!!!THIS GUIDE IS DEPRECIATED. SEE https://opentabletdriver.net/Wiki INSTEAD OF THIS GUIDE!!!


Before following this guide, check if your tablet is not compatable or has issues by clicking here. If your tablet is not supported, you can follow my more complex, older tutorial that may work for you here.

Hello again! I have started posting these tutorials since there was no solid guide on how to make my Gaomon S620 to work on Linux, so I made an older guide on how to install some drivers to make practically any tablet workable and customizable. Looking back, that guide isn't written well and is very complicated. This guide is re-made to be as simple as possible and will use easier methods for installing drivers and customizing your tablet. Here are some opening notes that I would like to state:

1. Since I did all of these steps on Linux Mint 19.3, these steps should work on any Ubuntu/Debian distribution. I also have provided Arch instructions, but it has been a while since I have used it, so they may not be accurate. This guide should also should work on any other distro with some modifications to the instructions.
   If you want to add instructions for your distro, put them in the comments and there is a high chance I will eventually add them to this guide.
2. My old tutorial is very complex and should only be followed if this guide does not work and if you are familiar with Linux. This new guide will be shorter, easier, less intimidating, and more friendly to people who aren't nerds like me.
3. These instructions are based of the ones found on the OpenTabletDriver GitHub.
4. Thanks to oSumAtrIX for recommending OpenTabletDriver. If he didn't, this updated tutorial would of never happened.

Now lets get started.

Step 0: If Trouble Arises

If you have found a solution to a problem while following this guide, please put it in the comments!

If you are having issue installing .NET Core, read "Finding your Distribution" under "Other Distro/Distro not Listed" in step 1. There are some tips I have provided to issues I think you will encounter while trying to install it. It also may help to try finding instructions on installing .NET Core by searching "how to install .NET core on X" on the internet, where "X" is your distro name. If you REALLY need help from a person, try finding a Linux Discord support server or ask for help on something like stackoverflow. .NET Core also has a Discord server, which you can find in the README on their GitHub. Microsoft also has a guide on how to install .NET Core in Linux.

If you are having trouble installing and/or stuck on trying to get OpenTabletDriver to work, try looking at this useful page on solving any common problem with the driver suite. If that still does not solve your issue, try joining their development Discord and ask around; invite is also in their GitHub. If all else fails, open an issue ticket.

If these instructions are flawed, outdated, or do not work, please let me know in the comments! Even small suggestions help out, such as things with formatting, grammar, spelling, wording, command parameters, etc.

Step 1: Installing .NET Core

Arch Linux
If you are an Arch user all you need to do is run:

sudo pacman -S dotnet-runtime dotnet-sdk

After that just skip to step 2.

Ubuntu/Debian
Lets start off by finding the the latest Microsoft repository package. Open https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ in your browser and a small list of Linux distributions should appear. Then click on your distro version and then click on packages-microsoft-prod.deb. The file should start downloading after you click it. If your operating system is not showing in the Microsoft directory, click on "Finding your Distribution" under the "Other Distro/Distro not Listed" section.

Once it has finished downloading, run:

cd ~/Downloads

And then

sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb

If you have moved the file to a different location, cd to the directory in which its located and then run the "sudo dpkg -i" command. If you have downloaded the package in Firefox and chose to open the package once it has completed downloading, it won't have saved into the downloads folder and you will need to redownload it. Make sure you select "Save File" when choosing to download it.

If for some reason it isn't adding the repo, try running "sudo apt purge packages-microsoft-prod" and then re-install it. If you ever need to remove packages-microsoft-prod, make sure you use apt purge, otherwise, when you uninstall and reinstall it, it wont install correctly and the repo wont be added.

After that run:

sudo apt update; sudo apt install -y apt-transport-https; sudo apt update

And

sudo apt install -y dotnet-sdk-5.0 dotnet-runtime-5.0

Once that is done installing, go on to step 2.

