This article provides details about possible issues with downloading or installing the Linux MultiTouch driver

Please see the information below regarding possible issues while downloading or installing the Linux MultiTouch driver.

This Tech Bulletin serves the purpose of helping answer customer queries related to multitouch devices on Linux and the download of Elo Linux drivers from our website.

Item 1: Multitouch Digitizer support on recent Linux (Ubuntu 16.04, Fedora 23, etc) and possible mouse freeze - When you connect an Elo multitouch touchscreen to recent Linux distributions, it will either use our Elo MTUSB driver (if installed) or HID-multitouch (inbox digitizer) driver to initialize and work with our touchscreen. If you use the evtest application and select the correct input device(digitizer), you can view all the multitouch events that the device and the driver are sending to the Linux kernel. Newer applications which are looking for digitizer events will function properly without any issues.

However, a lot of legacy applications still exist, including the graphical desktop, which is looking for mouse events (not digitizer events). Hence to ensure that those legacy events also work with multitouch devices/digitizer driver, the Operating System(OS) duplicates the primary digitizer touch event to mouse events. This mouse support works well, as long as only one touch exist (one finger). When you add multiple videoscreens (switch rapidly between 2 videoscreens) and multiple touches (many fingers) to the mix, the mouse event duplication in the OS seems to freeze at times, while digitizer events are still sent properly.

This causes legacy applications which are looking for mouse events to freeze for a bit, while multitouch digitizer events are still being processed properly.

• Solution: Check if the customer actually needs multitouch or gesture support in their application. If they do not, then ask them to use the latest Elo Single Touch STUSB mouse driver. This driver supports all multitouch controllers, but sends only one touch (primary touch) as mouse events to Xwindows. Hence all legacy applications will function fine and will not freeze.

-----------------------------------------------

Item 2: Issue downloading Elo Linux driver TGZ package from Elo website using Microsoft Edge or IE browser on Windows 10 - We recently noticed that if we try to download the Elo Linux driver package which has the TGZ file extension, from the Elo website, on Microsoft Edge or IE on Windows 10 platform, the browser automatically renames the file extension as *.SolitaireTheme8 (instead of *.tgz). The file seems to download properly, and it can be used if the file extension is renamed to the proper *.tgz extension. The latest Firefox and Chrome browsers on Windows 10 handles the *.TGZ extension file downloads properly. Windows 7 and IE browser also handles TGZ files properly.

• Solution: Recommend using Linux platforms to download Linux TGZ driver package files from Elo website properly. If Windows 10 platform needs to be used, use Firefox or Chrome browser to download the TGZ driver package. If IE or Edge needs to be used on Windows 10, then download the *.TGZ file as *.SolitaireTheme8 file. Then go rename the downloaded file back to *.TGZ and then use it.