X and touchscreen

Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: X and touchscreen
started by: pst

Posted by pst on Oct. 11 2005,23:24

Hi,
I have a Geode system with a touchscreen (Penmount) that runs "successfully" on Fedora Core 3.

Having experimented with DSL on other computers I was wondering if it's possible to set up a touchscreen in the X server that DSL uses?

Thanks,
Peter

Posted by cbagger01 on Oct. 12 2005,22:05

If it works with Xfree86 on other distros, then it should work on XFree86 for DSL.

If it does not work with the builtin DSL TinyX Kdrive X servers, you will need to download and install the xfree86.dsl extension.

Posted by pst on Oct. 12 2005,23:10

Thanks,

From the info I found TinyX doesn't seem to have a config file like xorg.conf/XF86Config and since setting up the touchscreen requires som editing of that file, including loading a module, it can't be done with TinyX server.

I will try installing xfree86 dsl extention and see if I can get it to work that way.

Thanks again,
Peter

Posted by pst on Oct. 18 2005,16:24

Update:

I have installed XFree86.dsl on a frugal grub HDD install (using toram) and it works fine.

The XFree86 has drivers for a lot of input stuff including penmount. I haven't got the touchscreen working yet even though I did the same changes to XF86Config file as in the FC3 installation. The touchscreen is connected to ttyS0.

If anyone has any ideas don't hold back :-)

Best,
Peter

Posted by skaos on Oct. 19 2005,09:48

FC3 uses xorg and not XFree - maybe that could be the explanation? A long shot in the dark: could you boot with Knoppix and if that works (I would guess it's not likely) then you could copy over that config file.

Posted by pst on Oct. 21 2005,18:06

Update:

I now have my touchscreen working under XFree86 with my frugal hdd install.

First I checked the XFree86 log file (/var/log/XFree86.0.log) to see if X liked my configuration file and loaded the module for the touchscreen. It did.

I then double checked the hardware one more time to make sure that there was power to the touchscreen (it's a panel PC so it has LCD, touchscreen and cpuboard in one box).

After some research how to see what was transmitted on the serial port I tried:

"cat /dev/ttyS0"

Nothing happend. I tried with "cat dev/psaux" to see if the mouse transmitted anything while moving it - it did.

I tried the second serial port "cat /dev/ttyS1" and some garbled characters filled my screen when I touched it - the com-ports where switched. Argg

After changing my XFree86Config-4 file everything worked as expected.

Maybe this info can help some other poor soul in the future.

Best,
Peter

Posted by scanman717 on Oct. 24 2005,23:48

hey PST, I am trying to get one of these penmount monitors going for an embedded application.. Could you possibly post your working XF86Config-4 file???

Thanks

Posted by pst on Oct. 25 2005,14:16

Below is my XF86Config-4 file.

I use Vesa and forced the screen resolution to fit the monitor. I got tricked by "default depth" from the start since I had it at 24 bits but the embedded graphic controller can only do 16 bit.

The MinX, MaxX etc parameters are there to "calibrate" the touchscreen.

Code Sample

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "VESA device"
Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
InputDevice "MousePS2" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Penmount" "AlwaysCore"
InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
# allowed to close X windows with ctrl+alt+backspace /PST
# DontZap
AllowMouseOpenFail
EndSection

Section "Files"
FontPath "unix/:7100" # local font server
# if the local font server has problems, we can fall back on these
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic"
#FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/:unscaled"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo"
#FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi"
FontPath "/usr/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi"
EndSection

Section "Module"
Load "dbe"
Load "extmod"
# Load "fbdevhw"
Load "dri"
Load "glx"
Load "record"
Load "freetype"
Load "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "keyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "MousePS2"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
Option "Protocol" "imPS/2"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Penmount"
Driver "penmount"
Option "Device" "/dev/ttyS1"
Option "Protocol" "Auto"
Option "PMode" "1"
Option "MinX" "580"
Option "MaxX" "45"
Option "MinY" "430"
Option "MaxY" "40"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "vesa"
driver "vesa"
VendorName "x"
BoardName "y"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "x"
ModelName "y"
# HorizSync 31.5 - 48.5
# VertRefresh 50.0 - 70.0
# Option "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "vesa"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Posted by andrea1110 on Sep. 26 2006,14:50

I am trying to install the Penmount touch screen on a geode small board computer with a 512MB compact flash as the hard drive. I have not gotten it to work. My compact flashes stop working after I start configuring and installing the XF86. Do I only need to install the xfree86 dsl extension? DSL is installed to the hard drive. I would greatly appreciate any help.
Thanks,
Andrea

Posted by zeF on April 11 2007,22:54

Quote (pst @ Oct. 11 2005,19:24)

HI,

I have Geode system with Elo touchscreen.

I'm trying to get the "touch" working.

it is connected to com1, i believe ttyS0.

can you share your steps/experiences on setting up the touch screen. Thanks.

Posted by zeF on April 11 2007,22:54

Quote (pst @ Oct. 11 2005,19:24)