Missing cursor for Wacom Tablet

[Androix]

Hello everyone

I'm using a Wacom Tablet in Photoshop, but I can't see its current position when drawing. Only the mouse cursor is displayed. How can I enable the Wacom cursor?

Regards

[socratis]

You don't mention your host, your guest, your Wacom tablet model, how it connects to your computer or any other information. Since I do not personally have a Wacom tablet I can't offer anything than general help.
• Is your device a USB one?
• Have you captured it in your guest?
• Have you installed drivers (if any) in the guest?

[Androix]

Oh, I'm sorry, unfortunately I forgot to add the informations. Here they're:

VBox: 5.0.2. r102096
Host: Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64-Bit
Guest: Windows 10 Home 1607 64-Bit (not activated)
Wacom: Bamboo CTH-670
Driver: Bamboo Dock 5.3.5-3
Connection: USB
Captured: Yes / it's running on the Windows-Driver

Also I've set the hook in the menu Devices > USB > Wacom (...).

The tablet works perfectly including the pressure sensitivity, but this is useless if I don't see where I'm drawing. The tablet was made about 2011, so maybe it's too old for Windows 10, but because it works without further problems I don't think this is the problem.

[socratis]

Couple of followups:

• How certain are you about the support of this tablet?
• Have you asked Wacom about their Win10 support?
• Did you search for similar problems without including the VirtualBox factor?

[Androix]

The tablet is working perfectly so I'm very sure it's supported. It's just that Photoshop doesn't display the tablet's pen cursor. You're probably right it's not related to the Virtualbox itself since the device is only passed through...

[socratis]

It might be a funky graphics issue, you wouldn't be 100% sure unless you were trying it in the real thing. Plus, it might be difficult to find another user with your exact setup...

[Androix]

Thank you for your support, socratis. Turns out that it's a Windows problem and fortunately I've found a solution. In case there's someone else with a similar problem, the following steps worked for me:

1) Starting VBox
2) Activate Windows cursor trails (I use short because it's less annoying)
3) Start Photoshop
4) While PS is running you can disable the cursor trails

[socratis]

That's quite an interesting ... solution/workaround!
Thanks for reporting back.

[RTTST]

I have found that the only decent way my Intuous Pro tablet will work properly on a Win7 Guest in VirtualBox 5.1 is by NOT installing the VboxGuestAdditions drivers. Hence, the Wacom interface between a CentOS host and the Win7 Guest is getting trashed somehow by the GuestAdditions drivers. Without the GA drivers, my Intuous Pro tablet maps, displays, pressure and tilt all work as designed in both single monitor and multi-monitor mode. Add, the GA drivers, and one has to resort to the handstands mentioned to get it to work.

[RTTST]

Is there a way to selectively install drivers from GuestAdditions? For instance I am able to pull up a triple-display mode by selecting a previously installed version of the GA vga driver within the Win7 guest environment. I used the Update Driver in device manager for same. I selected the "Let me choose" option, and pointed to a previous GA driver.

Again, the Wacom Intuous Pro continues to work as designed provided I do not install the GA iso. I found I also had to select PS/2 mouse as the input device. Using USB tablet and/or USB Multi-touch Tablet confined the mouse cursor within Win7 to the Primary display. Wacom even reported an update for the device, which never happened with the GA drivers active.

The one side effect is mouse integration. Without mouse integration offered by GA, I lose mouse focus every time I hit the Win7 task bar, Start, or initiate an Admin level mouse activity. It's annoying at first, because one has to re-enter the active window and locate the cursor. Otherwise, the situ works well in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. BTW, any input interaction from the Wacom tablet remains captured in the guest environment.

Ultimately, I think a correction to whatever corrupts or "enhances" the experience from the GuestAdditions is needed. However, being able to select the drivers of choice from the GA might be a focus for future development. Such is the case with Windows Certified drivers in Windows updates. They are not always welcomed.

Cheers,

A>AM

[socratis]

Is there a way to selectively install drivers from GuestAdditions?

I read your post three times and I still don't understand what you want to selectively install. Or I should say, I got the impression that you don't want the "Mouse Integration"? If so, did you uncheck the menu option Input » Mouse Integration?

[RTTST]

There is something with Guest Additions that corrupts the Wacom use for Vbox 5.1.

