Stylus Pen not usable as pen

I have an “ASUS VivoBook 14 TM420UA” and a “Sandberg Precision Active Stylus Pen” and
the Pen is not recognized as one but instead acts like a finger for Touchpad input,

in particular if I am using xournal++ it is not possible to use my fingers for navigation(scrolling zooming) or resting on the screen(without input) while simultaneously drawing with the pen.
Therefore defeating the whole purpose of the pen.

Xournal++ seems to show it as an input device (and I think also lists the touchpad/screen multiple times) but I am not sure if the input is differentiated from my fingers on the touchpad.
Any idea how I could get the Pen to work as one (in particular in a software like xournal++ or anything alike if available on Manjaro Gnome)?
Or if this kind of pen even works, or how to troubleshoot/check how it is recognized by Gnome/Manjaro?

I found this thread mentioning a stylus and xournal++ but it seems to have a little different issue, also it was disbanded.

Hello,

Please provide the terminal output for:
xinput

We can move from there and see what is what and how is recognized.

Yes, thank you.
Here it is:

xinput                                                                              
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ PNP0C50:03 04F3:2DE2                    	id=9	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ ASUE140C:00 04F3:3145 Mouse             	id=11	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ ASUE140C:00 04F3:3145 Touchpad          	id=12	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                               	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=7	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ PNP0C50:03 04F3:2DE2 Stylus             	id=10	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ASUE140C:00 04F3:3145 Keyboard          	id=13	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Asus WMI hotkeys                        	id=14	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard            	id=15	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Asus Touchpad/Numpad                    	id=16	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ USB2.0 HD UVC WebCam: USB2.0 HD         	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]

I assume it is the PNP0C50:03 04F3:2DE2 Stylus, I also found this issue from xournal++ mentioning that Pens using “Stylus” aren’t properly recognized by gtk or so but I am not sure yet if thats the problem here.

Well, you should have it in the Virtual core pointer in order to work properly. I mean is there, but not as Stylus

Can you share the output of:
xinput -list-props "PNP0C50:03 04F3:2DE2"
and also
xinput -list-props "PNP0C50:03 04F3:2DE2 Stylus"

1 Like

Sure:

xinput -list-props "PNP0C50:03 04F3:2DE2"                                            ✔ 
Device 'PNP0C50:03 04F3:2DE2':
	Device Enabled (161):	1
	Coordinate Transformation Matrix (163):	1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
	libinput Calibration Matrix (294):	1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
	libinput Calibration Matrix Default (295):	1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
	libinput Send Events Modes Available (277):	1, 0
	libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (278):	0, 0
	libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (279):	0, 0
	Device Node (280):	"/dev/input/event7"
	Device Product ID (281):	1267, 11746
xinput -list-props "PNP0C50:03 04F3:2DE2 Stylus"                                     ✔ 
Device 'PNP0C50:03 04F3:2DE2 Stylus':
	Device Enabled (161):	1
	Coordinate Transformation Matrix (163):	1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
	libinput Calibration Matrix (294):	1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
	libinput Calibration Matrix Default (295):	1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 0.000000, 1.000000
	libinput Send Events Modes Available (277):	1, 0
	libinput Send Events Mode Enabled (278):	0, 0
	libinput Send Events Mode Enabled Default (279):	0, 0
	Device Node (280):	"/dev/input/event10"
	Device Product ID (281):	1267, 11746

I see, the question is how do I get it to be one?

Quite interesting. That device ID is present in linuxwacom - i guess is already installed from repository, but if not, install it.

More here File Finder · GitHub
But not sure if you also need xf86-input-wacom and then tweak the config to add the ID to a custom /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/60-stylus.conf for example, as i explained here

so in principle to have some like:

Section "InputClass"
    Identifier "Sandberg Stylus"
    MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
    MatchUSBID "04F3:2DE2"
    Driver "wacom"
EndSection
1 Like

From what I see Manjaro doesnt have a linuxwacom package, but I have libwacom installed,
I will try downloading xf86-input-wacom and see if I can get it working, thanks!

Well indeed, that is the project name that has input-wacom and libwacom and xf86-input-wacom and not all 3 are distributed via packages because only libwacom and/or xf86-input-wacom are what matter in our installed systems.

Not sure if I get this right, I dont have to download or import that config from github?

after creating a file like that and rebooting, xinput still gives me the same result with PNP0C50:03 04F3:2DE2 Stylus not in the core pointer section, and with xournal++.
Do I have to add multiple Sections like you did in the linked post or is that only required for multiple buttons etc?

Yes, try with the complete list like there. Hope will work. If not, maybe bigger guns are required, like maybe opening an issue on the linuxwacom github page and maybe they have a better approach on this.

1 Like

Currently no new on this, as I dont have time.
Also I might get a new pen since this one has only one button for on/off.