Open Bug 1530605 Opened 6 years ago Updated 1 year ago

firefox not responding to wacom pentablet

Categories

(Core :: Widget: Win32, defect, P3)

Product:
Core
Component:
Widget: Win32
Version:
65 Branch
Type:
defect

Tracking

()

Status:
ASSIGNED

People

(Reporter: blue-roses, Assigned: cmartin)

References

Details

(Whiteboard: [win:touch])

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:65.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/65.0

Steps to reproduce:

Been using windows10 PC and a Wacom intuos pro pen tablet for a while(following issue happened on least 3 different PCs).

Actual results:

when I use the browser with my wacom pen(meaning when I try to click on things in the browser using the pen), the browser would often not respnd( I would say 65% chance not responding). The moment I touch the mouse the brouser seemes to recognize the action I had given it by my pen.

Expected results:

Back with the earlier firefox, using the wacom pen as a mouse was not a problem.
It would be awesome if you can fix this response issue the browser has.
thanks.

Hi @blue-roses, I've tested the issue on Microsoft Surface Pro Pen on windows 10 - Firefox release 65.0.2 and latest nightly 67.0a1 but cannot reproduce the issue. The usability of the pen works properly without errors.
Could you please test it with the latest nightly by downloading from here: https://nightly.mozilla.org/ and let me know if the problem will occur.

Flags: needinfo?(blue-roses)

Hi thanks for the reply. I just up dated to Nightly.
The issue seems to be still present. If I click on any tab, link, or page with my pen, the browser will freeze until I move my mouse. The moment I touch my mouse, the browser would respond again.
This is with my Wacom Intuos pro pen tablet. Not the Microsoft Surface pro pen so they might be responding differently.
Is it possible to test it with Wacom Intuos pro? Its kind of a designers gear so Wacom might be having some compatibility issues but this is been going on for a while and I've tested with different PCs and different Wacom Intuos pro tablets and drivers and it seemes like a common bug. Sorry for the trouble.

Here is the link for the pen product I'm using.
https://www.wacom.com/en-jp/products/pen-tablets/wacom-intuos-pro

Worst case I can live with it but it would be great if the bug goes away, since I've been a long fan of both Firefox and Wacom.
Thanks again for your help. Have a great day.

Hi @blue-roses, unfortunately I don't have this kind of tablet "Wacom Intuos Pro".

Ok never mind then. thanks anyways.

Flags: needinfo?(blue-roses)

Hi @blue-roses, If you said that with earlier versions the pen works properly could be a regression thing. I will set a component to this issue and maybe someone that has a "Wacom Intuos Pro" tablet could help us with the testing.
Additionally, could you check if on your tablet do you have updated the special program for it?
Thanks for your contribution.

Component: Untriaged → Panning and Zooming
Product: Firefox → Core

I don't think we have one of these tablets lying around. But if this is a regression (i.e. it worked in a previous version) then the most useful thing would be to run mozregression (see https://mozilla.github.io/mozregression/) and identify which change caused this to break. That will help us identify a fix faster.

Component: Panning and Zooming → Widget: Win32

The priority flag is not set for this bug.
:jimm, could you have a look please?

Flags: needinfo?(jmathies)

Hey Sylvestr

Flags: needinfo?(jmathies)
Priority: -- → P3

Hello everyone,
I know I am answering quite some time after the last comment, but I just encountered this issue with a different tablet brand and found a possible workaround.

I own a Huion h640P tablet and I recently started to use it as a mouse.
When using it with Firefox I noticed that I can interact with the browser for about 30 seconds, then the interface of the browser stops responding to the pen. However, I can still interact with the webpages. For instance, with the pen I can still play/stop music on Spotify but I can not close, switch or create tabs.
If I move the pen out of the range of the tablet AND move the mouse (actual mouse or trackpad), all the actions with the pen are suddenly performed.

While testing different settings of the tablet I noticed that DISABLING Windows Ink in the settings of the tablet (Huion Tablet app) removed any traces of the previous issue, which means no more frozen Firefox interface.
Please note that I did not change any setting outside of the Huion Tablet app.

Thanks for your time.

Had the same problem on Huion H610 Pro. Since it is using the PenTabet driver, the workaround is to DISABLE the "Support TabletPC" option in the driver settings.