Option A: Don't use the GA drivers on the Win7 guest, the Wacom tablet is easily recognized and it works as designed in Adobe products such as Illustrator. But obviously, mouse integration has bugs in its such as selecting admin functions on Win7 guest loses mouse capture. One has to click in the guest window again to re-establish the focus. Annoying, but tolerable.

Option B: Enable GA drivers on the guest, the tablet is detected, but its pen cursor remains invisible. But, mouse integration remains captured unless Host button is pressed.

My wish is to permit mouse integration without sending the Wacom pen's cursor into ether. I don't know what takes place behind the scenes. The Wacom device is selected as a pass-through USB device. Is GA changing/managing the drivers for that action? If so, I would like to selectively omit that influence while taking advantage of mouse integration.

Or, is it simply a GUI issue with mouse integration when GA is installed on the guest Win7 device?

[Zorba]

Hi,

I'd like to chime in with my Wacom/Virtualbox experience. The results are the same whether I'm on a Linux host or Windows and any version of Virtualbox 5.1.6 - 5.1.14.

The issue I'm having seems to be related to Open GL as far as I can tell. I can have the Wacom tablet work in windows with mouse integration turned off fine no probs, however, I need to have the option to allow 3D acceleration so that the software I use inside the VM can function properly because it uses Open GL for it's graphics functionality.

The problem is the pen cursor seems to disappear behind the drawing area of the software, accessing menus and operating tools around the affected area is fine. The way I would describe it is, it's like a Z-buffer sorting problem where the cursor falls behind the layer you trying to draw on. Drawing does indeed appear when applied, you just can't see where the cursor is. If 3D is turned off the problem goes away but hen the software doesn't display it's drawing capabilities the way it should. Which in turn makes it useless.

It's a catch 22 type situation. Anyway hope this makes sense to somebody and knows of a solution. Uninstalling Guest additions doesn't seem to be an option as that's needed the 3D acceleration/Open GL Right?

Thanks!

[RTTST]

Zorba, I have found that you can disable GA first. Then in your guest system [Windows presumed] navigate to the Display adapters properties in Device Manager. From there select Update Driver. Then choose "Browse my computer..."to install from local source and "Let me pick..." to manually choose a previous VirtualBox Graphics Adapters. In my case I am using version 5.1.8.0. The 3D acceleration may then work without installing the full GA suite. It worked for my graphics in that it permitted 3 seamless displays without having to "Insert the Guest Additions CD image" You might try that. The Wacom product works as designed. But, problem is losing mouse focus becomes cumbersome as you have already experienced.

I agree that it is probably a Z level issue with mouse integration. It is difficult to start drawing in Adobe Illustrator if you don't know where the pen is on the workspace. I am considering other options for the Adobe suite using Linux developed products. Adobe is the only reason I have any ties to Windows. Soooo...Adobe may be going way as well unless Oracle can properly integrate at least the Intuous Pro device into its GA mouse integration.

[Zorba]

Hey thanks for the tip!

Yes, I'm running a windows guest on a linux host. I didn't see a way to disable GA so I uninstalled it from within the windows guest, then followed your idea of installing earlier versions of virtualbox display adapters, I only had 2 versions 5.0.14 and 5.0.24. The net effect of all that was, it was just like running virtualbox without the 3D acceleration checked even though I had. I tried both adapters but same deal. I reinstalled GA and did the same procedure of down grading the display adapter but had
no effect. That's my sad face.

So it's basically 3D acceleration, open GL is not playing nice with the program inside the VM. I running a GTX 1080 on a 3770K and was thinking of trying the graphics passthrough method of dedicating the graphics processor of the 3770k to the VM but sadly Intel disabled the VT-D tech on the chip for some crap reason and as far as I've
found out can't do it without that. That's another sad face.

I'm open any other ideas?

It is a bit weird, cause if I disable 3d acceleration and try to use the software I get the same effect of a disappearing pointer, until I disable mouse integration, then it sort of works, as in the pointer can be seen and the wacom pressure and all that is working. The problem is the software uses advanced brush styles for drawing which use some sort of realtime opacity mask which can't be rendered properly without the OpenGL 3D accleration...

It all boils down to how mouse integration and the OpenGL implementation works in virtualbox as far as I can see.