Hello,
I just purchased a wacom graphire 4 graphics tablet because I saw that it is supossedly compatible with linux. I plugged it into the usb port of the laptop and opened up inkscape to see if I could configure it but I didnt see it, I just saw my laptop's touchpad listed.

I then installed the following packages:

wacom-kernel-source

wacom-tools

xserver-xorg-input-wacom

and then I restarted the laptop and replugged my wacom tablet, and then opened up inkscape to see if I could use it but it didnt function or could I configure it.

I hope that someone can help me on this

You'll need to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. You'll find three Wacom Inputdevice sections. You'll need to edit as follows and the fourth one for "pen". Lastly you need to add a line for "pad" to the ServerLayout section. My four Wacom inputdevice section and my serverlayout section follow. Use them for guidance.

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "stylus"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "stylus"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "eraser"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "eraser"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "cursor"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "cursor"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Driver "wacom"
Identifier "pad"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/wacom"
Option "Type" "pad"
Option "USB" "on"
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
InputDevice "Generic Keyboard"
InputDevice "Configured Mouse"
InputDevice "stylus" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "cursor" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "eraser" "SendCoreEvents"
InputDevice "pad"
EndSection

I've made the changes to xorg.conf that you listed, and I now have a related question: After installing xinput and wacom-tools (along with xserver-xorg-input-wacom and wacom-kernel-source), I find that I don't have any wacom files present in /dev/input. It seems that wacom-tools was supposed to have created /dev/input/wacom, but it did not. However, my xorg/conf is referring to it anyways (after I told it to). Is there another step I missed, that forces wacom-tools create that file? Thank you.

I don't recall doing anything specific for /dev/input/wacom. I just looked at the /dev/input folder find it there. Note that all these files have today's date. There may be created by udev rules.

fragos@Geo:~$ ls -al /dev/input
total 0
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 380 2007-09-30 15:43 .
drwxr-xr-x 14 root root 15000 2007-09-30 15:43 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 160 2007-09-30 15:43 by-id
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 200 2007-09-30 15:43 by-path
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 64 2007-09-30 15:43 event0
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 65 2007-09-30 15:43 event1
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 66 2007-09-30 15:43 event2
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 67 2007-09-30 15:43 event3
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 68 2007-09-30 15:43 event4
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 69 2007-09-30 15:43 event5
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 70 2007-09-30 15:43 event6
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 71 2007-09-30 15:43 event7
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 63 2007-09-30 15:43 mice
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 32 2007-09-30 15:43 mouse0
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 33 2007-09-30 15:43 mouse1
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 34 2007-09-30 15:43 mouse2
crw-rw---- 1 root root 13, 35 2007-09-30 15:43 mouse3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2007-09-30 15:43 tablet-graphire4-4x5 -> event5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 6 2007-09-30 15:43 wacom -> event5

thanks for the reply, fragos! I ran that ls -al, and the output was the same as yours, except for those last two lines. I'm thinking wacom-tools and and the kernel source didn't install correctly, as that's been happening a lot lately. I've been meaning to install Gutsy soon, so I might just wait to get my Bamboo working under that distro instead. Thanks for your help!

I installed Gutsy in a spare partition when the beta came out. I haven't booted to Feisty since I got Gutsy. It's amazing. As expected their are a couple of little glitches but nothing I can deal with. The full release is only about 18 days away.