WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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5 comments
I'm back from the exhibition, the workshops and the signing session in Plérin, France: what an amazing trip it was! 💜 Thank you all for helping to make it such an amazing weekend. I feel 10 years younger. 😃
Photo: the signed album of [@Yahiko](https://framapiaf.org/@Yahiko) on Mastodon , thanks for sharing the photo!
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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38 comments
I'm speechless 🤯 The print at the exhibition feels so big in real. I'm super happy sitting in the corner of my illustration.
Tomorrow, signing session!
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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125 comments
### What's the problem?
In short, after a Linux kernel update (6.5.8-200.fc.x86_64 on Fedora KDE), I can't use the top button of my pen on my tablet. This is really affecting my digital painting workflow!
Right-clicking on the pen is an essential part of my workflow. Right-click on a layer in Krita to get the menu, right-click while using the Transform tool to get the transformation options, right-click on the canvas to get the pop-up palette! ...And I'm not even talking about how difficult it is to handle files and the D.E. without right-clicking.
And if that makes you smile, imagine someone hardcoding the behaviour of your main device like the right-click on your mouse or touchpad (or anything else you have been using for more than 20 years) to something completely useless, and pushing it through kernel updates. And the icing on the cake, they left you with no user tool to change it back.
That's where I am now, and you can probably understand why I decided to write a blog post about it. Because my ability to use my tablet and thus continue my webcomic Pepper&Carrot under Linux is now tied to an older kernel, 6.4.15-200.fc38.x86_64, until a kernel developer fixes this situation.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-11-01_linux-kernel-broke-my-stylus_grub_net.jpg)
_Grub page at startup: I now have to select the second kernel to escape the bug.._
### What happened?
**Context:** My [XPPen 24 Artist Pro](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article842/review-xp-pen-artist-24-pro-on-linux) is my [default tablet](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/111161467977046626) for productivity since April 2023. This tablet doesn't have a proper tablet driver under GNU/Linux. But it works thanks to a generic driver in the Linux kernel for the Uc-Logic/Ugee device; that is the name of the digitiser inside the tablet, the circuit board if you prefer. I also top this with some code from the [Digimend-Kernel-Module](https://github.com/DIGImend/digimend-kernel-drivers). It requires a set of X11 rules and tweaks that I document in [my review](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article842/review-xp-pen-artist-24-pro-on-linux), but once that is done, you can customise the stylus buttons using the xsetwacom command line tool.
Unfortunately, in the newer Linux kernel of my distribution (6.5.8-200.fc.x86_64), there were some new commits that affected the behaviour of this [generic hid-input.c driver](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/hid/hid-input.c). I don't know where it came from, but it was decided to hardcode a behaviour for styluses to have an 'eraser mode' instead of a 'right-click' on the second (top) button of the stylus.
For reference, here is the default on GNU/Linux, and has been since at least 2009 when I started drawing with it:
* Button 1 (pen tip) = left mouse click; to select, to draw, etc...
* Button 2 (down, on the side of the pen) = a middle mouse button, for panning the canvas or scrolling pages.
* Button 3 (at the top of the pen) = a right click, for context menus.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-11-01_linux-kernel-broke-my-stylus_xp-pen-artist-pro24_net.jpg)
_The stylus of the XP-Pen Artist Pro 24, with the location of the second button underlined._
### Where did the idea come from to map an eraser mode to a stylus button?
I can only speculate about this, but as far as I know, this type of behaviour was introduced by Microsoft for their Surfaces device on Ms Windows as a probable workaround for being too cheap to put an eraser on the other end of the stylus.
These Surfaces were aimed at business people and, as you can imagine, the pen was not intended to be used for drawing, but for signing documents or annotating PDFs. A side button eraser made sense to them. But what about right-clicking, you might ask? Well, these are 'touch' devices; the user could always use their finger with a long press and trigger a contextual right-click menu.
Soon after, I think Lenovo, HP and other tablet PC manufacturers were quick to imitate this new behaviour as brave sheep, and also to save some money on making styluses without a proper eraser on the other side.
So I can understand why a kernel developer thought it would be a good idea to bring this to GNU/Linux devices. Except they didn't just add it as a feature. It was forcing the behaviour on all users of the generic driver at the lowest possible level.