Other Distro/Distro not Listed
If you cannot find your distribution in https://packages.microsoft.com/config/, check "Finding your Distribution" below. If it is there, download the packages-microsoft-prod package and install it with your favorite package manager/installer.
Once you have done that, install the dotnet-sdk-5.0 and dotnet-runtime-5.0 packages.

Step 2: Installing OpenTabletDriver

Ubuntu/Debian
Download the latest release of OpenTabletDriver from https://github.com/OpenTabletDriver/OpenTabletDriver/releases. I personally used the v0.5.3.1 version. Upon opening the link the latest release should be already visible (if not scroll up to it), and download the OpenTabletDriver.deb package under the "Assets" drop-down menu.

Once downloading the package, open it with your favorite package installer or just run

cd ~/Downloads

And then

sudo apt install ./OpenTabletDriver.deb

If you have moved the file to a different location, cd to the directory in which its located and then run the "sudo apt install" command.

Then run

systemctl --user daemon-reload

And

systemctl --user enable opentabletdriver --now

Arch Linux
Use an AUR helper to install the opentabletdriver-git package. On Manjaro, you just need to open your software preferences, go to the AUR tab, enable it (with updates on), and hit close; then you can graphically search for the package and install it.
Then run

systemctl --user daemon-reload

And

systemctl --user enable opentabletdriver --now

Other Distro
If you would like to provide instructions on how to install OpenTabletDriver, please put them in the comments! I don't have the time currently to make instructions for other distros.

Step 3: Making OpenTabletDriver work

Once you have installed it, open it and follow the guide that shows you how to use the application. You can also open the GUI by running "opentabletdriver" inside your terminal.
Once you are done with following the introduction tutorial, it is highly likely your tablet wont be detected. Lets make it so it can.

First install Git by running:

sudo apt install -y git

And then run each of these commands individually, from top to bottom:

git clone https://github.com/InfinityGhost/OpenTabletDriver-udev.git
cd OpenTabletDriver-udev
git submodule update --init --remote
./build.sh
sudo mv ./build/99-opentabletdriver.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/99-opentabletdriver.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
cd ..
rm -rf OpenTabletDriver
rm -rf OpenTabletDriver-udev

After that restart your computer to put the changes into effect.
The above commands basically enables any application to interact with any tablet that OpenTabletDriver supports. You may want to do these commands again when you reinstall a newer version of OpenTabletDriver. You should especially want do these commands again if you are installing a newer version of the drivers and if you are trying to use a tablet that OpenTabletDriver previously did not support.

After this, you are finished! If you are still having issues, look at the Linux FAQ for solutions to common problems. If you are still having issues, join the OpenTabletDriver Discord server for support. If all else fails, open a issue ticket.

Really nice work :0

THAT_otaku wrote:

Really nice work :0

Thanks!

BTW, just saying, the amount of people that actually read tutorials or troubleshooting steps is low and you'll probably be better off making a vid using that guide you have here.

I made one for windows x64 and i believe one for linux or macOS is necessary.

also most of the issue that might occur setting up OTD on linux can be fixed by just re-following this short tutorial

You should remove the "tablet area" from the title since it's not included in the new tutorial.

Gess1t wrote:

BTW, just saying, the amount of people that actually read tutorials or troubleshooting steps is low and you'll probably be better off making a vid using that guide you have here.

For linux users it's the opposite. Very few will bother watching videos since most of them target beginners and don't contain any useful information.

kiwec wrote:

Gess1t wrote:

BTW, just saying, the amount of people that actually read tutorials or troubleshooting steps is low and you'll probably be better off making a vid using that guide you have here.

For linux users it's the opposite. Very few will bother watching videos since most of them target beginners and don't contain any useful information.

Well it's normal for you to say that since you don't know about the number of people not reading wikis and faq across all platforms to solve issues and all kind of optimizations, opening tickets, or even people joining the discord asking about questions which are also answered in the faq page on top of also being answered in the linux support channel and others. (a single search is needed for anything to be fixed there)

tl:dr i wish you were right, unfortunately, that's not the case

The number of people who come through the Help forum saying they've "read other guides and nothing worked" or "I tried some things from other threads and nothing worked" or whatever is very high. People are capable of google searching believe it or not, and they find guides like these all the time. You are just as likely to find a video on the matter as you are finding a forum thread.

