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Tablet PCs, Pen PCs and Convertibles with Linux
An overview of Linux installations on Tablet PCs, NotePads, WebPads, PenPCs, SmartDisplays, Convertibles and Slates. At the bottom of this page there is a survey of Linux applications and drivers useful for TabletPCs.
*) available pre-equipped with Linux
Documentation
- Linux on touchscreen laptops
- Linux on laptops with detachable display
- Linux on tablets
![[archived link]](/pics/archived.png "archived link")
- Some Resources on Embedded Linux
Linux Applications for Tablet PCs
Onscreen Keyboards
xvkbd - virtual keyboard for X window system
xvkbd
is a virtual (graphical) keyboard program for X Window System which provides facility to enter characters onto other clients (softwares) by clicking on a keyboard displayed on the screen. This may be used for systems without a hardware keyboard such as kiosk terminals or handheld devices. This program also has facility to send characters specified as the command line option to another client.
GNOME On-screen Keyboard (GOK)
The
GNOME On-screen Keyboard (GOK)
is a dynamic on-screen keyboard for
UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems. It features Direct Selection,
Dwell Selection, Automatic Scanning and Inverse Scanning access
methods and includes word completion.
Florence
Florence
is a virtual keyboard for GNOME that appears on screen. It
is adapted for people who are able to use a pointing device but have
difficulties using a real keyboard. It aims at being easy and pretty.
kbde
kbde
is a keyboard emulator. The goal is to provide tools for
emulation of keyboard input on keyboardless (x86) computers. It includes a
keyboard emulator driver and a user-space program, as well as a library
which make it easy to write custom applications able to create keyboard
input emulation.
GTKeyboard
GTKeyboard
is an application written in C with the aid of the Gimp Toolkit. It is intended to help users with physical disabilities to enter text into a simple editor, as well as to help them use other X11 applications that require keyboard input. GTKeyboard allows the user to press keys on an onscreen keyboard that will either be entered into a simple text editor that GTKeyboard provides, or into the application of choice that the user specifies by clicking on the window. It has also been used by people who have strange keyboard layouts, and by people who for one reason or another cannot use a keyboard with the machine in question.
matchbox-keyboard -- On-Screen Keyboard
Matchbox-keyboard
is an on screen 'virtual' or 'software' keyboard. It
will hopefully work well on various touchscreen devices from mobile
phones to tablet PCs running X Windows.
You can embed matchbox-keyboard into other applications with toolkits
that support the XEMBED protocol ( GTK2 for example ).
Gesture Recognition
wayV
wayV
is some software that does hand writing/gesture recognition. Shapes represent actions and are input via the mouse, i.e. draw a B and the "b" key press is sent to your Xterm, draw a C and xcalc starts, draw an N and Netscape starts, etc.
LibStroke - a stroke translation library
LibStroke
is a stroke translation library. Strokes are motions of the mouse that can be interpreted by a program as a command. Strokes are used extensively in CAD programs. I fell in love with them when I was using the CAD tools that use a stroke interface to select tools or perform actions. I wrote this library so that others can see how useful strokes can be and so that more programs take advantage of this extremely natural human-computer interface.
xstroke
xstroke
is a full-screen gesture recognition program for the X Window System. It captures gestures performed with a pointer device, (such as a mouse, a stylus, or a pen/tablet), recognizes the gestures and performs actions based on the gestures. xstroke has been developed on Linux systems, (i386 and StrongARM), but should be quite portable to any reasonable system with X.
KGesture
KGesture
is a gesture recognition application for KDE2. KGesture uses libstroke to recognize definable gestures, then run an associated command. Using KDE's DCOP interface, KGesture can interact with applications already running, or launch new applications.
xgestures
xgestures
is a gesture recognition program for X11 desktops. One
may use it to perform various operations like minimizing and killing
windows or executing custom commands.
Launchers
Pogo
Pogo
is a speedy, highly extensible, skinnable, and user-configurable program launcher and application front-end for X11. It features a set of easy-to-use control options, including icon rotation, shifting, and switchable window orientation. You can configure Pogo to do whatever you want it to do -- You can tie an icon to a command that reboots your machine, changes your desktop theme, a script that checks your email, launches your favorite browser, plays music, or even launches another Pogo!