So I've lost my right-click on the second button of my stylus. And my device doesn't have a "touch mode".
Worse, **ironically** it even forces this behaviour on the stylus of [my newer XPPEN 16 Artist Pro (Gen2)](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/111318263108091568) that I'm testing. Brace yourself: a stylus with a real eraser... This left me speechless.
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-11-01_linux-kernel-broke-my-stylus_xp-pen-artist-pro-16-gen2_net.jpg)
_The bug even affects stylus with an Eraser device, as on this stylus of the XP-Pen Artist Pro 16 (Gen2)._
### Can't you just customise a button on your Linux system?
This is the best part: no, **you can't.**
Because you see, instead of just sending a single event that could later be customised by a CLI tool like xsetwacom, a desktop environment like kcm-tablet Plasma Panel, or even a udev rule; this kind of behaviour is hardcoded in, so the button sends too many events to map to anything. The button doesn't trigger a key, it switches the whole device to something else when pressed.
From my understanding; forcing this behaviour for the Uc-logic/Ugee generic tablet has been done for a long time; but a "bug" kept the stylus of my XPPEN Artist 24 Pro out of it, and [this commit probably fixed it in the worst for me.](https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/276e14e6c3993317257e1787e93b7166fbc30905) I now know it is there for a long time, because even with the "old" kernel, my newer XPPen 16 Pro (gen2) also reacts this way.
And no tools can fix it now. Are we doomed to have an eraser on the second key?
Or is there anything else we can do?
**Please help if you can**.
### Update:
**2023-11-09:** It works! Benjamin Tissoires made a solution. I tested it and I'm no longer locked to a kernel, [you can know more about it on the Mailing list](https://lore.kernel.org/all/7wmtNlKuYResf5cFQ7M2QTalzIUtw0I6ohvPcz69Jo1c8flezyIlnJu1IwAgXhJ-u0NlRL3IV7HnL0Kza6fVBqd7X7jhc-Z6QCi3oqHEvpY=@protonmail.com/). The solution solves the issue for the two devices I have.
**2023-11-07:** You can follow [the discussion on the Linux kernel mailing list here](https://lore.kernel.org/all/nycvar.YFH.7.76.2311012033290.29220@cbobk.fhfr.pm/).
**2023-11-01:** (Additional technical infos) Here are two evtest screenshots of the two devices with the newer kernel while performing a top button on the stylus (click to enlarge).
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-11-01_linux-kernel-broke-my-stylus_evtest-compare.jpg)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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35 comments
XP-Pen sent me their new Artist Pro 16 (Gen2): they were curious if I could get it to work under Gnu/Linux without their proprietary driver.
Result: after a long evening of trial and error, tweaking Digimend/X11/xsetwacom, almost everything works now. 🎉
Of course, the deal is that if it works, I have to document it like I did with the Artist 24 Pro. So expect it soon™.
Btw, this one will stay on my desk: I had a serious crush on it while testing: super low latency & low parallax. 😍
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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91 comments
Last June, during the [Saint-Brieuc signing session](https://www.davidrevoy.com/article974/signing-session-and-exhibition-at-bulle-a-croquer-festival-saint-brieuc), the director of "Bulles à Croquer" festival proposed a big and amazing project: a Pepper&Carrot exhibition on the scale of a supermarket for the fall 2023. Of course I accepted!
So over the last monthes, the Bulles à Croquer comic festival and E. Leclerc Plérin teamed up to create a very large exhibition. I could hardly believe it at first 😅 and I quickly felt a bit overwhelmed by the size of the exhibition. Not by the amount of work: Bulles à Croquer almost handled everything on their own, but it felt a bit surreal to get many of my artworks printed in big dedicated exhibition. 😇
The exhibition starts today and there are a large number of giant prints of Pepper&Carrot (illustrations and comic pages) that were made to decorate the hall of the supermarket (dozens of illustrations and comic pages). The exhibition aims to immerse visitors in the world of Pepper & Carrot and my illustrations.
I only have two photo samples right now done during the preparation, but I'll try to take more when I visit on start November. It's about 700km from my home, so I haven't visited it yet.
