# troubles with bamboo in Mint 12 - any ideas?



## Zydala (Jan 10, 2012)

Hey there. Recently upgraded to Mint 12 and I've been pretty happy with it so far; any bumps I've run into have been smoothly fixed... except this one!

I have one of the old Bamboo Fun models from a while ago, and on a whim I plugged it in to doodle in GIMP and stuff. The tablet seems to work fine, except when I enable the thing in input preferences on GIMP to get pressure sensitivity... then I get this. As you can see, I GET pressure sensitivity, but for some reason my marks take a sudden sharp turn in one of three directions. straight up, straight to the left, or at a 45 degree angle to the upper-left corner. I have no idea what's causing it and I'd like to see if I can manage to get it under control. Is there some known bug out there? Is compatibility with the old Bamboo Fun kind of iffy now with the new versions of ubuntu/mint/etc?

Here's a list of things I've done so far to try to pinpoint an issue:
- purged/reinstalled GIMP
- updated to the lastest versions of input-wacom and xf86-input-wacom via linuxwacom sourceforge site
- checked the .conf files for anything strange-looking

Any advice? My usual google-fu is failing me :\


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 10, 2012)

Would this be the problem? If so then it's a confirmed bug. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gimp/+bug/863154


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## Zydala (Jan 11, 2012)

Indeed that looks like it! I guess when I was searching I was assuming it was on my end. Shame to hear there's not a really good solution just yet; saw some people who found 'fixes' so I'll look into them when I got my tablet on me. Thanks for looking!


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## Zydala (Jan 11, 2012)

Sorry for the double post. Got myself into a bit of a thing trying to find a good fix in that link above, and since I'm still sort of green to linux I'm trying to figure the fix.

So I added some repositories that had a version of Gimp that had a patch, and it didn't install (I think it had to do with that it was 32 bit and I have a 64 bit system running). So I try to purge it and install it again after removing the repositories (and apt-get update) and I get this



			
				terminal said:
			
		

> sudo apt-get install gimpReading package lists... Done
> Building dependency tree
> Reading state information... Done
> Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
> ...



Went into a package manager and tried to look for broken packages but I didn't find any... 'fixed' them anyway; it looks like it's still trying to install the newer version despite, so that leaves me wondering how I tell it to install an earlier version. It'd be nice if someone could explain exactly what it's looking for, if there's a way to maybe find that .deb file that it tried to install and couldn't? Or am I going about this the wrong way? Sorry if this all makes me sound really green and over my head, hahaha :{


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## Leafblower29 (Jan 11, 2012)

Have you tried any other drawing programs? Maybe Inkscape?


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## Zydala (Jan 11, 2012)

No, actually, I haven't. The tablet's worked fine for me on the desktop (as far as I can tell?) and since I don't do vector/don't like the other programs very much I haven't bothered. But I should see if I can duplicate the issue in them. I'll edit this when I have.

EDIT1: Okay, tried MyPaint and Inkscape and couldn't replicate the issue... also couldn't replicate it in Windows 7 (I dual-boot). FINALLY found out what I was doing wrong with apt-get and got GIMP to actually install on the computer again; gonna try the version with the patch in the link given above. Then to find out what's causing so much lag :V


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## ToeClaws (Jan 12, 2012)

Interesting issue - I've not tried drawing with my tablet (Wacom Intuos2) in GIMP, but I have tried a friend's Bamboo in prior Linux's and found some quirky behaviours in some software.  Hopefully the updated GIMP will resolve the issue for ya - will be interested to see the end result.  GIMP is a bit of a patch-work of libraries and code, and in the last few years has been slow to further evolve.  I've done some of my line work in Inkscape, particularly because of the "friction" capability on one of the pen tools which really smooths out my otherwise shaky lines.


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## Zydala (Jan 12, 2012)

The patched version of GIMP in the link above does indeed fix the issue. The cursor doesn't lag, either, but it's a little jumpy/jerky. But not enough to put me off, thankfully!  :]

ToeClaws: Yeah, I'm reading that 2.7 doesn't have the issue; problem being that I can't seem to get it to install nicely on my system (I'm not the only one either), so I'll have to wait for 2.8 when they get that all a little more stable. MEANWHILE I have a copy of GIMP that plays nice enough to let me use Gimp Paint Studio so I think I'll be okay. Problem temporarily avoided, lol.

Though I wish I could download gimp-painter and install it, too... does anyone have an inkling of an idea on how to use the patch above alone? I just went for the patched version someone had on their repository but they have the patch separate and I'd like to learn how to use those things on just the standard version. If you can point me in a good direction with that I'd be grateful!


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