How to change tablet orientation with kubuntu 18.04 and wacom bamboo CTL-470

Question

I am using a Wacom Bamboo tablet CTL-470 with a kubuntu 18.04 and I want to rotate it 180° so that the USB input is on the right side, not on the left as it is now.

I installed the newest packages ( https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wacom/LatestDriver), but neither with them or the original ubuntu ones do I have a GUI in the settings to change the orientation of the tablet.

How can I achieve a changed orientations so I can use the tablet more comfortably? It has not to happen via the Gui, config settings are welcome as well.

Answer 1

I found the information how to configure the tablet via the command line.

This should rotate the tablet by 180° either via the name or the id (the PAD is 9 in my case) You get them with: xsetwacom --list devices

xsetwacom --set "Wacom Bamboo Connect Pad pad" Rotate half
xsetwacom --set 13 Rotate half
xsetwacom --get 13 Rotate 

But I get the output:

$ xsetwacom --get 9 Rotate
Property 'Wacom Rotation' does not exist on device.

Which is weird, because the tablet can be rotated / used for left hand. So maybe just the driver cannot do the rotation?

Obviously this is no solution, but at least a point to go forward from: changing settings via command line.

Now this article pointed me in the right direction: https://www.reddit.com/r/GIMP/comments/hl1p7q/flipping_wacom_tablet_r_to_l_in_linux/

It looks like you have to change the orientation of the stylus to change the orientation of the tablet. What a brainfuck!

So I did the same command with the id of my stylus and - voila! - tablet orientation is changed!

 $ xsetwacom --get 11 Rotate
 none
 $ xsetwacom --set 11 Rotate half

EDIT: Permanent change

To make this change permanent I wrote a script which I let autostart execute after starting the GUI:

#!/bin/bash

xsetwacom --set "Wacom Bamboo Connect Pen stylus" Rotate half

Answer 2

I ended up doing this to get my buttons in up top formation (Focal)

xsetwacom --set 31  Rotate ccw
xsetwacom --set 30  Rotate ccw
xsetwacom --set 29  Rotate ccw
xsetwacom --set 28  Rotate ccw
xsetwacom --set 27  Rotate ccw