Calibrate Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K on Linux

A color photograph showing an artist's canvas, tubes of paint, a tray of oil pastels, some used paintbrushes and palette.

About a year and a half ago I bought a Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K as a replacement for an old Wacom Cintiq 21UX that died after being used over 10 years. Wacom no longer makes that model of display and their direct replacements cost over $2000, so I was hesitant to buy another. At some point, the algorithm must have noticed and recommended the Huion Kamvas. There are a few Kamvas models, but the top end one was about half the price of a comparable Cintiq from Wacom, and I managed to get it on sale.

A color photo of Inkscape software being displayed on a Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K computer graphics tablet.
A Huion Kamvas.

I really like the Kamvas so far, but this issue keeps cropping up where the pen isn’t calibrated to the screen. I have two screens; one is the Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K and the other is a Samsung 4K monitor. What happens is whenever I update to the latest version of Linux Mint, the calibration gets lost, and like an idiot, I keep forgetting to write down the steps taken to fix it. By posting this, I’m sure I’ll be back to check the next time I upgrade my PC.

Problem

After a system update, the pen is no longer calibrated to the Huion display. On a system with two monitors, moving the pen from one edge of the Kamvas to the other drags the cursor from the edge of one screen to the opposite edge of the other screen.

Solution

In Linux Mint, open the Terminal program to get to the command line. Type xrandr. It should return something like

(base) minty@freshness:~$ xrandr
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3840 x 4320, maximum 16384 x 16384
DisplayPort-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DisplayPort-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DisplayPort-2 connected primary 3840x2160+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 607mm x 345mm
   3840x2160     60.00*+
   2560x1440     59.95  
   1920x1200     60.00  
   1920x1080     60.00    59.94  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1680x1050     59.95  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1280x1024     75.02    60.02  
   1440x900      59.89  
   1280x800      59.81  
   1152x864      75.00  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94  
   1024x768      75.03    70.07    60.00  
   832x624       74.55  
   800x600       72.19    75.00    60.32    56.25  
   640x480       75.00    72.81    66.67    60.00    59.94  
   720x400       70.08  
HDMI-A-0 connected 3840x2160+0+2160 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 597mm x 336mm
   3840x2160     60.00*+  59.94    30.00    30.00    29.97  
   2560x1440     59.95  
   1920x1200     60.00  
   1920x1080     60.00    59.94  
   1600x1200     60.00  
   1680x1050     59.88  
   1600x900      60.00  
   1280x1024     60.02  
   1440x900      60.00  
   1280x960      60.00  
   1280x800      59.91  
   1280x720      60.00    59.94  
   1024x768      60.00  
   800x600       60.32    56.25  
   640x480       60.00    59.94  
DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)

This output shows certain capabilities of the connected monitors, but all we really need to know is which one is the Huion. In this case, the Huion is using the HDMI port, and the system is referring to it as HDMI-A-0.

Next, type xinput into the command line. It should show something similar to the following:

(base) minty@freshness:~$ xinput
⎡ Virtual core pointer                    	id=2	[master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer              	id=4	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Huion Tablet_GT2401 Pad                 	id=9	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Huion Tablet_GT2401                     	id=10	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Logitech Mechanical keyboard Logitech Mechanical keyboard Keyboard	id=12	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ CX 2.4G Receiver Mouse                  	id=14	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ CX 2.4G Receiver Consumer Control       	id=15	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ HID 256c:006d Pad                       	id=17	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ HID 256c:006d Consumer Control          	id=19	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ HID 256c:006d                           	id=20	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Huion Tablet_GT2401 Pen Pen (0)         	id=26	[slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                   	id=3	[master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard             	id=5	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=6	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                            	id=7	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Huion Tablet_GT2401 Pen                 	id=8	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Logitech Mechanical keyboard Logitech Mechanical keyboard	id=11	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ CX 2.4G Receiver                        	id=13	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ CX 2.4G Receiver System Control         	id=16	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HID 256c:006d Keyboard                  	id=18	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Eee PC WMI hotkeys                      	id=21	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ BRLTTY 6.4 Linux Screen Driver Keyboard 	id=22	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Logitech Mechanical keyboard Logitech Mechanical keyboard Keyboard	id=23	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ CX 2.4G Receiver Consumer Control       	id=24	[slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ HID 256c:006d Consumer Control          	id=25	[slave  keyboard (3)]

The Huion is mentioned in a bunch of different places, but the one we’re looking for the Huion Tablet_GT2401 Pen Pen. The system has given it the ID of 26, which we need for the next and final step.

On the command line, type in xinput map-to-output 26 HDMI-A-0, where 26 is the id of the Huion pen and HDMI-A-0 is the system’s reference for the Huion screen itself. After entering that, the pen is fixed. No reboot required.

In the past, I’ve installed Huion software for Linux and also installed Wacom drivers, which some people recommended as a fix. I’m not sure that’s necessary for this monitor model, since the Huion software was removed when the system was upgraded and I’m not sure the it was helpful even when it was installed. Also, since the Kamvas is made by Huion, I’m not sure the Wacom driver will work since they’re different companies. However, if the steps I mentioned don’t fix the issue, you’ll probably need to continue searching for other possible solutions, including installing the Huion software or installing Wacom drivers.

About a year and a half ago I bought a Huion Kamvas Pro 24 4K as a replacement for an old Wacom Cintiq 21UX that died after being used over 10 years. Wacom no longer makes that model of display and their direct replacements cost over $2000, so I was hesitant to buy another. At…

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