This is a dedicated topic for TabletMagic, an open source driver for Wacom serial devices that has been adapted to communicate with Tablet PC ISD-V4 digitizers.

So to start things off, welcome! Here's where the project stands as of today, July 31 2008:

• The official project page is http://sourceforge.net/projects/tabletmagic/
• The current version is TabletMagic 2.0b15
• The b14 build considers all non-Apple Machine Type strings to be hackintosh systems
• The driver has been tested on several TabletPC systems and now works with most.

Getting Mac OS X To See Your Digitizer
Before Mac OS X will recognize your TabletPC's digitizer hardware your digitizer's ID string must be inserted in the proper kernel extension file. TabletMagic now includes an Enable Digitizer button to automate this process. Give it a try!

Lenovo ThinkPad X61t
If you have a Lenovo ThinkPad X61t you will also need an enabler to actually turn on the digitizer hardware. All the information you need is in its own dedicated topic. (and here's the relevant post!)

Still Nothing? Try "Don't Query"
Many - indeed most - TabletPC digitizers seem to ignore the "*" (TabletID) command, which asks the tablet to identify itself. If TabletMagic finds no tablet, or claims to see an ISD-V4 tablet, but the tablet doesn't function there are two things to check. First, under the TabletPC tab make sure the Don't Query checkbox is selected. Second, make sure the actual serial port is selected instead of "Automatic." (When Don't Query is enabled the "Automatic" setting only checks the first serial port, which is sometimes not what you want.)

Diagnostic Messages
For basic troubleshooting you can open the Console application before starting TabletMagic. There you will be able to observe its diagnostic output, including your Machine Type string. Press Console's "Clear" button between attempts for the cleanest output.

Killing TabletMagic
You can kill the driver most easily using the "Kill Daemon" button in the "Extras" tab of the TabletMagic Preference Pane. If you have any other tablet driver installed on your system, remove it and reboot before trying to start TabletMagic.

TabletPC tab
Under the TabletPC tab of the TabletMagic preference pane you'll find the aforementioned Enable Digitizer and Don't Query options, plus a pair of edit boxes where you can modify the digitizer range values. If the pointer doesn't correctly follow the stylus or seems to drift near the edges of the screen you should modify these values. With the Get From Stylus checkbox enabled you can obtain the digitizer range by moving the pen all the way to the bottom right corner of the screen.

Source Code
To get the latest source code, just issue the following commands in Terminal:


For More Help
If you've read this thread thoroughly and all your posts for help have led to a dead end, contact me at my TabletMagic for TabletPC email address. If your digitizer is unsupported I may be able to provide you with a logging daemon and directly work with you to figure out its protocols.

Thank you to all those who have helped out so far. You've been supremely helpful and patient with this sometimes tedious process.

Namaste! - Scott

Collecting the TabletPC tomorrow afternoon. Will do fresh installs of OS X, Windows, and if I can now, Sabayon - Then will test TabletMagic.

rc3 didn't work either in my M275

Here's the output from console:

New motherboard. However my issue is the same - Enabling TabletMagic Grey Screens the system.

Ok, let's see... Here're the two outputs of two different daemons, top one from rc3 of tabletmagic and bottom - from ...shoggi's driver:

© 2007 Thinkyhead Software <www.thinkyhead.com>

Paringas:~ Paringas$ [INIT] Machine Type: ADP2,1 (Hackintosh?)
[PROC] Screen Bounds: (0, 0) - (1823, 767)

[PORT] builtin-serial0 (19200 baud): Open Succeeded...
[SENT] "0"
[SENT] "*"
[RCVD]

[PORT] builtin-serial0 (9600 baud): Open Succeeded...
[SENT] "SP\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"

[PORT] builtin-serial0 (19200 baud): Open Succeeded...
[SENT] "SP\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"

Could not initialize tablet.
[ERR ] Fatal Error: No Wacom Tablet Found!