Tabatha
Tabatha
is a GTK2 popup menu for tablet PCs, handhelds, and other frequently changed desktops. It can be called with a single keypress, and
allows system configurations (power, X display, networking, etc.) to be
changed with a single button push. New buttons are easily configured
through a simple XML file, with no programming necessary.
Handwriting Recognition
CellWriter
CellWriter
is a grid-entry natural handwriting input panel. As you
write characters into the cells, your writing is instantly recognized at
the character level. When you press 'Enter' on the panel, the input you
entered is sent to the currently focused application as if typed on the
keyboard. Writer-dependent, CellWriter learns your handwriting for
reliable recognition. Correcting preprocessor algorithms account for
digitizer noise, differing stroke order, direction, and number of strokes.
Unicode support enables you to write in any language.
Xscribble
Xscribble
is an X application that allows a user of a touch screen to input characters into X applications, using a uni-stroke (graffiti like) alphabet. It uses the X test extension to allow synthesis of characters as though they had been typed on a keyboard. It is the X version of the scribble program.
HaRe
HaRe
is a Hebrew handwriting recognition engine. It uses an optical
algorithm, and is therefore independent of motion.
Yudit
Yudit
is a unicode text editor for the X Window System. She can do True Type font rendering, printing, transliterated keyboard input and handwriting recognition with no dependencies on external engines.
Handwriting Character Sheet as KDE Wallpaper
If you can't remember how to write the characters right, try this
KDE background.
Dasher
Dasher
is an information-efficient text-entry interface, driven by natural continuous pointing gestures. Dasher is a competitive text-entry system wherever a full-size keyboard cannot be used - for example,
- when operating a computer one-handed, by joystick, touchscreen, trackball, or mouse
- when operating a computer with zero hands (i.e., by head-mouse or by eyetracker)
- on a palmtop computer
- on a wearable computer
Stylus Handwriting Input Panel
The
Stylus/Handwriting Input Panel (SHIP)
is a system for gesture
text entry for Tablet computers using an X11 user interface. Text may be
entered from an on-screen keyboard or by handwriting (either printed or
cursive handwriting), but this requires a server application (which is
included) to be installed on a copy of Windows Tablet XP or Vista.
Voice Control
CVoiceControl
CVoiceControl
is a speech recognition system that enables a user to connect spoken commands to unix commands. It automagically detects speech input from a microphone, performs recognition on this input and - in case of successful recognition - executes the associated unix command.
Note: CVoiceControl is a KDE and X Windows independent version of its predecessor KVoiceControl (CVoiceControl = console voice control)!
Resize and Rotate
XRmouse
XRmouse
is a GTK+ based mouse button rotating application what help you to access right and middle mouse button a touchscreen.
PyRandR
PyRandR
is a Python module that provides simple access to the X11
resize and rotate functions.
Grandr Applet
Grandr
is a GNOME Panel Applet that allows you to select screen
resolution and orientation from the GNOME Panel. It was originally written
by Matthew Allum.
gnome-randr-applet
gnome-randr-applet is a simple GTK interface to the X Resize And Rotate (XRandR) extension. This allows you change the resolution and frequency of your monitor dynamically using a simple interface. For drivers that support it, it can also configure the relative positioning of multiple monitors. The RandR extension for X11 allows for run-time configuration of display attributes such as resolution, rotation, and reflection.
Miscellaneous
FBReader
FBReader
is an e-book reader for Linux PDAs and desktop computers.
FBReader currently works on Sharp Zaurus, Siemens Simpad with Opensimpad
ROM, Nokia 770 Internet Tablet and Linux desktop computers. FBReader supports several e-book
formats: plucker, palmdoc, zTXT, HTML, fb2, and plain text.
FBReaderJ
FBReaderJ
is an e-book reader for the Android platform. It is a clone of the FBReader book reader written in Java.
FBReaderJ supports several e-book formats: oeb, epub, fb2. In future releases the list will be extended to support the same formats as the original FBReader. Direct reading from zip, tar and gzip archives is supported.
gournal
Gournal
is a note-taking application written for usage on Tablet-PCs.
It's designed for usage with a stylus, not a mouse or keyboard.
It does not have handwriting recognition but can be used in co-ordination with xstroke to accept text.
