Thinkpads Forum

Will an X201 Touchscreen work with, say, Ubuntu and still have touchscreen functionality -- or should it stay Windows?

I'm posting from an X200 tablet using Ubuntu 14.10 (dual boots with Windows if needed). The stylus works without a problem, but I'm having issues calibrating it for a finger. I might have to do a fresh install to get it to work. Under Ubuntu 14.04 long term support it worked without a hitch.

I don't have touch on my X200t, but the methodolody is the same as for pen:

you could do
$ xinput_calibrator --list
to find the ID of the touchscreen, then
$ xinput_calibrator --device DEVICEID

then it will give you a calibrated stanza that probably needs added to:
/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-evdev.conf
(actually the touchscreen stanza is probably already in there and only the calibration line needs inserted)

there's also:
x11-touchscreen-calibrator
which is more or less the same thing as xinput_calibrator, and I don't think it auto inserts the stanza, you still have to add the line manually to 10-evdev.conf

EDIT: (apologies to overstate the obvious, but the X server will probably need to be restarted afterwards. sleeping/waking the machine may be sufficient. otherwise log out of the desktop and kill/restart the X server - CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE *ought* to do it, but some distros disable it; another alternative is kill X from one of the console terminals, or truly lazy: just reboot the machine.) /EDIT

Being totally unfamiliar with the touch X series, if Ubuntu will handle the stylus for input, what software would U14.10 have to work with stylus use?

GIMP
Inkscape
cellwriter
mypaint

are the main ones i use on my X61T.

So the touch screen acts as a built-in wacom, right?

All 3 screen options work with the stylus, only issue you will have to learn to program the rocker buttons with xinput that tilt the screen orientation.