Skip to main content


Are there any GNU/Linux users of Wacom MobileStudio tablets around here? ๐Ÿค” I'm curious about your feedback.

#linux #device #mobile #wacom
Dang, I've not looked at Wacom since high school days. So many options and capabilities. I want to have a use for one, but not sure I do.

https://www.wacom.com/en-us
@adamsdesk Yes. Usually nothing to install as libwacom is often a preinstalled part of common mainstream distro. I saw that on their repo: https://github.com/linuxwacom/libwacom/search?q=mobile , it sounds promising for the support.
@Adam
Good to hear ๐Ÿ˜„
Until it broke (fairly quickly, in under three years) I used one. Mostly with Windows, because Linux desktops really need a keyboard, and on-screen keyboards were not very good.

It ran Krita much smoother under Linux than under Windows, though -- I think both you and Timothee played with the device during a sprint?

In any case, overheating and after a year or two, three autoshutdowning were a bummer for a device that expensive.
@halla Hey, yes, I remember, but it was the generation before the MobileStudio, the Wacom Companion, right? (I know they made Companion 1 and Companion 2).
Sure, I remember launching an Ubuntu live ISO on your model with Animtim and @raghukamath at a Krita sprint. Many things worked out of the box, probably on a 16.04LTS days.
True for on-display keyboard on Linux. Probably now the touch keyboard support is better (but with what I saw on my SurfacePro3, not sure I can call it ideal ๐Ÿ˜บ) .
@raghukamath No, I have had both the Hybrid Companion and a Mobile Studio Pro. The Companion could also run Android: it's still in working state, but unusable due to parallax. The Mobile Studio Pro is the one Animtim installed Kubuntu on during a spring.

I think that what Wacom currently sells is a second generation, but it looks exactly the same as the model I had.
@halla Oh! Thanks and good to know. I don't think I tried the MobileStudio at your home then; only this Hybrid Companion long time ago.

I'll try to have a look on website about repairability and if "tear down" video exists; just to get an idea if it is possible to get hand inside, replace a component, memory, battery, etc... something probably good to consider for a known fragile device. Because overheating after a year or two for a 1500$ machine is definitely not a good deal ๐Ÿ˜”
@raghukamath
@raghukamath It's also heavy and the screen is too dim to use outdoors, btw.
@halla Ha, thanks. I'm not expecting Krita plein-air session (๐Ÿ˜ญ sad monitors are still unable to work well outside, except on cloudy and dark days) but my hope of the moment is clearly to find a mobile device to work in train and to optimize the time I spend traveling (mainly long trip to Pepper&Carrot signing sessions). Unfortunately, train windows are large, and maybe the situation might be also too bright in a wagon to use a display tablet with the comfort I imagine ...

@raghukamath
@raghukamath It's also too big to work on from a train seat... Even the 13" one is big! Even a Lenovo Yoga with Kubuntu would work _much_ better. I made lots of sketches on the run on my previous Yoga.

The MSP just was a flop, in the end.
@halla

Oh thanks to the pointer to the Lenovo Yogas. I'll have a look. (I see your IRC message, I'll jump on it, easier! good idea).

@raghukamath
@halla @raghukamath if I may suggest an interresting alternative for train/outdoor drawing session : I have a Remarkable2 tablet.

It's a great ebook readerโ€ฆ but also a great drawing tablet with e-ink display (so no sun/outdor problem) with premium svg output support.

I use it for rough drawing mainly before importing the drawing in my main computer to do the final lining and coloring.

Don't know if that fits your use but it fits mine
@halla @raghukamath The Remarkable2 is very hackable and a great linux compatible device (ssh access, customisation, etc). It became my #1 drawing device when outside due to its form factor and hability to be used even under a great parisian summer sun ๐Ÿ˜…โ˜€๏ธโ˜€๏ธโ˜€๏ธ

It's not at all full computer or even tablet (no app, no krita, just ebooks and drawing) but for me it does the job
@pmartin @raghukamath I like mine a lot, but I use it solely as a notebook. When painting, I tend to want to have color ๐Ÿ˜ƒ (Also, the nibs wear out really quickly!)
@halla @pmartin @raghukamath Thanks for sharing! True, I'm looking for a full Linux Distro, Krita and all. To be able to work remotely. For drawing on something else, I'll probably always prefer my real sketchbook and watercolors.
@halla @raghukamath for a full linux distro and everything with Cintiq pen and allโ€ฆ Dell has one model tqat I use to have (I sadly broke it due to a surge/storm) : XPS 13 2-in-1

Great linux compatibility (except for the webcam). tested on Fedora with Krita, gimp, inkscape for 3 years : a pure pleasure !

But it's quite expensiveโ€ฆ
@pmartin

Hey, yes Dell and Lenovo are the two main brand I identified with Wacom Digitizer. But comparing them to Cintiq is unfair for drawing precision because it is Wacom active AES (stylus with a battery, another tech) and not their patented expensive Wacom EMR found in Intuos and Cintiq, way more precise, and with less jitters. I made a list of Dell XPS and Latitude too, they are on my list right now along Lenovo Thinkpads and Yogas. Thanks for the feedback!

@halla @raghukamath
@halla @raghukamath Very true for the diff in pen technology. But I was impressed by the quality delivered (except for the too glossy screenโ€ฆ but it's more a personal feeling)
@halla

I am in search of this too. But I have not found a solution. Earlier I used to carry my laptop and the wacom tablet, too much hassle but it worked.

Now I am thinking about Samsung Android tablets, not fully open source but it is close to a mobile device with krita I can get right now.