Gournal is written in perl using perl-gtk2 so you will need perl-gtk2 along with the gladexml and gnomecanvas modules
of perl-gtk2.
Xournal
Xournal
is an application for notetaking, sketching, keeping a journal using a stylus. It is free software (GNU GPL) and runs on Linux (recent distributions) and other GTK+/Gnome platforms.
Jarnal
Jarnal
is an open-source application for notetaking, sketching, keeping a journal, making a presentation, annotating a document - including PDF.
For Tablet PCs it provides the ability to take
handwritten notes; for desktop PCs it allows users to take notes using
the mouse (or more sensibly) using the keyboard. Each page is stored in
SVG format, and the SVG pages are stored in a standard ZIP file.
Notelab
NoteLab
is a pen-enabled application for note taking, brainstorming, and sketching. It is easiest to use with a stylus on a Tablet PC, but can be used with a mouse. Also, being written in Java, NoteLab runs on any operating system.
gsumi - Pressure sensitive "digital ink" drawing
gsumi
is essentially a port of xink
to the gtk user interface toolkit.
The program allows drawing in black (pen) or white (eraser) on a high resolution bitmap which is filtered down to screen resolution. XInput devices can be used (with pressure support), and different tools and tool properties can be assigned to each device.
qwo
qwo
is an implementation of Quikwriting, an efficient way to input text for hand-held devices almost without picking your finger off the screen.
TouchWidgets
TouchWidgets is a widget library for touch-based Linux devices using X Windows.
It has support for animations and momentum-based scrolling.
It also runs on Mac OS X if you have XQuartz.
TouchScreen Drivers
fjbtndrv
fjbtndrv: This is a
Linux kernel driver for the buttons on the Fujitsu FMV Stylistic tablet PCs
. It allows Linux to make use of the buttons on the side of your tablet PC.
It has only been tested on an FMV Stylistic TB11/B, but should also work on some other Fujitsu tablet PCs. Rumours are that it works on a Fujitsu Lifebook T4210 and a Fujitsu Lifebook P1610, too.
MultiTouch Support
How to install MultiTouch from source:
As things stand in August 2008 the latest packages of Ubuntu of the
linux-wacom-project
do not support MultiTouch for the X61 Tablet and X60 Tablet. However in the development packages MultiTouch is supported and work is going on there to improve things.
Linux touchscreen drivers for the U50, U70P, and U750P
Generic Event Device XFree86/Xorg Input Driver
to specifically support a USB touchscreen device by Gunze, but it is general enough to be used for anything that is recognized by the evdev driver.
LinuxSlate for FPIT
Information about the
X11 driver for the Fine Point Innovations Tablet used
in some Toshiba Pen based PCs. This driver is now part of the official XFree86.
Wacom Tablet
There is a
Linux driver for Tablet PCs using the Wacom Tablet,
e.g. the Toshiba Portege 3500.
PenMount TouchScreen Drivers
mmmtouch - XFree86 driver for 3M touch screens
mmmtouch - XFree86 driver for 3M touch screens
are add on drivers for the 3M (formerly Dynapro) touch screens running under XFree86. These drivers provide support for the SC3 and SC4 controllers as well as inter-active calibration.
Semtech Touchscreen Driver
on X for the Semtech Touchscreen as found on the
GoBook III manufactured by Itronix. It comes with a calibration program.
Here is an alternative download for the Semtech Touchscreen Driver.
Egalax
Egalax
provides Linux drivers for their touch screens.
See
Touchscreen eGalax and Linux, Mini-HowTo (in German).
IRtouchSystems
Ondrej Zary IRtouchsystems
This
kernel patch by Ondrej Zary
adds support for IRTOUCHSYSTEMS (or UNITOP) infrared touchscreens.
The
manufacturer
provides only closed source drivers
for specific kernel versions
TouchKit
Touchkit
is the name of eGalax touch screens found for example in Xenarc
touch screen monitor. They have an USB, RS323, PS/2 or I2C interface. Only
the USB variant is currently supported.
Other Resources
Here is another nice survey about Tablet PC applications for Linux.
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© Werner Heuser 1997-2015 · http://tuxmobil.org/tablet_unix.html · last change Tue Jan 7 2014