For me, I could not even interact with the web page - for example I would click a link, the browser would behave as if it was loading, but nothing would happen until I pressed a key on the keyboard or moved the actual mouse. Then all the actions I queried with the stylus would be executed all at once.

After some additional testing, it seems the problem happens when the pen pressure reaches the maximum. Maybe this causes some overflow then, which causes actions to be queued, but not executed?

I found this same problem while using both a Wacom Intuos tablet (CTH-690) and a Huion Kamvas Pro 13 (GT-133). The behavior was similar to what Emil and Tizio described, where the browser would stop responding to input from the tablet, and only when I moved the cursor with another device would the "queued" inputs happen.

A workaround is to disable the "Windows Ink" option that both tablets had in their driver software. For the Wacom drivers, I was able to disable this on a per-program basis, but the Huion drivers only allow a global toggle, which then makes other tablet actions (e.g. scrolling) more difficult.

This is on 80.0b8. If it helps, I can try installing previous versions of Firefox to try to pinpoint which version tablet input stopped working on, since it seems to have been working at some point prior to 65.

What helped for me (using a xp-pen artist 2) to use windows ink, was to switch on dom.w3c_pointer_events.dispatch_by_pointer_messages in about:config.

(reference: https://paintberri.com/posts/FirefoxWindows-pen-pressure-by-etherpendant-By13Xixmf)

(In reply to Henk from comment #13)

What helped for me (using a xp-pen artist 2) to use windows ink, was to switch on dom.w3c_pointer_events.dispatch_by_pointer_messages in about:config.

(reference: https://paintberri.com/posts/FirefoxWindows-pen-pressure-by-etherpendant-By13Xixmf)

I can second this 100%.

I'm using One by Wacom with Windows Ink enabled on "Wacom Tablet Properties", and had issues on multiple online whiteboard apps:

  • On Miro, the whiteboard didn't seem to take pen input at all, weirdly enough (works just fine on the Windows app, tho, but that's not a Firefox issue :D).

  • On Google Jamboard, the web app registered the input, but as holding the pen down seemed to also cause the panning, I couldn't draw vertical lines.

dom.w3c_pointer_events.dispatch_by_pointer_messages = false seems to cause the panning (and seemingly some other "issues" when attempting to draw with the pen instead of scrolling the page with it)

Anyway, as Henk suggested, enabling dom.w3c_pointer_events.dispatch_by_pointer_messages helped with all the issues in my case. Both Miro and Jamboard work seemingly as intended now. They still don't seem to support pressure sensitivity, but I doubt either was even designed with that in mind.

I never thought somebody had these issues. Glad to see this forum.
I have issue with CTH-461 Wacom Bamboo pen. Windows ink is turned off. I've tried turning off. The issue is only when I use the Inspector and start dragging using the handles.
Have tried turning off the w3c_pointer_events but not effective.
Will update if I find a solution. As mentioned above, it might be because of the pressure applied.

Im on Wacom Intous 2, XD-0608-U, Win7, Firefox 97.0. Started about a week ago - Pen drag and rearrange tabs would not work. This is what helped me, from Henk (1y ago, see above):

What helped for me (using a xp-pen artist 2) to use windows ink, was to switch on dom.w3c_pointer_events.dispatch_by_pointer_messages in about:config.
(reference: https://paintberri.com/posts/FirefoxWindows-pen-pressure-by-etherpendant-By13Xixmf)

Really strange this, it seems an update to v97 caused it. Thanks Henk, how on earth did you pinpoint this:)

Severity: normal → S2
Priority: P3 → P2
Whiteboard: [win:touch]

So the last major update to Firefox (v97 I think) seems to have broken the usability with my Wacom Bamboo create tablet. I can't click and drag anymore with it and the hover over to view links doesn't seem to work ether. This is getting to be a problem and really slowing down my work.

(In reply to Jnebeker92 from comment #17)

So the last major update to Firefox (v97 I think) seems to have broken the usability with my Wacom Bamboo create tablet. I can't click and drag anymore with it and the hover over to view links doesn't seem to work ether. This is getting to be a problem and really slowing down my work.

Are you referring to using the pen to click and drag? If so, would you be able to run Mozregression to see when this issue started occurring?