I bought something on Monday a reconditioned laptop, It's a cheap Thinkpad yoga 370, with Wacom AES (active electromagnetic) , review: https://youtu.be/lKJfvvGGr08 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c5S1hkB-30 and https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Lenovo_ThinkPad_Yoga_370 I'll receive it on Friday and tell you on Monday if it is good to draw.

(or a bit later, because it will probably come without a stylus, and I took a Wacom Bamboo active stylus and Lenovo active Pen separately and this two might take longer to come home)

@halla

This entry was edited (1 year ago)
Don't know if this counts, but I have a fairly ancient and smol tablet called CTH-490
@MagotrapTheArchmage Thanks but it doesn't count ๐Ÿ˜Š ; MobileStudio are mobile all-in-one tablet computers made by Wacom, with a CPU/Ram/motherboard and a built-in Cintiq of course. It's a rather expensive device, and I'm looking for info mainly about the computer component (eg. if it is a misery to get wifi working, the UEFI thing, the audio chipset, etc...).
@MagotrapTheArchmage i considered moving my mobilestudio to linux but chickened out. Mostly as I frequently use it as a tablet for other devices and worried i would knacker it.
@Hollowpixel I totally understand, it's pricey hardware and that's not a trivial thing to change its OS. But for sure, launching a live USB iso (without installing) just for curiosity can probably help at feeling comfortable with what's working or not.

@MagotrapTheArchmage
@MagotrapTheArchmage honestly it only gets used now as a cintiq/second screen as the mobile studio is so underpowered and prone to crashing. Its a shame really i loved the form factor but was never worth the money ๐Ÿ™ other wise i prob would have tried linux on it by now ๐Ÿ˜€
@Hollowpixel Thank you, yes, I start to collect many feedback going into the exact same direction as what you describe. Too bad, the marketing on Wacom side is well done and I was very curious about it, but it looks like buying a reconditioned Lenovo Yoga with a good stylus will be a better option for GNU/Linux drawing.

@MagotrapTheArchmage
@MagotrapTheArchmage i can recommend the concept d ezel series, havent tried them with linux though. But dont be put off by the dinky pens they are excellent machines.
@redj Hey Redj, that was the one you had when you came to BBUG Krita class in Bruxelles (and then we went to museum? https://www.davidrevoy.com/article266/sketching-meetup ) . I found on Youtube a tear down, yes, it looks fixable and robust, but outdated and your feedback of noisy/heavy/unpractical sync was what I heard here or in DM. Thanks for sharing your experience with it ๐Ÿ‘
@BetaRays

Hey, all the video of e-Ink device I saw showed me that people had even not enough accuracy for writing with the device at usual size, and with their usual handwriting: the line sometime lags, and the built-in apps are often very limited. My conclusion about them: better to use paper/pencil ๐Ÿ˜

@halla
I've been using Wacom CTH-480 as trackpad and drawing tablet for several years in Linux and have interacted with the Linux Wacom maintainer on occasions regarding issues;

So far, The best OOB experience for me has been with Gnome as it comes preinstalled with necessary bits and my base OS is Arch Linux.
@abishek_muthian Thanks for your feedback, yes Wacom tablet like your model have all good support thanks to the libwacom project.

I was asking for Wacom MobileStudio tablets specific: it's not only a tablet with Wacom EMR technology but a full computer with motherboard/disk/ram/etc made by Wacom.

I'm curious about the linux support of its audio/wifi chip, and robustness, etc, in general. But I had answers about it.

What are you looking for?
A portable computer, a device that runs Krita or a sketching device?

My main drawing device is a Samsung GalaxyTab S7 (Krita runs perfectly fine on it). But I can't sketch on it: I either sketch on paper, or more recently, on an e-ink device.
I did not buy the Remarkable2 though its marketing: I chose the Supernote A5X for its ease of file transfer, and though it's not like writing/sketching on paper, it's really better than on glass.

@BetaRays @halla

This entry was edited (1 year ago)
@Petit_Lutin I'm looking for a mobile GNU/Linux workstation with Krita and a good stylus to work remotely. Something with a HDMI too to do live demo or course connected to a HDMI, something able to launch the renderfarm of Pepper&Carrot with all dependencies, can tweak the website and run it on a localhost. And something I can unscrew and repair. This type of machine ๐Ÿ˜บ
Thanks for sharing your hardware, but e-ink and/or Android device (I guess for the GalaxyTab S7) can't do all of that for me.
Mmmh, so a laptop with a touchscreen and a stylus, running GNU/Linux, and with repairability (the Graal, I guess) :shibathinking:

Though I never tried these, all I can think about are :
- Lenovo Yoga for the touchscreen
- Pine64 PineBook and System76 laptops for the native Linux and repairability. PineBooks are often out of stock (AFAIK) though.
@Petit_Lutin Yes, my research points to Lenovo Yogas for their reparability and Linux support (unfortunately, there is a lot of case per case to triage as there is a very large amount of models behind this generic name). On their downside: the Wacom AES (pen with a battery, active pen) active tech for the digitizer; many artists complain about that in comparison to Wacom EMR (Electromagnetic resonance Cintiq/Intuos). Precision, jitter in the line... And this is a hit or miss for drawing.
I use a Wacom One with a display together with Krita and it has been pretty good so far, Krita detected the tablet immediately ๐Ÿ‘
@const @alexology I guess the SteamDeck battery would probably go empty very quickly with connecting an external display like that, but I don't know enough about the Wacom One (I never tested it). It would be interesting to-test for curiosity if someone have both. ๐Ÿ™‚

Alex: Does the Wacom One you have can get power+data from only the USB-C? What Linux distro are you running? Does it have touch/palm rejection for mobile usage? Thanks.
โ‡ง