Wacom Driver / Preferences and OS X
- Details
- Created: 28 Nov 2015
- Last Updated: 03 Jan 2016
Recently I needed a real Mac with OS X 10.11 (El Capitan). I have two older graphic tablets from Wacom, a Graphire 3 (CTE-430) and a Bamboo Pen & Touch (CTH-460). I downloaded the latest drivers for each tablet, both drivers don't even install.
You really wonder why Wacom is keeping their customers unhappy. I mean El Capitan is out in the wild for a fair while.
Google tells me I am not alone with my issue. Doing a quite a bit of research I finally found a solution for both tablets which I like to share, so others will save valuable lifetime.
I am pretty sure both solutions will work on OS X 10.10 (Yosemite) as well but I haven't verified it.
Bamboo Pen & Touch - CTH-460
This is a simple fix, you just need the right driver release. Use this driver from Europe:
http://downloadeu.wacom.com/pub/Mac/PenTablet_5.3.5-4.dmg
Graphire 3 - CTE-430
Here it gets more complicated. There is a driver which works, but no System Preferences Pane where you could configure this driver. I did some hacking and to my very surprise it worked, so here we go:
- Download the legacy driver 5.2.6-5
http://cdn.wacom.com/U/productsupport/Drivers/Mac/Consumer/PenTablet_5.2.6-5.dmg - Install the driver, you might need to bypass the Security settings in the System Preferences.
- The driver will work, but you can't open the Wacom Config Pane in System Preferences.
- Download the hacked Control Pane here.
It is the Control Pane from driver 5.3.6-6 but uses the Info.plist file from driver 5.2.6-5 - Replace /Library/PreferencePanes/PenTablet.prefPane with my hacked version.
In case you want to do the hacking by yourself follow these steps:
- Install the PenTablet_5.3.6-6.dmg driver, it will fail
http://cdn.wacom.com/u/productsupport/drivers/mac/consumer/pentablet_5.3.6-6.dmg - Backup /Library/PreferencePanes/PenTablet.prefPane
- Remove driver with with Wacom or Bamboo utility
- Install the PenTablet_5.2.6-6.dmg driver
http://cdn.wacom.com/U/productsupport/Drivers/Mac/Consumer/PenTablet_5.2.6-5.dmg - Backup /Library/PreferencePanes/PenTablet.prefPane
- Replace the prefpane from 5) with the pane from 2) so you are using the latest prefpane
- Replace the PenTablet.prefPane/Contents/Info.plist with the one from 2)
- Goto System Preferences and you can open the Wacom config preferences!