I setup a Dell Inspiron 2-in-1 for my Dad with Fedora 40 Kinoite. He wants a basic stylus but I don’t know anything about them. All the info I can find on the product page is saying that you can use an “active pen.” What am I looking for in a stylus to let me know if it’ll work? The Dell and Wacom stylus’ say they’re for Windows. Do these stylus’ need software to work and thus be stuck only working on Windows? Do they actually work on a firmware level? If you know of any that work I’m down for suggestions too.
IN THEORY, any active pen device will work unless it’s some crazy Bluetooth thing. Most of the more prominent makers use supported protocols (Wacom, MS, USI), but I’m sure there are some crazy cheap Amazon unknowns that use something else. Just stick to the major manufacturers, search what protocol they use, and if it’s one of the major knowns, it’ll work. How WELL it works is up to the pen and screen combination though.
Example: a pen may advertise 16k pressure sensitivity, or some tilt metric, but it may be that the screen will only be capable of X amount of capacitive touch. This shouldn’t be a concern unless this screen is way old though. The pen does most of the advertised work for the input.
What do you mean by “crazy Bluetooth thing”? Are you saying to avoid a stylus that only connects via Bluetooth? I wasn’t able to find the screen’s touch protocol even when checking Dell’s owners manual. I guess I’ll have to contact their support. I was able to find various stylus protocols however such as Wacom AES 1&2, WGP, in-cell panel support, and Microsoft Pen Protocol.
Crazy meaning some unknown protocol they call their own. If it’s a well-known protocol, it’s supported on Linux.
Gotcha, thank you very much
No idea but uBlue Aurora may be cool, try to rebase to it and see if you like it. It has a key input remapper included, and maybe a few more like solaar for LG stuff
I’ll check it out. You’re the second person to mention Aurora to me recently
I tried it and switched back because they remove Firefox and the terminal is annoying haha
I have the dell active pen on my xps 2 in 1, it works.
Oh that’s great to know. Does it have buttons on it? And if it does do they work or are programmable?
It does, two buttons along the side of the stylus and one on the top end
Great, thank you
Linux has had MPP (Microsoft Pen Protocol) support baked in for some time now. Dell sells such a pen which they call the Dell Active Pen but theoretically any MPP pen should work.
Okay I see. I read about that protocol on some pens. Good to know that Linux supports it. Thank you
For the love of god stop forcing people into Linux.
What if dad asked for linux?
When he heard of an alternative to Windows he jumped on it as he’s unhappy with Windows, like so many are.
People are sick and tired of Windows, subscriptions everywhere, and many other poor trends in life so you don’t really have to force people anywhere. They are unhappy but don’t know alternatives exist so when they hear about them many people are excited for change.
