GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 604569
2.6.7 for Windows - Selection Tool (rectangular) does not work under Windows 7 (64bit)
Last modified: 2010-01-27 19:41:13 UTC
GIMP version- 2.6.7 for Windows (32bit) (see also included comments regarding unsupported 2.6.6 version for 64bit Windows) System:- Windows 7 (64bit) running on Intel. ATI 2400 graphic Card. After installing GIMP 2.6.7 and loading either an 8bit Tiff image (or either of 2 test jpeg images) if the rectangular selection tool is used (click and drag across the image) to select a sub-part of the image no selection outline appears and the 'Select' menu indicates that no selection has been made. (I also tried installing version 2.6.6 for Windows 64bit systems and the rectangular selection tool selection outline sometimes appears but not in the correct place on the image - usually below and to the right of the area that the selection tool was dragged across. If the original area to be selected is too low in the image then no selection outline is visible.) I have not tried using other selection tools so far as this is a show-stopper for me. Both tested GIMP versions have been uninstalled and then reinstalled (after a fresh re-boot) an the selection problem remains (unchanged). (As would be expected the same images work OK in the Linux/Ubuntu version of the GIMP.) Regards Malcolm McGhee
Created attachment 149776 [details] An attempt to use Rectangular selection when Wacom Mouse is on its Tablet
Created attachment 149777 [details] Another attempt to use Rectangular selection when Wacom Mouse is on its Table
Further tests show that the problem also exists in Windows Vista (32bit). These further tests also show that the problem is associated with my/the Wacom Tablet Mouse and/or Pen. If the Wacom mouse is NOT on its tablet then the 'normal' mouse acts correctly and selections are seemingly made OK. If the Wacom mouse IS on its tablet then the selection process goes astray ;- For instance- Sometimes the actually selected area will be somewhere over the image and the 'Select' menu will indicate that a selection has been made. At other times the actually selected area will be well outside the image and the 'Select menu will indicate that no selection has been made. The position of the actual selected area will vary from selection attempt to selection attempt. (See attached jpeg images.) The Wacom pen and mouse can select tools, move windows around etc. but I have found that the 'Magic Wand' selection tool is shown as inactive if above the image and controlled by either the Wacom mouse or pen. If the 'normal' mouse is used to move the Magic Wand over the image when the Wacom mouse is on its tablet then, the tool is active but will create a selection at a different place in the image than that expected. If the Wacom mouse is NOT on its tablet then the wand selection works in the expected image area.(In either case after selection with the wand one of the two cores of the processor will continue to be between 55% and 95% active until the selection is fixed either by anchoring or by setting into a new layer.) I cannot find any way under Edit/Preferences/(Input Devices or Input Controllers) to change the Wacom actions or detected devices. Under Input Devices/Configure Extended Input Devices the only detected choice is 'WACOM Tablet Puck Transducer'. My Wacom Tablet is a Graphire using the latest Wacom Driver. Hope this new Information helps. Malcolm McGhee
Did you contact Wacom to tell them about this incompatibility of their drivers with GTK+? It would be much nicer if the tablet vendors cared more about their drivers. Ideally they would maintain the code in GTK+ that interacts with their code.