Not sure how you'd know anything about the details of support tickets as you aren't a member of the support team, not sure what "the discord" is referring to as there are literally millions of servers, and if you'd actually read the FAQ page or the Help Centre page (I'd know, I cleaned up the entire Help article before it got split up!)you'd realise there is one single (completely unrelated) mention of linux?

If you want a video on it, you're welcome to make one yourself. This guide and the old one is home to lots of useful information, and is very accessible and useable as is.

Anyway, that's it from me

THAT_otaku wrote:

The number of people who come through the Help forum saying they've "read other guides and nothing worked" or "I tried some things from other threads and nothing worked" or whatever is very high. People are capable of google searching believe it or not, and they find guides like these all the time. You are just as likely to find a video on the matter as you are finding a forum thread.

I have encountered being an helper on OTD's discord server and github, users that only want things to work out of thin air even when they should be aware that the reason it might not work is because of user errors.
You would be surprised as you'll find out that you own argument doesn't hold as the old and new tutorial might appear on page 2 instead of main.

The second and third video you'll find typing "OpenTabletDriver" on google will be my setup and troubleshooting video on windows, I've made tutorials for different versions of OTD, usually when new important features are added.

I can say that the amount of people that watch them came at more than 60% from youtube searches, that's based on 3 videos (2 setup, 1 troubleshooting) which each of them have 3K view at least (2.5k unique roughly).

You could argue the only reason it did well was because there was no text tutorials on how to set it up correctly or troubleshoot it on google, but in it, i'm mostly mixing the Discord & github's FAQ with my personal knowledge about how to fix these issues and show that most of them are due to user error.

On the other side, you'll find that people still will ask questions or ask support about things i had talked about in these videos.

in short, i can say these videos helped in reducing the amount of support we had to provide to new users before and after setup.

https://imgur.com/a/ypIMIAH

THAT_otaku wrote:

Not sure how you'd know anything about the details of support tickets as you aren't a member of the support team, not sure what "the discord" is referring to as there are literally millions of servers, and if you'd actually read the FAQ page or the Help Centre page (I'd know, I cleaned up the entire Help article before it got split up!)you'd realise there is one single (completely unrelated) mention of linux?

OTD's official discord server: https://discord.gg/P3GYdUS
OTD's issue tab on github: https://github.com/OpenTabletDriver/OpenTabletDriver/issues

I'm only showing linux here, i could show the 2 other support channels, one being worse (windows) and one just filled with people that give up after waiting 5 minutes when they should know people have social life.

I've installed and did all the instructions clearly, but It won't recognize my tablet (Gaomon S620) at all. Any idea how to fix it?

(I'm new to Linux. I switched 3 hours ago, sorry If I didn't know some part of it)

Dhernaos wrote:

I've installed and did all the instructions clearly, but It won't recognize my tablet (Gaomon S620) at all. Any idea how to fix it?

Same issue with the same tablet

im on manjaro with kernal: 5.10.42-1
and in game i get 4 duplicate errors that all say that the device is in use in another kernal. Opening the opentabletdriver gui it shows no tablet detected.

Actually was a simple fix, for anyone reading this forum with the same problem, check your log files because for me it was actually a different underlying error which was "ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Value [0-15]" The solution to this error is in the linux faq: https://github.com/OpenTabletDriver/OpenTabletDriver/wiki/Linux-FAQ
and for any too lazy to look, its to run:

echo "blacklist hid_uclogic" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
sudo rmmod hid_uclogic

And then re plug in your tablet.

Do not use the opentabletdriver-git aur package unless you have a reason to. The tracking is inaccurate, plugins do not work. Also people don't really need a separate guide now, there is a site for opentabletdriver now located at https://opentabletdriver.net

thank you so much, now i can drag on linux TYSM!!!!