Open Input Framework

Many questions about utouch on Dell XT2

Asked by memetali

I have a Dell Latitude XT2. The reason why I bought this computer is because I wanted to use a tablet with Ubuntu. I have been using Ubuntu for the last 3 years with any alternatives. So I am experienced in using it.

First I installed 10.10 desktop edition. And tried everything I will mention above which I later done in Unity Netbook Edition . I felt no change, so I uninstalled Desktop edition and installed Unity Netbook Edition. Because I have found out that multi-touch support is coming directly with UNE from https://lists.launchpad.net/multi-touch-dev/msg00218.html . But support was not pre-installed.

For multi-touch support I downloaded utouch, utouch-gesturetest, utouch-geis-tools and utouch-grail-tools from software center. Nothing changed.

I have found Canonical Multitouch page https://launchpad.net/canonical-multitouch . There I found the ppas for utouch which are deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/utouch-team/utouch/ubuntu maverick main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/utouch-team/utouch/ubuntu maverick main. I have added them to software sources then updated. I first upgraded the ones I have installed before. Then I installed ginn. Meanwhile I have found out that there is a new place where it writes "utouch" under "paid software" in the software center. I entered there and installed hid-3m-pct-dkms, hid-dkms, hid-magicmouse-dkms, hid-ntrig-dkms, libgrip-0.1-0, libgrip-0.1-dev, libutouch-geis-dev, libutouch-geis-doc, libutouch-geis1, synaptics-dkms.

I read this document https://docs.google.com/View?id=dfkkjjcj_1482g457bcc7&pli=1

Then I ran ginn and realized some multi-touch functions are working and ginn can define them. So far I have found out some working multi-touch functions. When ginn is running, in openoffice and inkscape I can control the zoom function by pinching my two fingers; in firefox I can scroll by moving two fingers up and down, but when ginn is not working these functions don't work. However without ginn is working, by pinching my three fingers, all the windows are seen on the desktop and I can choose any of them.

These are all the multi-touch functions I could found out. Now I would like to ask following questions:

• Is there an interface where I can see the preferences of multi-touch functions?
• As far as I understood from canonical-multitouch page in launcpad utouch-geis, utouch-grail are programs with interfaces, are they installed in my computer or do I have to install them from .tar.gz packages in launchpad? (I couldn't find any .deb packages)
• When I turn the screen to a tablet, the screen doesn't change to portrait. Is the multi-touch functions also support this or is it unavailable at the moment?
• When I turn the screen setting to portrait manually from the screen settings, both the touchpad and the screenpad don't recognize the screen. So when I try to tap on something on the screen cursor goes to irrelevant coordinates, is there solution for this?
• I can't see any touch related menus on the screen, which works when a finger is hold on a certain place on the screen as I found from the document (https://docs.google.com/View?id=dfkkjjcj_1482g457bcc7&pli=1) how can I activate this?
• Does the multi-touch functions also support multi-touch in the touchpad(I mean the one under the keyboard which is used as the mouse)?

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Open Input Framework Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
memetali
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
memetali (ma-alabora) said : 		#1

I unistalled UNE and installed Desktop Edition 10.10 64-bit. I again added the PPAs for utouch, but there is no 64-bit support I suppose. Is there?

Revision history for this message
Stephen M. Webb (bregma) said : 		#2

The ppa:utouch-team/utouch repo has both i386 and amd64 architecture builds of fairly recent versions of all binary packages available for Ubuntu 10.10. Some packages, particularly the DKMS packages, do not provide binaries but are distributed as source (all architectures) only.

To answer the original questions,

(1) There is currently no GUI to view and set the preferences for multi-touch functions. A project to create a configuration GUI for ginn is under development (Bug #658490).

(2) the uTouch stack (utouch-geis, utouch-grail, etc) are enabling technology underlying systemwide gesture recognition. As such, they are not program with human interfaces but are libraries with programmatic interfaces.

(3,4) Screen rotation and on-the-fly recalibration are known issues and solutions are under development. Each piece of hardware requires a different solution so a simple, comprehensive, "just works" fix is not immediately available.

(5) Touch support in Unity on 10.10 is not complete but is targeted for natty (11.04).

(6) Multi-touch touchpads are supported by the uTouch stack, assuming the hardware is capable of multi-touch input. Most notebook touchpads do not support multi-touch, and many others (eg. Synaptics-based ones) support only a very limited form of multi-touch emulation.

Revision history for this message
memetali (ma-alabora) said : 		#3

Dear Stephen,

Thank you for all the answers. They have provided me the information which I need at the moment. Each day I am discovering a new ability of Ubuntu on a tablet. We, programmers and users are going to develop this system all together. So I try to play my role as a well equipped user.

All the best