No stylus pressure on Wacom Penabled Tablet PC

[Martoon]

WinXP Tablet PC Edition 2005 SP3 32bit
Sandboxie 3.48 32bit

I've got a Tablet PC with Wacom Penabled stylus input. The stylus supports pressure sensitivity in Photoshop and other applications. I'm using the Wacom Penabled driver 7.01-4b (latest driver from Wacom).

When I run apps like Photoshop in the sandbox, they have no pressure sensitivity from the stylus (they're fine outside the sandbox). When I installed Sandboxie, I noticed it said it was using a SynapticsTouchPad template, and in my config file, it has:

Code: Select all

[GlobalSettings]

Template=SynapticsTouchPad

The Tablet PC also has a regular touchpad for mouse input, as well as one of those joystick nubs in the middle of the keyboard. I'm guessing in the sandbox it's using the touchpad driver instead of the Wacom driver, or something? The stylus still works; I just have no pressure sensitivity.

I've tried deleting the Template=SynapticsTouchPad line from the config and reloading the configuration, but nothing changed.

/edit: Thought I should also add, even before using Sandboxie, the stylus pressure didn't work with the Wacom driver from the tablet manufacturer's website (it's an HP Compaq TC4400). I had to install the driver from the Wacom site (linked above) to get stylus pressure in Photoshop. With that driver, stylus pressure works, but not in a sandbox. I tried installing that driver again, from within the sandbox, but it made no difference.

[tzuk]

Please open Sandbox Settings > Restrictions > Hardware Accces. There is a second checkbox there that is about managing hardware devices. Try to select the checkbox and rerun Photoshop in the sandbox and see if that makes any difference.

[SnDPhoenix]

Hmm, now that I can run PS sandboxed correctly, and I happen to have a Wacom tablet myself, I can try this out and see if/what paths possibly need to be opened, provided tzuks suggestion doesn't work?
Only problem, is that I stopped using my tablet a while ago and so I put it away in storage to keep my desk clean, so now I'll have to wait til later to test this as I have to go get it, hook it up and install the driver.

[tzuk]

Sounds great SnD.

[Martoon]

Please open Sandbox Settings > Restrictions > Hardware Accces. There is a second checkbox there that is about managing hardware devices. Try to select the checkbox and rerun Photoshop in the sandbox and see if that makes any difference.

No luck with that.

[tzuk]

Alright, the second step we did when analysing the Synaptics issue was to enable the checkbox in Sandbox Settings > Applications > Acccessibility. There's just one checkbox, enable it and see if that makes a difference.

[SnDPhoenix]

Ok, here we go.
I am running Windows 7 x86, using the latest beta (v3.49.10), and I downloaded the latest driver for my tablet from this page.

I plugged my tablet in, installed the driver and immediately afterwards (after adjusting a couple settings for my tablet) I fired up Photoshop CS5 (unsandboxed), tried a simple test of just writing my name with the paintbrush tool, and the pressure sensitivity was working perfectly, "out of the box".

I went ahead and ran PS CS5 sandboxed (without any changes to sandbox) and although I could use my tablet to draw, PS wouldn't recognize sensitivity (such as touching the tablet lightly for a thin stroke, or pressing harder for a thicker stroke).

So I set out to discover what settings might allow PS to recognize sensitivity and I hit a dead end everywhere.
I'm gonna tell you how I tested this. Each time I made a change to a setting, I deleted the contents, opened PS, and if it didn't work, I terminated sandbox, deleted contents, removed the setting I just enabled, and tried a different setting... It was quite tedious.

Anyways, heres what I tried.
The second checkbox (manage hardware) in the "Hardware Access" pane did nothing, the first checkbox (Keyboard and mouse input) did nothing either. I tried enabling both those settings at the same time, and it did nothing as well.
I tried the accessibility setting you mentioned, that too did nothing. Then I tried the accessibility setting with the first "Hardware access" checkbox, the second checkbox, and both checkbox's enabled and nothing worked.

