Removing the 'BadDevice' Errors

This page describes how to get rid of the BadDevice errors when starting a GUI application from a Terminal:

X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 170
  Major opcode:  146
  Minor opcode:  3
  Resource id:  0x0
Failed to open device
X Error: BadDevice, invalid or uninitialized input device 170
  Major opcode:  146
  Minor opcode:  3
  Resource id:  0x0
Failed to open device

The Fix

To stop these errors from appearing you need to modify your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and remove the relevant parts. First we'll make a backup, just in case.

Open the file by pressing Alt+F2 and putting in:

gksu gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

For Ubuntu, or

kdesu kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf

For Kubuntu

Then choose File -> Save As and save it as xorg.conf.backup

Now to change the file, Find this part:

Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "stylus"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"
        Option          "Type"          "stylus"
        Option          "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"         # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "eraser"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"
        Option          "Type"          "eraser"
        Option          "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"         # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Driver          "wacom"
        Identifier      "cursor"
        Option          "Device"        "/dev/input/wacom"
        Option          "Type"          "cursor"
        Option          "ForceDevice"   "ISDV4"         # Tablet PC ONLY
EndSection

and either delete or comment out the lines. (To comment out the lines you put a '#' character at the beginning of each line) Then find the lines:

        InputDevice     "stylus"        "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice     "cursor"        "SendCoreEvents"
        InputDevice     "eraser"        "SendCoreEvents"

In the Section "ServerLayout" section and delete/comment out those too.

Once you've done that, choose File -> Save As and save it as xorg.conf to replace the origional.

You will then have to restart the X server for the settings to take effect. First save anything you are working on and logout, then from the login screen menu choose "Restart the X server", then you can log back in.

If Something Went Wrong

If, after you chose to restart the X server, you don't get the login screen back, then the you may have not competed the steps properly or just made a mistake somewhere, but that's why we created a backup.

Login to the console and from there run this command:

sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf.backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf

That will restore your X configuration back to how it was before, then restart the login manager:

In Ubuntu

sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

In Kubuntu

sudo /etc/init.d/kdm restart

Then you can log back in and try again.