to emit key stroke events, those are emitted.

• Fails with gnome-shell,
• works with gnome-flashback and KDE (plasmashell).

How to reproduce

1. log in with gnome-shell using X11 (no Wayland).

2. Attach device (USB or Bluetooth) and list devices:

   xsetwacom list devices
   Wacom Intuos Pro L Pad pad      	id: 13	type: PAD
   ...
   

3. Define button event (unexpected behaviour):

   xsetwacom --set 13 Button 13 button 1
   xsetwacom --get 13 Button 13         
   button +1 -1 
   

4. Test with xev: no mouse event is emitted when Button 13 is pressed on pad, whereas if the left mouse button is clicked then button 1 events (press + release) are emitted.

Expected behaviour

1. Follow steps 1-3 described above.

2. Define key press event (expected behaviour):

   xsetwacom --set 13 Button 13 key x
   xsetwacom --get 13 Button 13       
   key +x -x 
   

   Test with xev: x key stroke events (press + release) are emitted when Button 13 is pressed on pad.
   Similarly button events should also be emitted.

Environment

xsetwacom --version
1.0.0

# fails with gnome-shell:
gnome-shell --version
GNOME Shell 42.4

# works with classic gnome:
gnome-flashback --version 
gnome-flashback 3.44.0

# works with kde
plasmashell --version
plasmashell 5.24.6

# running X not Wayland:
echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
x11

X -version
X.Org X Server 1.21.1.3
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Current Operating System: Linux r9 5.15.0-47-generic #51-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 11 07:51:15 UTC 2022 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.15.0-47-generic root=UUID=386f9ec2-0030-460c-b1c1-166123f2c10c ro quiet consoleblank=0 noplymouth
xorg-server 2:21.1.3-2ubuntu2.1 (For technical support please see http://www.ubuntu.com/support) 
Current version of pixman: 0.40.0
	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.

cat /etc/issue        
Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS \n \l

uname -a
Linux r9 5.15.0-47-generic #51-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 11 07:51:15 UTC 2022 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

---

I am heavily dependent on xsetwacom + self baked scripts to configure a decent behaviour, since the gnome-shell's Wacom configuration is still very very very poor...

[Ping Cheng]

The issue is most likely caused by Gnome interfering with xsetwacom. Please take a close look at Tablet Configuration 3: GNOME 3 and xsetwacom.

[Dipl.-Ing. Raoul Rubien, BSc]

Thank you for the reply. I tried again to get it running with gnome-shell but i wasn't able to fix it.

What I did:

• read the links you provided in the previous post
• tried to disable gsd-wacom; didn't find out how to do on Ubuntu 22.04 (it is not a system service as it was in 20.04 LTS)
• brutally killed service killall gsd-wacom

However, my solution is to switch from gnome-shell to plasma (KDE). Unfortunately gnome-shell is still way to unstable.

Thanks for your effort!