HPEN(4)

📦
version 15.1 · 2 versions
, in freebsd 15.1, nixpkgs unstable

💖 HPEN(4) — okay bestie, let's talk about your pen tablet 💅

The manual is called HPEN(4), and it's highkey the cutest little driver for making your fancy pen tablet actually work on Unix. Let's get into it, no cap.

✨ NAME ✨

hpen — the MS Windows compatible HID pen tablet driver. Yes, it's literally giving "I speak Windows so your tablet doesn't have to" energy. 🖊️✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

Okay so if you wanna compile this driver into the kernel (main character energy, we love to see it), you gotta place these lines in your kernel configuration file:

device hpen
device hid
device hidbus
device hidmap
device evdev

Alternatively — and this is the lowkey easier route — if you wanna load the driver as a module at boot time, put this line in loader.conf(5):

hpen_load="YES"

That's it. That's the whole vibe check. 🎀

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The hpen driver provides support for generic MS Windows compatible HID pen tablet and digitizer that attach to the HID transport backend. Like, it's fr fr out here making your tablet work. See iichid(4) or usbhid(4) for the backend details, iykyk.

The /dev/input/event* device presents the pen as a evdev type device. So your system sees it, your apps see it, everyone's happy. 💖

🌈 SYSCTL VARIABLES 🌈

The following variable is available as both a sysctl(8) variable and a loader(8) tunable:

  • dev.hpen.X.debug — Debug output level, where 0 is debugging disabled and larger values increase debug message verbosity. Default is 0. So if you're not debugging, it's literally zero drama. If you are debugging, turn it up and watch the messages roll in. 🔥

It's default value is set with loader(8) tunable:

hw.hid.hpen.debug

So yeah, you can set the default debug level at boot if you're that kind of person. We respect it. 💅

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /dev/input/event* — input event device node. This is where the pen shows up so the rest of the system can be obsessed with it. 🖊️

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

Go check out these besties:

They're all part of the same friend group, fr fr. 🫶

💀 BUGS 💀

Okay so there are a couple of things hpen cannot do, and we gotta be real about it:

  • hpen cannot act like sysmouse(4). Not me pointing out the limitations, but like, it's just not that girl. 🙈
  • Pen battery charge level reporting is not supported. So you won't know how much juice your pen has left. Tragic, honestly. 😭

But like, it still slays at everything else, so we move. 💜

👑 HISTORY 👑

The hpen driver first appeared in FreeBSD 13.0. A legend was born, periodt. ✨

🌸 AUTHORS 🌸

The hpen driver was written by Val Packett <val@packett.cool>. Iconic behavior.

This manual page was written by Vladimir Kondratyev <wulf@FreeBSD.org>. Also iconic. We stan both. 💖

This page is serving Debian September 14, 2020 energy — that's the source, version, and date, bestie. Now go forth and pen-tablet your heart out. Stay hydrated, slay responsibly, and remember: the vibe check is eternal. 🧚✨💅
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