_____________________________________________________________

TabletMagicDaemon $Revision: 1.16 $
© 2004 Scott Lahteine

Screen Bounds: (0, 0) - (1023, 767)

[PORT] builtin-serial0
[SENT] "0\r"
[SENT] "*\r"
[GOOD] "\FFF03$1\7F"
[RCVD] "\FFF03$1\7F"
Tablet Bounds: (0, 0) - (24779, 18629)
[SENT] "1\r"

Tablet initialized.


Clearly, tabletmagic's not sending the right initialization string.
As for the tablets that worked - they were either happy with any string or that particular one of tabletmagic's rc3/rc2.

Hope this will get the ball rolling further, although i'm still to see my artrage2 and corel painter essentials working usably/without lagging and so forth.

Scott .. any updates?

See topic "Pestering Driver Writers/Hackers"

I've just posted a new build:

• TabletMagic 2.0b8rc4

This version tries "*\r" in place of "*" in an attempt to get tablets to reply. If this string doesn't do the trick, it also tries connecting at 9600 baud. And if that doesn't work, well we'll see what happens...

I don't know what would be causing a kernel panic. There's very little - if any - low-level hackery going on. It may be useful to know at about what point the system panics. You might try something like this in Terminal (and place terminal low on the screen so it won't get hidden by the panic alert)...

sudo /Library/PreferencePanes/TabletMagic.prefPane/Contents/Resources/TabletMagicDaemon -d

This will start the daemon and try to connect to whatever tablet it can find. If it can't find a tablet it will quit. If there's a kernel panic, it'll probably be when the daemon tries to initialize the serial port.

I hope the results are more positive this time around. The preference pane and daemon should communicate a little better now, at least.

WOW!!!!
THANKS SO MUCH FOR THIS!!!

Question: What exactly do I need to set in the settings to get the this working with a toshiba tecra m7 tablet pc? It should be the same as the m400.. I gathered that baud rate should be 19200... but what about the others? when i click enable I just get "no tablet found" in beta 7. now in beta 8 rc4 its the same.. but if I enable on startup i get a kernel panic and have to manually turn off the startup in the plist.
Is there something I am blatenly overlooking? Could you post the steps used to get the m400 working? I may just buy one if the m7 wont work.

I will send money to get this working. I want a mac tablet hybrid.

you are awesome.
thanks,
ryan.

TabletMagicDaemon v2.0b8rc4
© 2007 Thinkyhead Software <www.thinkyhead.com>

[INIT] Machine Type: ADP2,1 (Hackintosh?)
[PROC] Tablet Bounds: (0, 0) - (15239, 15239)
[PROC] Screen Bounds: (0, 0) - (1823, 767)

[PORT] builtin-serial0: OPENED
[PORT] Setting speed to 19200
[SENT] "0\r"
[SENT] "*\r"
[RCVD]
[PORT] Setting speed to 9600
[SENT] "0\r"
[SENT] "*\r"
[RCVD]
[PORT] Setting speed to 9600
[SENT] "SP\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"
[PORT] Setting speed to 19200
[SENT] "SP\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"
[SENT] "~#\r"

Could not initialize tablet.

[ERR ] Fatal Error: No Wacom Tablet Found!
_________________________________________________

It's receiving blanks... Also tried starting the daemon with pen moving around the screen/button pressed.

Sorry, Scott, man, wish i could send you a tabletpc for testing but i'm in another country.
...shoggi's source could save some time, though.

Veggieryan,
For now, get the driver/daemon from this thread:
http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=41054 (4th post)
and follow instructions from the 3rd post (for inkwell look in 5th post)...

There's something odd for me - Kashoggi's driver works fine, but as soon as TabletMagic (Any version I've tried) starts to query the port, the system locks up.

All I need for the moment is a working pen with presure sensitivity and Kashoggi's driver provides that much. I'm ok for now.

I was one of the two M400 users...
I confirm that it works all also in the rc4 (even better)

I used before the khashoggi daemon, but about sensitivity, there was some problem that in my case tabletplanner solved.
I have a pen wholly functional and it works well with inkwell too...

thanks scott

After sending the first "*/r" on 19200 baud the system freezes. It's not the system's hardware, it just had a new motherboard and Khashoggi's daemon manages fine. . .

