Is Touchscreen Support Possible? [Solved]

[jmalon]

We've been using a different Linux-based kiosk product booting from a live CD and no hard drive for a few years now. It has worked great, but now our customer wants touch screen support. Is this possible with Porteus Kiosk Edition?

If each kiosk were using different older hardware, especially variations of touch screen monitors and video cards, wouldn't each boot CD need to be different because of the alignment configurations? If so, is there a way around this other than standardizing hardware?

Thank you for your help with this issue!

[fanthom]

probably could be done with the help of kiosk wizard (separate module downloaded upon request).
give us 2-3 weeks and will do our best to implement this.

[jmalon]

Wow that would be great!

[brokenman]

Fathom did you use the standard porteus kernel config for the kiosk? If so i believe the touchscreen functionality is already compiled in. jmalon have you actually tried it on a touchscreen device yet?

[Hugh Johnson]

I don't know about the kiosk edition but regular porteus works with most (USB) touch screens with no configuration at all.

[fanthom]

kiosk kernel config is different. most of touchscreen drivers are included but for example hid multitouch is missing.
i'll recompile kernel on Monday and include all input drivers possible.
may also try to add xf86-input-elographics driver not present by default in slackware.

will do a silent update of the ISO then (without version bump) and post in this thread.

btw: after digging into arch wiki (bit outdated):
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchscreen
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ca ... ouchscreen
i have found that getting some devices to work is really tough (especially in Kiosk which has limited possibilities) so we may stick to "what's working is supported/what's not working is not supported" approach.

[jmalon]

You guys are awesome! I'll take what I can get.

Please forgive my ignorance on this subject. I've not been successful with touchscreens in Linux. If I remember right, it seems like I could touch the screen and click on a button if the cursor was directly over the button, but the alignment was off. Left and right worked but up and down was backwards. I tried running an alignment tool and putting some number in a configuration file somewhere, but it still didn't work right. This was with some older ELO Touchsystem USB touch screen monitors. If (unfortunately) I have different models of monitors and computer hardware, will I have to create a specific kiosk CD for each hardware set? If so, I guess that's fine, I just need to know how it would work.

Do you recommend a particular touch screen monitor that works most of the time with older hardware and Porteus?

Thank you again!

[fanthom]

If (unfortunately) I have different models of monitors and computer h

i think so but seems that evdev driver is unifying all hardware so hopefully majority of the devices will work out of the box.

If so, I guess that's fine, I just need to know how it would work

you'll have to use some distro different than Kiosk and create config files as described in linked Arch wiki articles, then use /rootcopy folder in Kiosk to copy required files (configs, utils, etc) to Kiosk session. please read Kiosk HOWTO for details.

btw: updated Kiosk ISO and wizard on the server:

- kernel-3.8.4 recompiled with extended input support
- added following input drivers to userspace: acecad, aiptek, elographics, mutouch, penmount
- bumped flashplayer to latest version
- fixed firefox url agent which wont switch to mobile versions of the website anymore

please try it and report back in case of troubles with touchscreen devices.

[jmalon]

Thank you for your work!

I downloaded the latest Kiosk wizard and ran it. It downloaded the latest version of PKE and created the ISO. I tried it in VirtualBox and then burned the ISO to CD.

Touch capability is definitely active in the new version. I am now able to press on the buttons on the screen. Moving left and right on the screens is correct, but moving up and down is backwards. I am trying this out on an old Elo Touchsystems ET1525L-7CWC-1 connected to an IBM ThinkCentre (MT-M 8090-22U) via USB cable.

The next thing is to try your suggestions, "you'll have to use some distro different than Kiosk and create config files as described in linked Arch wiki articles, then use /rootcopy folder in Kiosk to copy required files (configs, utils, etc) to Kiosk session."

arch wiki:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Touchscreen
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ca ... ouchscreen


Thank you again for your work on this. I'll post any progress I make or problems I encounter.

[jmalon]

Does PKE have a file that performs the same function as /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf in the Ubuntu world?

How to - Ubuntu 12.04 Touchscreen calibration
http://www.thefanclub.co.za/how-to/how- ... alibration

If I want to include this option in PKE, would I do something like this?

Create the directory structure /usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf in /tmp/custom-kiosk/porteus/rootcopy/ with the 10-evdev.conf file looking like this?

10-evdev.conf:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "calibration"
MatchProduct "EloTouchSystems,Inc Elo TouchSystems 2216 AccuTouch® USB Touchmonitor Interface"
Option "Calibration" "516 3428 3422 665"
EndSection

[fanthom]

this file is there (inside 001-core.xzm) and you are using /rootcopy correctly (your modified evdev config will overwrite one from 001-core.xzm).

btw: i dont think your config is correct as MatchDevicePath and Driver are missing.
standard entry looks like:

Code: Select all

Section "InputClass"
        Identifier "evdev touchscreen catchall"
        MatchIsTouchscreen "on"
        MatchDevicePath "/dev/input/event*"
        Driver "evdev"
EndSection

[jmalon]

Thanks. I'll give this a try.

Can you tell me, is the calibration tied to the touch screen monitor, video resolution, video card model, etc???

[fanthom]

i have no idea but think that calibration is strictly hardware specific (different hardware == different calibration).
hope that i'm wrong.

[jmalon]

Me too.

I'll try it your way too.

This is the output from an Ubuntu 12.04 Live CD using the xinput-calibrator utility (which I had to install):

Calibrating EVDEV driver for "EloTouchSystems,Inc Elo TouchSystems 2216 AccuTouch® USB Touchmonitor Interface" id=11
current calibration values (from XInput): min_x=516, max_x=3424 and min_y=3425, max_y=671

Doing dynamic recalibration:
Setting new calibration data: 516, 3428, 3422, 665


--> Making the calibration permanent <--
copy the snippet below into '/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-calibration.conf'
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "calibration"
MatchProduct "EloTouchSystems,Inc Elo TouchSystems 2216 AccuTouch® USB Touchmonitor Interface"
Option "Calibration" "516 3428 3422 665"
EndSection

[fanthom]

ok so copy this config to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-calibration.conf either in 003-settings.xzm or /rootcopy and give a go.
i'm wondering it it would work for you