So then I decided, to fire up R.A.M. to see what might be blocked.
I made sure there were no settings I mentioned earlier still enabled, and made sure the sandbox was clean. Then I opened PS, opened R.A.M. and tried the same name test I mentioned earlier.
The only things that showed up in the R.A.M. log was this:

Clsid -------------------------------
File/Key -------------------------------
Image -------------------------------
Ipc -------------------------------
Ipc O \RPC Control\SbieSvcPort
Ipc X \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\TipAlpcServer
Pipe -------------------------------
WinCls -------------------------------
WinCls O #32768
WinCls O Shell_TrayWnd

I tried opening paths to those (few) objects, one at a time and nothing worked.

So now I am personally out of ideas, and I've tried what I think is everything possible and nothing worked. Anybody else have any ideas?
Also, just for the record, Sandboxie didn't enable the Synaptics template that Martoon mentioned earlier, atleast not on my system.

[tzuk]

The only things that showed up in the R.A.M. log was this:

That is very little output, so something must be wrong.

Also I was surprised to see the Accessibility checkbox didn't have any effect on the problem.

[SnDPhoenix]

That is very little output, so something must be wrong.

Agreed.
So right now, what I am going to try to do is find another drawing/painting program that has Wacom tablet support builtin and see if I get some more items in the R.A.M. log with that program.

Hopefully I'll find something in the log that I can use to enable pressurre sensitivity in Photoshop, atleast thats my goal.
I'll post my results in a little bit.

[SnDPhoenix]

Wow, this is incredible.
While I was away, I decided to try installing and running my Artrage Studio Pro (v3.07) sandboxed.
Created a new sandbox, didn't change any settings, and installed Artrage.
I opened Artrage, went to "Edit -> Artrage preferences". In the preferences is a dropdown titled "Input device", I clicked it and under the "Tablet options" are two checkmarks. I checked "Precise tablet" ("Use ink services" was already checked).

Then using my tablet, I selected the "Watercolor" brush (as its thinner) and started writing and pressure sensitivity worked perfectly!
No changes were required to the sandbox, WTH?

If Martoon is still following this thread, can you try downloading the trial version of Artrage (Studio Pro) v3? I don't know how different the trial is from the purchased version, but it should work fine.
Install it sandboxed so you can just delete the sandbox later and tell me if your tablet works fine as well using the steps I described above.

Oh almost forgot, heres the R.A.M. log from Artrage.

Clsid -------------------------------
Clsid {786CDB70-1628-44A0-853C-5D340A499137} TabletManager Class
File/Key -------------------------------
Image -------------------------------
Ipc -------------------------------
Ipc O \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\__DDrawCheckExclMode__
Ipc O \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\__DDrawExclMode__
Ipc X \Sessions\1\BaseNamedObjects\TipAlpcServer
Pipe -------------------------------
WinCls -------------------------------
WinCls O $:ArtRage Studio Pro.exe
WinCls O $:wisptis.exe
WinCls X #32769
WinCls X #32770
WinCls X Button

Not much better than the previous log...
Anyways, I tried those additional few lines and they didn't work with Photoshop either.

[Porksword]

I realize this is a pretty old thread, but I just ran into this issue and figured I'd share the solution that worked for me.

Basically, I just had to stop the wacom tablet driver service, and then manually start it up again within the sandbox.

Starting it via a sandboxed services.msc didn't work, but running each process individually did. For me, that was Wacom_Tablet.exe, Wacom_TabletUser.exe, and then "Wacom_Tablet.exe au". It may be different for you, but Process Explorer or something similar should enable finding the necessary command line switches.

[Guest10]

Basically, I just had to stop the wacom tablet driver service, and then manually start it up again within the sandbox.
Starting it via a sandboxed services.msc didn't work, but running each process individually did.

I don't know if it would be of use to you in starting services, but there is a StartService setting:
http://www.sandboxie.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=7512

[SnDPhoenix]

Not sure if this is just a coincidence or what, but tzuk just released v3.55.02 with a new hardware manager built into Sandboxie.
Seeing as this thread was about trying to get a particular function of a piece of hardware to work, I wonder if the new beta would work great now with Wacom tablets in PS?

[Root7]

Did any body found a suitable solution for this issue in the meantime?
To start the service in the Sandbox did not bought a solution to me. I still do not have access to pressure of the Pen in Photoshop or any other program that uses pressure and runs in the sandbox.

[ludovicrouy]

I've tried all solutions found here but pressure didn't work and the wacom driver didn't start in sandbox if I try to Wacom Tablet properties
Is there something else to try ?