In the interest of full testing I've posted a special version just for the TabletPC owners to test out. It is a logging version, so it creates a file /Users/Shared/tabletmagic.log with all daemon output. Since on the M275 doesn't reply and the T421X kernel-panics, I've altered this build to simply not send anything to either tablet, but just to start reading at 19200 and see what happens.

Maybe this won't work either, but here it is:

http://thinkyhead.com/pub/TabletMagic2b8rc5-tpc.dmg

Check the tabletmagic.log file to see if there's any activity at all.

Well, this one works on my tc4200 and i assume will work on all the others including m400s.
IDs as "ISD V4.0 (TabletPC)"

positives:
1. works
2. less to no lagging in painting/sketching apps.

negatives:
1. very laggy input in the "testing" tab of tabletmagic. it's that laggy that it becomes dotted.
2. calibration is totally out (you can help it a little by playing with mapping, but it's still far from good)
3. tilt data's not working.
4. mapping is sort of irrelevant to tablet pcs(can't get to the very top couple of lines of the screen - couldn't fix with mapping).

for future:
1. mouse mode would be pretty cool to have.
2. would be nice to see "press and hold" functionality of both the tip and the side switch.

Ryan, I wonder what the Toshiba M7 issue could be. Does the build linked in the previous posting work at all on your system? Does your serial port show up in the Preference Pane? And did you edit the appropriate plist file as paringas describes in this post?
___________________

Paringas, that's some good news. Is this the first version of TabletMagic that has worked on your system? I remember you sent me log files back in the beginning of February when I didn't have a clue.

On the surface it looks like some tablets don't answer "*" and maybe some tablets don't like to be talked to at all. That would be very annoying. But I have a feeling there's some way I could tweak the serial port settings or my initialization code to get it working.

The mapping problem is going to be more tricky to automate, but there may ultimately be a way to query for that information. Further research is definitely needed. Meanwhile, what are the tablet values you set in the Mapping pane to get the nearest match? And what is the resolution of your screen?

The slow drawing in the Testing pane might be caused by the constant logging to a file that this build does, plus all the other items in the window being updated 10 times per second. I think it'll be better once logging is off. I'll have a non-logging version of the pane available soon, and you can compare the performance.

And tilt... well I didn't know tilt was supported. Could you send me your log file? Id like to see if there's any tilt data I can decipher.

I'm anxious to hear from Ferret-Simpson whether it still crashes his system, but I suspect it won't. The fact that the system is kernel panicking makes me think it's got to be a low-level serial issue. There are still some things that I could try to help narrow down the cause.

And well, I did recently change the way the serial ports are scanned and configured when the daemon tries to locate a tablet. The old way was a bit lame, testing each port at one speed, then going back and trying each port at the next speed. Now it works the way it should, trying each serial port at both speeds before going on to the next port. As part of this rewrite, each serial port is only opened once, and it's kept open. So the serial speed is being changed while the port is open, which some kinds of serial hardware may dislike.

On the other hand, maybe the crash and the failure to answer is being caused by my addition of a call to Flush() just before "*" is sent to the tablet. One or two more test versions should be enough to discover some patterns. Or if you'd like to help get this thing working - Paringas and F-S - we could do a few email exchanges at your own pace instead of clogging up the forum.

Nice job Scott Lahteine.
I wonder if you could make a generic wacom usb driver for Volito and penpartner?
thx

Adding to the "for the future" comment:

1. I have to press pretty hard to get to 3/4 of max pressure(displayed in testing tab)...
so it would be nice to have some sort of a scaling bar for setting the sensitivity.

2. The ability to set the side switch to middle click or mouse wheel click (that's how i open pages in background tabs and can't live without it).

_________________________________________

Yes it was the first version that "worked" for HP TC4200 (naming for searching purposes).
My resolution is XGA and mapping settings will follow shortly.

In my case it suffices to work with the button remapping already present... did you try that?
I set side switch to Button 2 and it works...

Button 2 works as right click
Need Button 3 for middle click

would be nice to find out how to configure osx to display that "scroll cross" on middle click in any app with scroll bars.

Psygoo - It's a serial WACOM driver. SERIAL.

