[SOLVED] How to get fujitsu serial touchscreen working

[Cayennes]

I have a fujitsu lifebook p1610 running gentoo that I recently updated after leaving it for a long time. Many things about X seem to have changed since I originally set up this computer (evdev, etc.) and I switched to the new way of doing things; everything is working except the touchscreen. But reverting to my old config files isn't a solution since X won't even start with my old xorg.conf file.

Does anyone have a touchscreen working on an older fujitsu tablet that uses a serial touchscreen?

Let me know what info about my system would be useful.

Thanks for any help.

[BradN]

1. Get inputattach utility installed, you may have to google for it and compile it manually (it's just one .c file). This is the program that tells linux to start using input from a serial device. Inputattach stays loaded the entire time your device is in use, but doesn't actually do anything after it's started (it's just a sort of placeholder program for the serial port I guess, but be aware to use & to background it in a startup script or it will never finish).

2. Use xinput command to set the calibration (on my fujitsu lifebook, the default is unusable). You will probably have to experiment a lot to find values that work well - too bad I can't find a generic calibration program anywhere I looked.

3. Make a script that does these and runs at X login, and at resume from sleep/hibernate, because your touchscreen will be disconnected when not running and you will have to inputattach and calibrate it again.

On my system, the touchscreen works good like this, but if your machine is like mine, the touchpad isn't synchronized at first use and will make the cursor jump and click all over when you first touch it, and if you're unlucky it'll think a button's being held that you can't un-press, making you either suspend again and see if the initial touch unsticks it, or remember every time to click a touchpad button and wait a moment before the touchpad itself after resuming... maybe you don't even have a touchpad though?

Anyway, this is the method that works for me, ymmv.

I'll post the files I've got that should help you get it sorted out but I don't have my laptop here right now. If I don't post back in like 6 hours, just leave another message in this thread and I'll see it in the "my posts" search.

[BradN]

Sorry it took a little longer, but here's the magic:

/etc/touchscreen.sh:

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#!/bin/bash
killall inputattach
sleep .2
start-stop-daemon --start -b --exec /usr/local/bin/inputattach -- --fujitsu /dev/ttyS3
sleep .7
DISPLAY=:0 xinput set-int-prop "Fujitsu Serial Touchscreen" "Evdev Axis Calibration" 32 180 4000 190 3965

Those last 4 numers are what you might have to play with, maybe the serial port device too.

/etc/hibernate/common.conf [excerpt]:
OnResume 20 /etc/touchscreen.sh

Make sure to chmod +x /etc/touchscreen.sh, and then find a way to make that script run when you log into your desktop environment.

In order for the calibration to be set, the script needs to be able to connect to the X server. This isn't a problem at login, but it is after resume when the script is running as root, not your normal user. So, you will also have to find a way to run "xhost +local" at log-in too. I believe you might have to make the script setuid so it always runs as root to make inputattach work (my laptop only has a root account at the moment so I haven't tested thoroughly).


Hope this helps!

[Cayennes]

Get inputattach utility installed, you may have to google for it and compile it manually (it's just one .c file). This is the program that tells linux to start using input from a serial device.

Thanks. It doesn't seem to be working for me though.

I downloaded, compiled and tested it by running

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# inputattach --fujitsu /dev/ttyS0

and got

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inputattach: can't set line discipline

When I do this

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# cat /dev/ttyS0

it does print gibberish when I use the touchscreen like it should. And

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# inputattach --dump /dev/ttyS0

prints nicely formatted gibberish.

[BradN]

Ok, then you need to go in your kernel config and make sure the serial line discipline is enabled, and if there's special serial mouse drivers or things like that (maybe even fujitsu serial touchscreen), make sure that's on too.

Once you get inputattach to work, the touchscreen should do something at least, but the calibration will probably be completely wrong.

[Cayennes]

Ok, then you need to go in your kernel config and make sure the serial line discipline is enabled, and if there's special serial mouse drivers or things like that (maybe even fujitsu serial touchscreen), make sure that's on too.

Yay, that was the problem. I had the fujitsu serial touchscreen enabled but not the serial line discipline.

Once you get inputattach to work, the touchscreen should do something at least, but the calibration will probably be completely wrong.

Actually I was lucky and it worked perfectly.

Thanks so much for your help.

[BradN]

No problem, I knew I had to chime in on this one because it's a bitch making it work if you don't know how

[wim-x]

inputattach is provided by games-util/joystick

[Cayennes]

Update, just in case anyone else is facing a similar issue:

The easy way to calibrate: emerge and use xinput_calibrator

The inputattach that is included with the joystick packing doesn't include the --fujitsu option but the one I found on the internet does.