XPPen tablet driver problem - tablet works but driver doesn't find it - no settings available

[Jaqueline]

I am on XFCE Manjaro latest, which I just have updated December 10th. Thanks to the Manjaro Team for the great work!!!

Now I try to install my new XPPen tablet Deco 640. But no driver will find the tablet and therefor the settings for the tablet are not available.

First I tried the original driver, which is available in AUR. The tablet did work out of the box, but when I start the driver’s configuration, it tells, that I should connect the tablet first. But lsusb shows up the tablet correctly. Reboot did not help.

Using hardinfo2, looking at input devices, I see the tablet three times:
XPPen Deco 640 Mouse at input 0
XPPen Deco 640 Keyboard at input 0
XPPen Deco 640 Mouse at input 1

Then I deinstalled this driver, rebooted and replaced it by the flatpak version of OpenTabletDriver. It has detected the tablet correctly and I could try some settings. But after a reboot, the driver could not find the tablet but the tablet did work correctly.

Finally I deinstalled the flatpak version, rebooted and installed the AUR version of OpenTabletDriver. Now the tablet worked only after a second reboot, but the driver also could not detect the tablet and therefor no settings were available.

When I start the driver in order to configurate it there is a message, that the daemon for the open tablet driver has not be loaded. After a short search with KI, I have tried to activate the daemon by typing:

systemctl --user daemon-reload
systemctl --user enable opentabletdriver --now

After that, the tablet was detected by the driver and everything seemed to be OK. But after a reboot, it did not work anymore. When I tried this trick again, starting the daemon via Terminal, I got:

Failed to connect to user scope bus via local transport: $DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS and $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not defined (consider using --machine=<user>@.host --user to connect to bus of other user)

But the second command systemctl --user enable opentabletdriver --now was accepted. But it was not successful, because again the driver did not find the tablet.

I tried to get some support via the discord group for the Open Tablet Driver. But the discussion brought no solution to me.

It seems, that all these three drivers are on a similar version status. I would be happy, if one of them would work. So I am open for suggestions and I hope for a solution, how I could activate the driver permanently.

[Jaqueline]

I have found the solution:

Installation from AUR (don’t use Flatpak)

Install and start OpenTabletDriver as systemd service by using:

Create a systemd service and start it
systemctl --machine=<username>@.host --user enable --now opentabletdriver.service

This is, what the help text in the error message did recommend. But after a reboot of the computer, the daemon is not running.

Following the wiki of OpenTabletDriver, I could type otd-daemon in a terminal. Oh yes and then the terminal must be kept open until I don’t need the tablet anymore. Grrrrr

I have made a workaround by creating an autostart item, which contains otd-daemon only. By this the daemon is started without a terminal and when the computer is shut down, it will not moun, that the daemon is still running.

If someone has a better solution, I would like to know.