When I first got the Sensel Morph (Nov 2017), I plugged it in and it didn’t work with GIMP immediately so I set it aside to revisit when I had more time. Well, I finally have more time (Jan 2018). I don’t see many posts related to GNU/Linux support, so I thought I’d post my findings here.
GNU/Linux flavor I’m using is openSUSE Leap 42.3, kernel 4.4.104-39-default
I have the Sensel Morph model S0001 with Keyboard, Art and Video Editing overlays
The first crucial step is to update the firmware on the Morph. Unfortunately, as of this writing, the Sensel App doesn’t run on GNU/Linux. I used a MacBook Air to download and install the app. The app is pretty straight-forward to operate. It became apparent that I needed to tell the Morph which overlays I had and with what settings I wanted the overlays to have. After doing the firmware update and defining the overlays, the Morph worked on my GNU/Linux boxen.
Keyboard - no changes, works as expected, though the tactile feel is no match for my mechanical keyboard.
Art - I redefined the sliders and buttons to have some of the shortcuts in GIMP. For example, the top-left “.” is Undo (ctrl-z) and the top-left “…” is Redo (ctrl-y).
Video Editing - I redefined a few buttons to work with Kdenlive, but I’ll need to revisit this.
If you have a dual monitor setup, the touchpad on the Morph will cover the space of both monitors. This makes it awkward to work with GIMP on only one of the monitors. Here’s how to restrict the touchpad to only one monitor:
You will need two programs:
xinput - might not be already installed, so you may need to install it on your GNU/Linux boxen. It’s the program to allow you to query which device id’s the Morph mounted at and allow you to restrict the touchpad to only one monitor.
xrandr - tells you which monitors you have on your system
At the top of the Art overlay, there are three buttons: pencil, paint and hand. The pencil does palm rejection. The paint does not. The hand is to have the overlay function like a mouse, which means the pointer will not jump around; it stays where it is left off.
In pencil mode, the Morph will sound an audible “click” when the pressure is enough to activate drawing or the pressure is released to stop drawing. Paint mode does not. Hand mode "click"s when the overlay is pressed enough for a mouse click (one finger - left mouse button, two fingers - right mouse button).
GIMP 2.8 Input Setup
Launch GIMP and select this menu item, Edit/Input Devices, which will pop up a Configure Input Devices window. You will see Sensel Sensel Morph, Sensel Sensel Morph Pen Pen (0) and Sensel Sensel Morph Touchpad. For each of these, change the Mode from “Disabled” to “Screen”, then Save.
Now, select a tool where pressure sensitivity is useful, like Pencil, Paintbrush, Eraser, Airbrush, Clone, Heal, Perspective Clone, Blur/Sharpen, Smudge, or Dodge/Burn. You’ll notice under Tool Options that there’s a Dynamics section which defaults to Pressure Opacity. While this Dynamics mode will work, it’s not a very “natural” media mode. To better mimic a pencil, paintbrush or airbrush, select a different Dynamics mode by clicking on the icon to the left of the word “Dynamics” (three dots with blue arrow). Select either Pencil Generic or Pen Generic. (The other Dynamics modes are probably good for different uses, but for me, these are what I’m after.)
Give it a whirl. You should see the pressure vary the opacity and width of the line.