WACOM still produce MAC OS X drivers for their Wacom tablets, go on www.wacom.com and download the thing.

Scott - Just finishing a download, will test it in about half an hour.

Works perfectly! Now, about that multitablet support. . . .

I know that, but Wacom dont have OSX
driver for Volito 1&2 and PenPartner 1&2

I just wish to have Absolute motion on my pen...

If they're USB, you'll probably have to live with it. The TabletMagic program only supports serial protocols.

It is unfortunate that Wacom doesn't even support some of their older USB tablets. Someone may eventually create a Mac driver for these discontinued models, but it won't be me. USB drivers are quite different from a driver like TabletMagic due to their dependence on Apple's HID framework. As I understand it, the part of an HID driver that Mac OS X hooks into has to be written as a kernel extension. Alas, even if I started on such a project, it would be at least a year before I had anything publishable - especially given my obligations to other projects.

Hi Ferret-Simpson...

I wonder if you would do me a favor and try starting the TabletKhashDaemon (kkTabletDaemon?) in Terminal and tell me what it prints. This will tell me whether or not Kashoggi's custom-build is attempting to send "*" to the tablet or not, and give me some guidance as to whether I should continue to pursue the idea that some tablets don't like to be queried.

Also, did you try the TabletPC custom-build of TabletMagic that I posted a few days ago? It doesn't send any kind of query to the tablet, so if that's what's causing your system to kernel-panic, this one should hold up.

I'm going to post a new version soon that includes an extra set of controls (in the Extras pane) only on Hackintosh systems. These controls can be used to turn off tablet-querying and to set custom tablet scale values for experimentation. These scale values are saved to preferences and will be applied when a TabletPC digitizer is detected.

Posted another new build, TabletMagic 2.0b8rc6 with the following changes:

• Added a "Don't Query" checkbox and Scale Override edit-fields to the Extras tab
• Added support for system buttons 3, 4, and 5
• Added a -F argument to the daemon which "Forces" TabletPC at 19200
• The daemon now adjusts to resolution changes

For those who experienced kernel panicking, I suggest you go to the Extras tab and make sure "Don't Query" is checked before starting the daemon. This adds the "-F" parameter to the daemon's startup parameters, and this will persist when the daemon is started automatically at boot time.

This version doesn't do logging.

Paringas, you mentioned you were seeing no tilt data. So far I have no information about tilt support in TabletPCs, so I haven't included any support for it. A log file showing a range of tilt values would be very helpful. If you still have the -tpc build of rc5, that version does produce a log file.

I included two text fields in the Extras tab where you can enter custom values to override the tablet scale values. Hopefully you can find some values that work with your TC4200. However, without knowing more about how to query a tablet for its internal scale it's not possible for TabletMagic to determine the correct values automatically.

Enjoy!

As I said, the "Silent" build works perfectly. RC5 I think?

Screen Bounds: (0, 0) - (1023, 767)

[PORT] serial0
Error opening serial port /dev/cu.serial0 - Resource busy(16).
Can't open serial port "/dev/cu.serial0".

[PORT] Bluetooth-PDA-Sync
[SENT] "0\r"
[SENT] "*\r"
[ERR ] Timed Out!

Could not initialize tablet.

Fatal Error: No Wacom Tablet Found!

Excuse the use of Bluetooth, the Tablet itself is busy. Those are the first sent commands.

feedback:
1. works only if i tick "don't query"
2. middle click works - thank you very much
3. less lagging in the testing pane.
4. all the mapping/calibration issues are the same.

must haves:
1. addition of the calibration function ala windows/windows mobile
2. managing the interface so the mapping function is only related to multi-monitor setups/mouse mode.
3. pressure "sensitivity"/scaling setting.
4. "press and hold" functionality ala windows/windows mobile with the inclusion of the side switch.

optionals:
1. mouse mode

once all of these are in (including all the compatibility issues) - it's a done job.

ps. starting to doubt the tilt as it might require a special pen.

