X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 168

[Hawkwind]

Seems a lot of users are getting the below errors when running applications from the console:

Code:

X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 168
  Major opcode:  148
  Minor opcode:  3
  Resource id:  0x0
Failed to open device
X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 168
  Major opcode:  148
  Minor opcode:  3
  Resource id:  0x0
Failed to open device

To fix this, look for the lines posted below, or similar to, and comment them out of your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file:

Code:

# Section "InputDevice"
#  Driver        "wacom"
#  Identifier    "stylus"
#  Option        "Device"        "/dev/wacom"          # Change to
#                                                      # /dev/input/event
#                                                      # for USB
#  Option        "Type"          "stylus"
#  Option        "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"               # Tablet PC ONLY
#EndSection

#Section "InputDevice"
#  Driver        "wacom"
#  Identifier    "eraser"
#  Option        "Device"        "/dev/wacom"          # Change to
#                                                      # /dev/input/event
#                                                      # for USB
#  Option        "Type"          "eraser"
#  Option        "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"               # Tablet PC ONLY
#EndSection

#Section "InputDevice"
#  Driver        "wacom"
#  Identifier    "cursor"
#  Option        "Device"        "/dev/wacom"          # Change to
#                                                      # /dev/input/event
#                                                      # for USB
#  Option        "Type"          "cursor"
#  Option        "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"               # Tablet PC ONLY
#EndSection

Then also a bit further down in the file you need to look for the below lines, or ones similar to these: 

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier      "Default Layout"
        Screen          "Default Screen"
        InputDevice     "Generic Keyboard"
        InputDevice     "Configured Mouse"
#       InputDevice     "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
#       InputDevice     "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
#       InputDevice     "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
EndSection

**WARNING** If you fail to comment the lines below that are commented out, then X will *NOT* start when you go to restart the X server.

Once you comment those things out then a restart of X is needed.  Once X is back up and running again you shouldn't see those errors anymore.

[exploder]

Hawkwind your fix works like a charm in Feisty!

[Jeumeu]

I discovered your fix several months ago.

Many thanks...

[javierrivera]

Hi Hawkwind... it's strange to see you here.

Anyway those errors are not exactly problems. Those lines are there to enable automagic configuration of watcom compatible tablets.

Those errors are harmless and will only add a not noticeable time to apps startup time. Of course it's harmless to remove them if you don't use a tablet.

Javier.

[bobbythebaer]

Those errors are harmless and will only add a not noticeable time to apps startup time

I had a similar problem with GOPCHOP. The program crashed unless I started it as root. I thought it was a permission issue but Hawkwinds solution solved the problem completely. It's not just a cosmetic problem.

[bobbythebaer]

My GOPCHOP problem turned back 

[Telengard]

I was worried I had somehow botched my Kubuntu installation, but this worked for me.  Thank you!

[UnicornRider]

It's not just a cosmetic problem.

Yep - occasionally, I've seen the K/console choking on wacom crap quite badly.

[Rog131]

And it's cluttering bug reports:

Bug #42553 in wacom-tools (Ubuntu)
wacom input devices enabled by default, why?

Bug #42553, first reported on 2006-05-02  by Alex

This bug has 16 duplicates

Problems with amarok ?:

See this thread in ubuntuforums.org
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1264009
Apparently these are for TabletPCs??
While this may just seem like a nuisance bug, it does affect amarok scripts- for me, I could not configure the popular amarok replaygain script until I fixed this error by making the changes to my xorg.conf. My guess is the script doesn't continue to run when it gets an X-error, making it unable for me to get past the initial kdialog box. There are other cases where similar problems occur because of this error, not to mention that there are 8 duplicates of this bug files and having this error generally causes havoc for people, especially beginners, trying to debug problems (since they don't know that it isn't [probably] the real culprit of whatever bug they are having...).

Wondering how many has wacom ? 10 % 20 % 30 %...

[dibl]

Mr. Mod, may I respectfully recommend that Hawkwind's tutorial be relocated to the "How To" section, so we can point the troubled newbie in that direction when he's worried about his wacom errors?

Thanks!

 

[Snowhog]

I too, found Hawkwind's post informative. I commented out my wacom lines. No more boot error notices concerning that. Now if I could just find where the two non-existant font directory pointers are coming from, I'd comment those out also.

[Rog131]

BACKUP BEFORE YOU EDIT !

It is easier to backup than repair xorg.conf.


Before you edit:

Code:

:~$ sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_my_backup_001

If kubuntu doesn't understand your xorg.conf and X doesn't start.
Press Ctrl + Alt + F1 (or F2...6). This should start virtual console.

From Virtual console

a virtual console (VC, sometimes virtual terminal, VT) is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and the display for a user interface. The concrete combination is the system console of the computer, where the user can switch between the virtual consoles to access multiple unrelated user interfaces. Usually in Linux, the first six virtual consoles provide a text terminal with a login prompt to a unix shell. The graphical X Window System starts in the seventh virtual console.

After login:

Code:

:~$ sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf_my_backup_001 /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Restart (and try editing again).


Links:
Topic: HOWTO : Repairing xorg.conf
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3082808.0

Topic: How to get started with no GUI
http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3085112.0

[Surion]

Thank you for this post. It was a bit annoying to see this "error" all the time...