Before I elaborate on my problem, please answer me this:  Is this project
in flux?  Can I even expect to get my tablet up and running on the modular
x.org?   I don't want to spend the next week of my life slamming my head
against a wall when it simply isn't going to work.

Here is my journey (I am being wordy to avoid any complaints of not giving
enough information)

I have an aiptek 12000U.  I'm on a Gentoo system, with everything pretty
much up to date.  I rebuilt my kernel (2.6), turning on Device Drivers/USB
Support/Aiptek 6000U/8000U tablet support (I assume this works with the
12000U?). I also ensured that Input Device Support/Event Interface was
turned on.

After a "modprobe aiptek" an event file was created in /dev/input/event#
and I was able to cat it. Strangely, the eraser does not produce any
events. (Does the eraser even work?)

After this, my immediate instinct was to "emerge
x11-drivers/xf86-input-aiptek". However, this ebuild seems to have a hard
link to the modularized X11 stuff that I had no idea existed. I was very
excited and happy to completely unmerge X and re-emerge it to get my
graphics tablet to work.

I made certain that I had the following in my make.conf:

INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev aiptek hyperpen"
VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"

(I know this is Gentoo specific, but I'm trying to be descriptive)

Of course, at this point after rebuilding X all modular-like, my X
wouldn't work. I figured that the glx stuff probably broke. I re-emerged
nvidia-glx, ran the eselect stuff and was able to get back into X (after
dumping my xorg.conf using etc-update)

At this point, the graphics tablet functioned as a mouse with no pressure
sensitivity and no eraser. I searched the Gentoo and the driver's homepage
for help, and put the following in my xorg.conf:
--------------

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "pen"
Driver "aiptek"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/aiptek_udev"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "PressCurve" "0,5,95,100"
Option "Mode" "absolute"
Option "Cursor" "stylus"
Option "USB" "on"
Option "KeepShape" "on"
Option "debuglevel" "20"
EndSection


Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "cursor"
Driver "aiptek"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/aiptek_udev"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "PressCurve" "0,5,95,100"
Option "Mode" "absolute"
Option "Cursor" "puck"
Option "USB" "on"
Option "KeepShape" "on"
Option "debuglevel" "20"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "eraser"
Driver "aiptek"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/aiptek_udev"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "PressCurve" "0,5,95,100"
Option "Mode" "absolute"
Option "Cursor" "stylus"
Option "USB" "on"
Option "KeepShape" "on"
Option "debuglevel" "20"
EndSection


Section "ServerLayout"

# The Identifier line must be present
Identifier "Simple Layout"
Screen "Screen 1"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
InputDevice "pen" "AlwaysCore"
InputDevice "cursor" "AlwaysCore"
InputDevice "eraser" "AlwaysCore"

EndSection


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

(I'll explain the "/dev/input/aiptek_udev" in a second)

So this didn't really do much. It allowed Gimp to let me choose the
pen/eraser/cursor as extended input devices, but they didn't actually
work. They operated exactly as if I hadn't modified my X at all. And yes I
did enable them, trying both screen and window.

At this point I scoured the Gentoo forums again and didn't really find
anything helpful. The only info there seemed to be what I already had
done. I went to the homepage of the aiptek driver, and was somewhat
disheartened. The mailing list doesn't really seem alive, and the project
seems to be in flux?  Am I going to be able to get this resolved?

I downloaded the "gaiptek" sources from CVS and compiled them without a
hitch. When I run it, however, it reports "There is no XServer Input
Driver associated with the tablet"

Being industrious, I went into the source code and put in a bunch of
printfs. In a section called "marco polo" that is clearly marked as a
hack, the application is sending a message to the underlying X server
input drivers and expecting a certain response. While it is in fact
finding the pen/eraser/cursor interfaces, it isn't getting what it's
expecting as a response and crapping out.

Being super-duper industrious, I downloaded the latest aiptek.c sources
from CVS, and recompiled my kernel with the newest module. Same problem.

I then thought that maybe something really low level is "grabbing" the
tablet and forcing the poor thing to be a mouse. I went into my udev and
added a rule that was hard-wired for the tablet, creating a symlink called
"/dev/input/aiptek_udev". I also created one that should have grabbed my
mouse separately, but that one isn't working for some reason.

Anyway, the bottom line is that this damn thing acts like a mouse no
matter what flaming, blade covered, infected hoops I jump through naked
and covered in gasoline.

Does anyone have any idea?