Flags: needinfo?(Jnebeker92)

(In reply to Jnebeker92 from comment #17)

So the last major update to Firefox (v97 I think) seems to have broken the usability with my Wacom Bamboo create tablet. I can't click and drag anymore with it and the hover over to view links doesn't seem to work ether. This is getting to be a problem and really slowing down my work.

Sounds like you may be running into bug 1754997. There's a workaround described in bug 1754997 comment 4 that might help.

Took awhile but I was able to give it a try, unfortunately it didn't work but hey I learned something new.

Flags: needinfo?(Jnebeker92)

I hope this is the right place / bug to report to.

I'm having these issues with pen tablets in any FF flavor (standard, dev, nightly) in Win10 for several years now with most DevTools panels and many Map web apps or <canvas> based web apps like Figma.

Over these years I've been using different tablets: Wacom Bamboo, Wacom Intuos, Gaomon always with their latest drivers installed and Windows Ink disabled.
FF has problems with each device and is the only app (I use) to have such issues.

The good news

Simple clickery works for the document, internal browser pages (add ons, settings, about:foo), bookmarks, side bars etc. and LRM button clicks also work as configured in the tablet driver settings.

Browser Windows

  • Bookmarks Manager: the width of the tree view as well as individual columns are resizable
  • Page info / Media Tab: the list of of page resources is resizable

Canvas driven apps: virtually all broken

I can't move the visible area of most map apps (such as Apple Maps on DuckDuckGo) but have to use the arrow keys. Same in Figma or similar "canvas" based apps. Double clicks on their canvas doesn't "zoom in" so there's some issue with how the canvas element processes "drag" and "pointer" event types (mouse vs. pointer).
Having coded on with MapLibre (Mapbox) I noticed map drags are very jittery

It appears however that this is primarily a distinction whether they use "mouse" and "pointer" event listeners and particular with anything that involves "holding the pen pressed down and moving it" aka dragging or panning while potentially also holding down modifier keys like Ctrl+Alt (Photoshop like pan and zoom shortcuts also used in Figma)
I need to launch Chrome or Edge to utilize these apps (Opera and Brave work, too = Chromium/Blink)

Native Dev Tools Panels are virtually broken

I noticed most panels can't be (properly) resized and the mouse cursor and separators freeze while doing so, while a few panels work - also depending on their horizontal or vertical layout {there's an utterly tedious workaround for either}

Dev Tools features two different types of side panels: some have a "collapse button", some don't. I believe the former are having these issues.

  • Console: split into side-by-side editor and log and the log's width can't be changed
  • Inspector: neither of the vertical 2 or 3 mode columns can't be resized. In the narrow horizontal layout (HTML-code view on top + panels below), the panels' block can't be resized, HOWEVER: if the console is also present (3 rows layout) the lower console section with the console can be vertically resized (and pushes the middle section up)
  • Style Editor: left source file panel freezes, right @media panel can be resized
  • Network: right resource details panel can't be resized
  • Debugger: neither left sources/outline panel nor the right debug panel can be resized
  • Storage: left panel with storage types can be resized as can the right data view (at least for localStorage) -- and there goes my theory about panels with a toggle button are broken
  • Accessibility: right Checks/Properties panel can't be resized
  • Memory: pan in the zoomed in "Tree view" works
  • Responsive Design View with touch enabled: "swipes" and drags are jittery

Panels using their own markup work fine, like the 3rd party Vue.js Dev Tools.

The tricky workaround: as resizing these specific panels occasionally seemed to work I found that it I have to very, very, very slowly move the pressed pen horizontally to resize things. The sensitive area appears to be the resize cursor size: if I move too fast it all freezes and I need to go back (w/o the pen pressed), "pick up" the panel separator and proceed very, very, very slowly -- like 4px per second slow ..
However, this doesn't help with drags and pan in the map/canvas apps mentioned.

I hope this helps to narrow down the cause of this utter nuisance.

New bug with Wacom bamboo create tablet. Unable to click and drag the scroll bar with in Firefox. I am able to do this in other programs but not firefox. When I try to click the scroll bar and move it the movement is inverted. I can still click the scroll area and the bar will rapidly slide over to that position. No idea what caused this to start but it's been doing it for a few days now and I can't fix it.

(In reply to Jnebeker92 from comment #22)

New bug with Wacom bamboo create tablet. Unable to click and drag the scroll bar with in Firefox. I am able to do this in other programs but not firefox. When I try to click the scroll bar and move it the movement is inverted. I can still click the scroll area and the bar will rapidly slide over to that position. No idea what caused this to start but it's been doing it for a few days now and I can't fix it.