No, not a special pen, a special tablet. The digitiser itself has no tilt support. Hence why you can't use a tilt pen on say. . . an Ultrapad. (Lucky, I can use my TabletPC pens on my UD 8))

The rc6 build should do everything just the same as the "silent build" rc5-tpc. But it looks like something already has the serial port in this attempt... maybe you're already running another daemon, and maybe it's suspended? If you give it another shot it ought to be able to open and connect. If the serial port still won't open I can try messing with the serial initialization code. I hope I can fix your kernel panic issue, that just shouldn't happen at all.

alright first off please dont yell at me. I decided to try this program out I tried TabletMagic 2.0b8rc6 just on the off chance it would work... and to my amazment it recognized something. when I enable Tabletmagic it says Tablet: ISD V4.0 (TabletPC) now I am surprized by this because I have a gateway CX2724 wich uses a Finepoint digitizer. Now I cant do anything with it and I would really like to see it work so is there anyone that can help.

Scott, you're not reading my posts properly!

RC5 WORKS!!!!!!!!!

I know the serial port says it's busy, TabletMagic is using it. But it sends the same commands to bluetooth as it does to the internal serial.

bubba129,

go to mapping tab and press "more" a few times for the left square so the selected area's all covered.
then play with the setting for the right rectangle to marginally correct the calibration.
have a read through inkwell's help.
everything should work.

Thanks for responding to my post, now I did as you said and I pressed the more button under mapping but still nothing when I use my pen it doesnt do anything. and as for the tip to look at the inkwell help is there something specific I should look for. Sorry I am a noob with this tablet stuff.

EDIT: OK something strange if I unplug my bluetooth dongle it doesnt find any tablet

Actually I did know that rc5-tpc worked for you, but rc5-tpc is just a hack. It only works because it assumes there's a TabletPC digitizer on the first serial port and never sends any queries. (It also writes a log file continuously, which slows the driver and fills your hard drive.) Knowing that rc5 worked only confirms that it's the serial write() or the serial flush() that is causing your kernel panic.

My test versions are leading somewhere, so please be patient. I need to test each step in the initialization process until I know what's causing your kernel panic and paringas's bad mapping. I won't consider the driver worthy until it can definitively identify any digitizer or tablet and obtain the proper tablet scale values. We still have a long way to go to reach that point.



Sorry, it wasn't clear to me whether you were posting the output from the Kashi daemon or rc6 in your earlier post, or what you were trying to point out. And it wasn't clear to me that "it sends the same commands to bluetooth..." referred to the Kashi daemon. It took some effort, but now I see what you were saying.



If you're using rc6 - which is a test version only - you need to go to the "Extras" tab in the preferences and uncheck "Don't Query." When this checkbox is enabled the driver simply assumes there's a digitizer on the first serial port it finds. So you have to disable that option to get a meaningful result.

Now, from what you say about your bluetooth dongle it sounds like your system may not be recognizing the digitizer's serial port. Did you hack the Apple16x50ACPI.kext file as described in this post by paringas? That hack is required to get the built-in digitizer to show up in Mac OS X as a POSIX serial port.

Thanks for your help. Unfortunatley I do not have windows installed and do not see how I can get the 7/8 character name in device manager without it. So I guess when I get home tonight I will install windows. So with that which version should I install I have XP and Vista?

XP will suffice.

It will be interesting to see whether you can get this to work, and whether the Finepoint tablet uses the same communication protocol. I've heard one report of success on a Gateway M275, but this hasn't been independently confirmed.

does not work with my tc4400, don't know why

bobo2211 and all others who's tablets don't work after fixing the required kext:

1. go to Extras tab and click "kill daemon" there so that the status says "Daemon not running"
2. tick "Don't query" in Extras tab and try starting daemon again.
3. go into Testing tab and see if the numbers are alive as you move your pen around the screen.
4. if they are alive but your mouse pointer isn't matching with the tip of the pen, follow instructions i suggested to bubba129 six posts up.

good luck.

a shame that this forum doesn't like the idea of having the first post always displayed on every page of the thread with all the updated info on links/features/instructions/etc...

