Troubleshooting

My tablet doesn't work at all

This is not a libwacom issue. libwacom is a database of static information -- it has no effect on whether your tablet works. It can only inform other components about the device's properties (like whether it's built into a screen or how many buttons it has).

If pen input, buttons, or touch don't work at all, the problem is elsewhere in the stack:

For kernel-level issues (the device doesn't show up in /proc/bus/input/devices or libinput record shows no events), the issue is in the kernel driver. Wacom devices use the input-wacom driver. Huion, XP-Pen, Gaomon, and other UCLogic-based devices use the kernel's hid-uclogic driver or udev-hid-bpf.

If the device works at the kernel level (libinput record shows events) but not in your desktop session, the problem is in the userspace stack. Under Wayland this is typically libinput or your compositor (e.g. GNOME's mutter, KDE's KWin). Under X11, it is usually the xf86-input-wacom driver.

A good starting point for debugging is libinput debug-events. If that tool shows pen and button events correctly, the kernel driver is fine and the issue is in the compositor or desktop environment.

My tablet works but doesn't show up in GNOME/KDE settings

This usually means libwacom doesn't have a .tablet file for your device. Run libwacom-list-local-devices to check -- if your device is missing from the output, you need to add a tablet definition file.

A .tablet file exists but my device isn't found

If the right .tablet file already exists in libwacom but libwacom-list-local-devices doesn't show your device, the most likely cause is that the file is missing a DeviceMatch entry for your specific hardware revision. Different production runs of the same tablet model sometimes use different USB product IDs.

Find your device's bus type, vendor ID, and product ID (using lsusb or /proc/bus/input/devices) and compare against the DeviceMatch line in the .tablet file. If your IDs aren't listed, add them as a new semicolon-separated entry.

Duplicate matches

If libwacom-list-local-devices complains about duplicate matches, two different .tablet files contain the same DeviceMatch entry. This typically happens when you install libwacom from source on top of a distribution-provided version with different filenames.

To fix it, search for the duplicated match string in /usr/share/libwacom/:

$ grep -r "056a|00d0" /usr/share/libwacom/

Identify which file is outdated and remove it. If both files are shipped by libwacom itself (rather than one being a leftover from an old distro package), please file an issue.

If you're testing custom tablet files in /etc/libwacom/, make sure the filename matches the one in /usr/share/libwacom/ -- files in /etc/libwacom/ override files in /usr/share/libwacom/ by filename. If you use a different filename, both files will be loaded and you'll get duplicate matches.

Wacom Intuos showing wrong vendor ID (2d1f)

Some third-generation Wacom Intuos tablets received a firmware update for Android compatibility. The tablet tries to detect whether it's connected to an Android system, and if it thinks it is, it presents itself with vendor ID 2d1f instead of the normal 056a. This misdetection can be triggered by the fwupd service on Linux.

The affected models are:

Name	Model	Normal VID:PID
Wacom Intuos M	CTL-6100	056a:0375
Wacom Intuos BT M	CTL-6100WL	056a:0378
Wacom Intuos S	CTL-4100	056a:0374
Wacom Intuos BT S	CTL-4100WL	056a:0376

To switch the tablet back to its normal mode, hold down buttons 1 and 4 simultaneously for several seconds.

If the problem keeps recurring, it's being triggered by fwupd. You can disable it if nothing else on your system depends on it:

$ sudo systemctl stop fwupd.service
$ sudo systemctl disable fwupd.service
$ sudo systemctl mask fwupd.service