NextWindow Touchscreen on Ubuntu 22.04

This is a guide for installing / configuring a NextWindow Touchscreen on Ubuntu 22.04.

The files in this repo will install nwfermi 0.7.0.1.

It is based on the files provided by HP as SUSE drivers for the "HP Compaq Elite 8300 All-in-One Desktop PC". HP Support Link | Direct Link

The HP driver has not been updated anymore since 2013, I've made following enhancements:

Fix driver compilation (fix work_struct/delayed_work structs usage, fix some minor compiler warnings)
Fix startup of user space deamon via udev/systemd implementation as you cannot launch 32 bit applications on 64 bits OSes via udev (blocked via seccomp in systemd-udevd)
Xorg config example

For models 1926:1846 and 1926:1878 you need to install the additional "fwprod" daemon. Its usage is unclear but seems to work according to #4. See additional steps as required outlined below.

Licensing

The kernel driver has been released under a GPL license by NextWindow
The user space daemons and xf86-input-nextwindow Xorg module are copyrighted by NextWindow and released under following license

Install required packages

apt-get install dkms build-essential autoconf xutils-dev libtool xserver-xorg-dev libc6-i386 pkg-config evtest

Install additional packages (models 1926:1846 and 1926:1878)

Install libudev1 and symlink it to libudev0 (no longer available as i386)

apt-get install libudev1:i386
ln -s /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libudev.so.1 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/libudev.so.0

Get source files from this Git repo

# wget https://github.com/glorang/nwfermi/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
# unzip master.zip
# cd nwfermi-master

All following chapters assume you are executing the steps as outlined from within the nwfermi-master folder.

Build and install nwfermi driver

Remove nwfermi/0.6.5.0 if installed
```
# dkms unbuild nwfermi/0.6.5.0 --all
```

Install nwfermi source to /usr/src

# cp -p -r usr/src/nwfermi-0.7.0.1 /usr/src

Build nwfermi/0.7.0.1
```
# dkms build nwfermi/0.7.0.1
```
Install module
```
# dkms install nwfermi/0.7.0.1
```

Install required nwfermi files

Copy Xorg config

# cp etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-nwfermi.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/

Copy nwfermi_daemon to /usr/sbin
```
# cp usr/sbin/nwfermi_daemon /usr/sbin
```

Install udev rules from this git repo

# cp etc/udev/rules.d/40-nw-fermi.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/

Install systemd service files from this git repo

# cp etc/systemd/system/nwfermi@.service /etc/systemd/system/

Reload systemd
```
# systemctl daemon-reload
```

Install optional nwfermi files (models 1926:1846 and 1926:1878)

Copy fwprod to /usr/sbin
```
# cp usr/sbin/fwprod /usr/sbin
```

Install systemd service files from this git repo

# cp etc/systemd/system/fwprod-1926-1846.service /etc/systemd/system/
# cp etc/systemd/system/fwprod-1926-1878.service /etc/systemd/system/

Reload systemd
```
# systemctl daemon-reload
```

Build xf86-input-nextwindow Xorg module

# cd usr/src/xf86-input-nextwindow-0.3.4
# chmod +x autogen.sh ; ./autogen.sh
# make
# make install

Install module

# cp /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/input/nextwindow_drv.* /usr/lib/xorg/modules/input/

Disable Wayland / Enable Xorg

Edit /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and set WaylandEnable=false in the [daemon] section.

Add your local user to the input group

To be able to read the input device your local user must be part of the input group. You should add the gdm user to this group as well.

# usermod -a -G input gdm
# usermod -a -G input your_username

Reboot

Reboot and everything should work! Enjoy.

Debugging

Use following steps for some general debugging hints:

Run lsusb and check if your model (1926:XXXX) is supported by the driver nw-fermi.c, line #49 and onwards
Check if kernel module is loaded: lsmod |grep -i fermi
Enter strings /dev/nwfermi1 (or nwfermi2) it should produce garbage text output when you touch the screen
Start nwfermi daemon manually in foreground /usr/sbin/nwfermi_daemon /instanceId 1, expected output:

# /usr/sbin/nwfermi_daemon /instanceid 1
StartThreads
Starting bulk thread
Starting tl thread

After touching the screen:

state: 1, X: 14893, Y: 22044
state: 2, X: 14893, Y: 22044
state: 2, X: 14893, Y: 22044

For model 1926:1846 : Start fwproc manually /usr/sbin/fwprod /product_id 0x1846 /message 004302F300 /padding_size 65 /timeout 300 /daemon
For model 1926:1878 : Start fwproc manually /usr/sbin/fwprod /product_id 0x1878 /message 004302F001 /padding_size 65 /timeout 300 /daemon
Run evtest and select "Nextwindow Fermi Touchscreen" and touch your screen, you should see it generate events. Expected output:

# evtest
No device specified, trying to scan all of /dev/input/event*
Available devices:

...
/dev/input/event8:      Nextwindow Fermi Touchscreen
...

Select the device event number [0-21]: 8
Input driver version is 1.0.1
Input device ID: bus 0x0 vendor 0x0 product 0x0 version 0x0
Input device name: "Nextwindow Fermi Touchscreen"
Supported events:
  Event type 0 (EV_SYN)
  Event type 1 (EV_KEY)
    Event code 261 (BTN_5)
    Event code 272 (BTN_LEFT)
    Event code 273 (BTN_RIGHT)
  Event type 3 (EV_ABS)
    Event code 0 (ABS_X)
      Value  15028
      Min        0
      Max    32767
    Event code 1 (ABS_Y)
      Value  18035
      Min        0
      Max    32767
    Event code 48 (ABS_MT_TOUCH_MAJOR)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max    32767
    Event code 49 (ABS_MT_TOUCH_MINOR)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max    32767
    Event code 53 (ABS_MT_POSITION_X)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max    32767
    Event code 54 (ABS_MT_POSITION_Y)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max    32767
    Event code 57 (ABS_MT_TRACKING_ID)
      Value      0
      Min        0
      Max      255
Properties:
Testing ... (interrupt to exit)