Update : I have received new photos from the ongoing exhibition! It's a total of 70 huge prints that have been displayed in the supermarket. 🤩 I made a montage to share them with you:
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-10-23_expo-leclerc-plerin-saint-brieuc1.jpg)
_The cover of the third comic book, a large print on the floor._
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-10-25_exhibition_photo_a_couloir_net.jpg)
_The hall (click to enlarge)._
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-10-25_exhibition_photo_b_pilonnes_net.jpg)
_Montage of the artworks on pillar (click to enlarge)._
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-10-25_exhibition_photo_c_various_net.jpg)
_Various places (click to enlarge)._
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-10-25_exhibition_photo_d_various_net.jpg)
_Comic pages, and the info at entrance. (click to enlarge)._
About my participation to the exhibition, many illustrations required quality upgrades to the source files and some remakes. For example, check out the [new A2 size high quality of "Powerfull"](https://www.peppercarrot.com/0_sources/0ther/book-publishing/hi-res/2023-10-17_Powerful.png), a 7000px large upscale done without AI for the upscaling; but with [GMIC](https://gmic.eu/) upscaling filters and manual overpainting. This will be printed and sold at the event, a high quality numbered print.
All my updates were merged in the gallery https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/artworks/artworks.html with their sources, so it will benefit future projects as well.
**DATES:**
- **From today until 11 November 2023:** The exhibition.
- **Saturday 28 October:** a potion magic contest for kids (8 to 12y/o), by chief Jean-Jacques Monfort, restaurant Brut.
- **Friday 3 November:** I'll be around for **a drawing workshop** and **digital painting demonstration**.
- **Saturday 4 November:** I'll be also there for a book signing session.
The event is **free** and organised by [Bulles à croquer](https://www.bullesacroquer.net/), but a registration is necessary for the activities, please register at webmestre@bullesacroquer.net
**ADRESS:**
E. Leclerc
Zac du Plateau, 2, rue du Grand Quartier
22190 Plérin
**LINKS:**
- https://www.bullesacroquer.net/un-monde-magique-exposition-david-revoy/
- https://www.letelegramme.fr/agenda/ateliers/cotes-d-armor/plerin-22190/concours-de-potions-magiques-sur-inscrition-1977874.php
(PS: poster and big map under to locate roughly Plérin in France).
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-10-23_expo-leclerc-plerin-saint-brieuc3.jpg)
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-10-23_expo-leclerc-plerin-saint-brieuc4.png)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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50 comments
I'm back from the vet this morning with an official adoption for Geuloush. He is a fully-grown male cat who has probably been abandoned by his former owners in the summer. 😡
We put notices around our house in search of them, but failed to get any feedback. The poor thing was starving and in bad shape. After a month of care, he is now loving and healthy. 💜 He'll be neutered soon. He is an exact copy of Miolek our number 3 , the photo above shows that very well.
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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67 comments
A photo of my desk with three monitors; one on the desk is a pen display tablet (a Xppen Artist Pro 24) with customised shortcut written in white using nail polish. The tablet has a keyboard using a CinTweak keyboard holder. The keyboard is the classic flat from Dell. I have also a little bluetooth gamepad with key customised (by 8bitdo). On the foreground, a Blahaj shark plushies is wearing headphones. On the canvas, a study I made two weeks ago and on other monitors Mastodon in multi column 'deck' mode. Same, two weeks ago when I took this shot. The last monitor has Dolphin the file explorer of KDE Plasma Fedora, IRC, Clementine to listen musique. A terminal windows is around, I was updating the monitor calibration with argyllcms using command line interface
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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13 comments
Painting on Sunday in autopilot mode to relax while beta testing.
[source here](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-09-14_Random-Portrait_by-David-Revoy.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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14 comments
A grayscale study ✏️
[source file](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-09-11_Potato-and-Tonka_by-David-Revoy.html)
WRITTEN_BY David REVOY -
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30 comments
A new digital painting, the result to [a poll](https://framapiaf.org/@davidrevoy/110990392034809958) I posted two days ago to select a color palette. Thank you if you participated to it, the palette was a good choice!
[](data/images/blog/2023/2023-09-02_palette-poll-on-mastodon.jpg)
[Sources and High-Resolution](https://www.peppercarrot.com/en/viewer/misc__2023-09-03_Just-Found-You_by-David-Revoy.html)