Sven, No, I haven't contacted Wacom as I have yet to convince myself (or be convinced) that the problem is in the Wacom driver rather than in the GIMP. I am still slowly experimenting to try to get a better idea of just what the problem is. At the moment I believe the problem is within the GIMP as:- Wacom mouse and pen work OK in all other applications If the Wacom mouse is not on its tablet then the conventional mouse works OK The GIMP seems to isolate the Wacom and conventional mice (i.e. different tools can be selected with different mice, for instance the conventional mouse canhave the magic wand selected whilst the Wacom devices can have the rectangular selection tool selected. Moving each mouse/pen off the image area then back on again shows the appropriate tool is selected.) It is this last point that I am concerned about within the GIMP. I believe that the handling of different input devices within the GIMP could be the problem. If (as I have found) the isolation of input devices (within the GIMP) is such that different input device tool selections are maintained then I would expect that the other actions of the tools should also remain isolated (i.e. whilst using the conventional mouse it should ignore the fact that the Wacom mouse is on its tablet (as long as that Wacom mouse is stationary).) If the GIMP has not been programmed to differentiate between input devices then its actions in maintaining different tool selections for each input device should not be occuring. Th fact that all my other programs work OK with both the conventional mouse and Wacom devices suggests that the GIMP is not differentiating between them correctly. (Or is not isolating them correctly - whichever is the case.) As I said above I am still slowly investigating the problem so I hope that my information in this and my previous comments and will help you and your fellow developers to determine if there is a problem within the GIMP for Windows. Malcolm McGhee
I can confirm from my experiments so far that When using the GIMP for Windows (installation versions 2.6.7 and 2.6.8);- 1. the conventional mouse, Wacom mouse and Wacom Pen can each make and maintain the selection of different Tools. (This different from using the GIMP within Linux/Ubuntu where a single tool selection is common to all input devices.) 2. when the conventional mouse or Wacom Pen are used to make selection(s) within the image being edited those selections seem to be registered correctly within the image being edited. 3. when the Wacom mouse is used to make selections;- a the actually selected area(s) are not registered correctly within the image being edited. b. the tool position indicators in the top and left side 'rulers' are located at the position within the image that is actually selected NOT at the position of the selection tool being used. c. the top tool position indicator (in the top 'ruler') moves at a greater speed than the selection tool being used. d. if the Wacom mouse is lifted vertically off the Wacom tabled then placed down again in a different part of the tablet then the position of the selection tool being used does not move (as is to be expected) but the tool position indicators in the top and left side 'rulers' jump to significantly different positions )sometimes outside of the image being edited). 4. Often after loading the GIMP not all the input devices are recognised (i.e. under Edit/Preferences/Input Devices/Configure Extended Input Devices... the Wacom Pen and Eraser are missing from the Device drop down list). I have not seen any of the above problems whist using the GIMP for Linux/Ubuntu. As an 'end User' (who does not have very much programming experience) I cannot say whether these problems are intrinsic to the GIMP or to GTK+. All I can say is that these problems are found when the port of the GIMP for Windows is installed (either version 2.6.7 or version 2.6.8 each of which include different versions of GTK+). I an afraid I must leave the locating of the problem (GIMP or GTK+) to those who know these programs/utilities. Malcolm McGhee Addendum;- The mis-registration when using the Wacom mouse has been found to be common to selection tools and the 'Paint Brush' tool ( haven't specifically tried other tools yet).
3. and 4. have already been reported, see bug 154657 and bug 471342. Let's mark this as a duplicate of one of them.
Bug 154657 SEEMS to cover the 'inaccuracies" when using the Wacom tools ! However that bug report states that there is only a problem when '-wintab' is being invoked. As I do not know what '-wintab' is I cannot comment on its use and/or whether or not bug 154657 reflects/duplicates parts of this bug report. Bug 471342 SEEMS to cover the parts of this bug that refer to the inconsistent detection of the Wacom tools. I can add a little more info here :- If the GIMP is started by using the conventional mouse the it rarely (if at all) list the Wacom Pen or Eraser in the input devices list. If the GIMP is started by using the Wacom Mouse it occasionally lista the Wacom Pen and Eraser in the input devices list. If the GIMP is started by using the Wacom Pen then it always seems to list ALL the Wacom tools in the input devices list. Overall I am not sure that bugs 154657 and 471342 fully cover this bug ! For instance I do not see either of the other bug reports indicating that (in the Windows version of the GIMP) each input device has its own associated GIMP tool, (See 1. of Comment 6) and I feel that this action is an important difference between the GIMP for Unix which does not show this action BUT WORKS and the GIMP for Windows which does show this action and also has the other bugs that you/I have pointed out. In the limit - I am not a programmer neither do I know the internal workings of the GIMP or GTK+, so if you think that this bug report is fully covered by the other 2 bug reports then list it as such. I just want to have a working Windows version of the GIMP.
The tool used for each input device is remembered individually. This behavior is expected when working with tablets. If this does not work on Ubuntu, then that's a bug - not necessarily in GIMP, though.
OK - Michael It seems from your previous comment that there bugs regarding the actions of tablets and their associated tool in versions of the GIMP/GTK+ for both Ubuntu/Unix and MS Windows. Call this bug report a duplicate of multiple others. I leave it to you/the system to do the associations. Will your marking this bug as duplicate(s) automatically close it ? Or do I have to close it ?
Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported into our bug tracking system, but please feel free to report any further bugs you find. *** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of bug 154657 ***