That sounds like bug 1787361, which is a recent regression and it'll be fixed in the next version. Sorry that you ran into that bug.

(In reply to Timothy Nikkel (:tnikkel) from comment #23)
Ok thank you!

I managed to reproduce some of the issues the other users mentioned above:
I tested Firefox 106.0b8 on Windows 10 64-bits with a XP Pen Artist 12 Tablet.

  • I couldn't reproduce the browser freezes/unresponsiveness. Pen works fine in this regard and the browser is performing well. Stress-testing the browser resulted in no crashes so far, but it might be useful to test further.
  • Dragging/Moving the tabs: Can't move tabs with dom.w3c_pointer_events.dispatch_by_pointer_messages = false . Setting this pref to true will allow dragging the active tab only. The rest cannot be moved/dragged. If Let me use my pen as a mouse in some desktop app pref is checked in Windows Ink it solves this issue, but only if dom.w3c_pointer_events.dispatch_by_pointer_messages = false. This might need more investigations.
  • Panels in DevTools can't be resized as mentioned in Comment 21 with dom.w3c_pointer_events.dispatch_by_pointer_messages = false. Setting this pref to true will allow a laggy response, and some panels can be resized afterwards, but the pen alone cannot finish the resize. Tapping the pen does nothing to "save" the resize.
  • Windows Ink - more specifically the Let me use my pen as a mouse in some desktop app pref checked - Pen cannot scroll in-page anymore, only via scroll bar. Unchecking this preference will allow in-page scrolling again. I do think this would be somewhat expected, since a mouse and tablet pen have different behaviours in this regard, but I would be glad to hear a more experienced opinion on this.
  • Windows Ink - more specifically the Let me use my pen as a mouse in some desktop app pref checked, bug 1754997 is reproducible. I can only double-tap and select a word, but a triple-tap will not select the whole paragraph/sentence. Swiping left/right to select text is also affected.
  • Canvas/Whiteboard/Maps:
  1. Miro : Nothing concerning so far, accepts pen input.
  2. Google Jamboard: reproducing the issue mentioned in Comment 14 to a degree; I am able to draw vertical lines but the app won't always register all the pen movements; sometimes the lines are cropped/choppy. This might have to do more with the way the pen is configured since tablet input is based on pressure sensitivity. Having dom.w3c_pointer_events.dispatch_by_pointer_messages = true will solve this issue as stated before.
  3. Navigating in Maps(DuckDuckGo and Google) : Nothing concerning so far. Pen is able to move around the map/toggle the available options.
  4. Figma: Lagging intermitently. Not sure if related, will investigate further.
  5. DeviantArt Muro: Not sure if related, but Muro cannot use other tools except the "Draw" button. Selecting the "Eraser" or "Eye Dropper", for example, will default back to "Draw" button. I can't reproduce this in Chrome. I'll check for an existing bug or open a new one, depending on the findings.
  • Sliders are also affected: The value can be changed only by tapping/pointing the pen on the slider, but not by swiping left/right. This happens regardless of any preference tweak.

I would like to know if it's more preferable to open a different bug for each of the issues mentioned above. I will start looking for possible regressions regarding each issue and hopefully return with more relevant information as soon as possible.

Flags: needinfo?(spohl.mozilla.bugs)

(In reply to Ardelean Oana from comment #25)
Thank you, for your tests and partial confirmation.

All (3) dom.w3c_pointer_events.* settings are set to their default true, so that setting doesn't change anything for me for DevTools or (Apple) Maps.
Enabling Windows Ink Let me use my pen as a mouse in some desktop app also doesn't make a difference.
To my understanding, Windows Ink and any of it's features are disabled anyway. Only the Wacom Driver is active.

Flags: needinfo?(spohl.mozilla.bugs) → needinfo?(cmartin)

I have a refactoring of the Windows touch code coming up, which will hopefully also solve issues like these. I will add testing of these tablet devices to my test plan for this fix.

Assignee: nobody → cmartin
Status: UNCONFIRMED → ASSIGNED
Ever confirmed: true
Flags: needinfo?(cmartin)
Severity: S2 → S3
Priority: P2 → P3
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