Alright well I am sorry to say that I cannot get my finepoint to work. I reinstalled Windows XP got the 7 characters that I needed (FPI2004) entered it into the file, added a tool into startup items and now I see serial 0 in tabletmagic but nothing is found. I just want to say thanks and keep up the good work I will keep my eye on this thread and test new releases.

bubba129,
not sure if you actually tried what i just posted as your post came straight after mine.
but if everything fails, now that you've patched your kext, try the original ...shoggi's driver/daemon (can't remember the thread it's from).

Hi Bubba,

When you told me that your tablet was a Finepoint I wasn't very optimistic that it would work. But it's still possible to have a look at your tablet's data and see if it makes sense. I've posted TabletMagic 2.0b8rc7, another testing version of the driver. Its only functional change compared to rc6 is that it creates a log file at /Users/Shared/tabletmagic.log.

If you would like to provide some data from your tablet, install this version. After starting the driver play around with the pen, using all the corners of your tablet and pressing lightly and firmly. Kill the daemon using the "Kill Daemon" button in the preference pane's Extras tab. Then send me the log file at support at thinkyhead dot com. I'll have a look at the output and see if I can make any sense of it.

it's strange that Khashoggi tablet daemon works but TabletMagic does not
i will try your tip now paringas

my video demo : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXg6oC4oDuY

bobo,
don't forget to kill shoggi's daemon before you try anything (from app/task manager or whatever other way)

I'm terribly sorry if this has been discussed in some other post, but I have successfully installed OSX 10.4.8 on to a Motion Computing M1400 and was looking for a way to use the tablet functionality with TabletMagic. I installed the latest version, but the program reads "no tablet detected". Is this something worth pursuing, or is the machine too old to use your interface? Congratulations with the work you've done so far. Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated.
best,

patrick denny

tanata,
come on, man, if you're geeky enough to buy a tablet - you're geeky enough to look through this thread(it's only 3 pages).
read through all my posts(especially the one at the bottom of page 2) and before trying, patch your serial kext.

ps i'd be really pleased if Scott could update the first post of the thread with all the up to date instructions or at least links to the right posts to create a universal point of referral for people starting fresh.

One other thing. Is it the "touch" Version or the pen Version ?

Tablet Magic is Wacom only as of yet.

paringas- Thank you for replying- I actually had gone through and followed your instructions to the best of my ability without success. This whole install process has been about repetition, so I'll try it a couple more times and see what I can come up more specifica questions. I haven't found any information about anyone successfully installing OSX on the Motion Computing Tablet and didn't know how far I could take it. I'll write back after some more experimentation. -best

Ferret-Simpson- It's a pen version- Thanks- best

Writing to report limited success on a Toshiba r20/r25/m7 series Tablet PC.

After hacking the appropriate kext, TabletMagic now detects my tablet. For a while, I was confused: TabletMagic had locked me into 15240x15240 tablet resolution, even though my tablet is 13348x18968. For some reason, there was a setting in the Extras pane that assumed I had that resolution of a tablet. I unchecked the box, and I can now use the full width of my screen.

For those of you wondering, there is no pressure sensitivity in Sketchbook Pro; in fact, the cursor doesn't display properly. (It whites over anything it crosses until the screen refreshes. This takes a while, making it nearly impossible to use this app). I couldn't get Flash 2004 to launch, and I don't have my Photoshop disc on me to test with.

Thanks Scott for all your hard work on TM and to Paringas for finding the Serial driver. I'll keep you posted on my findings.
Sam I Am (Not)

The tablet has stopped being detected. I had played with it shortly in Ink and Sketchbook. I'd also tried to launch Flash. When I was testing Ink, the Finder windows started wigging out (I'd try to move them and they would vibrate between the pen and where they were resting). I turned off Ink, and everything seemed fine. Shortly after Flash crashed, TM stopped seeing my tablet. At one point, I had tested the iwi3945 driver, which created a dummy Airport adaptor (although called Ethernet by System Preferences). The Networking pane mentioned that it now saw a Serial port. It kept working after that. I deleted both 3945 and the network Serial port, and it still doesn't see it. serial0 is still a selectable (and selected) option in TM.

I've attached the console log:
Click to view attachment