Is it possible to install Xence labs drivers on nixos?

Hey all, so i have recently moved to Nixos and finding it really good but i have hit quite a major road block in the drivers for my tablet or more specifically the Quickkeys remote along side them.

I have a Xencelabs Quckkeys device that i use for my work and they require Xence labs proprietary drivers to function, there is a Linux version that i was using prior where there is a .deb a .rpm and a .tar.gz version of them. You can download a copy on their website here.
The issue im having is that i have no idea what to do with this in the case of Nixos, I have tried looking into methods of installing .deb’s or tar.gz on nix but im frankly a bit stumped on how to get it working in this specific instance (if indeed this is possible at all)

Any help would be greatly appreciated, even options of other methods to get the controller working as it helps tremendously with my work otherwise i might well have to give up on Nixos which is a shame.

In terms of my set up i pretty much have a fresh install of Nixos with flakes and home manager set up, nothing crazy so presume we are working from a blank slate. (and im willing to start from scratch if needed)

The only thing of note that I noticed was that they use some udev rules:

KERNEL=="uinput",MODE:="0666",OPTIONS+="static_node=uinput"
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb",ATTRS{idVendor}=="28bd",MODE:="0666"

You could incorporate that in your nixos config.

Other than that it doesn’t seem like there’s actually any drivers in that package, just some qt app that I assume is for configuration?

If you need the app too, packaging proprietary apps is possible, just annoying…

Simple answer: you don’t. You instead extract the file when packaging it, and move files to the correct directories. There’s many apps in nixpkgs that do this already.

https://github.com/search?q=repo%3ANixOS%2Fnixpkgs%20src%20".deb"&type=code

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I have a XenceLabs Pen Tablet Small and can confirm it works with the OpenTabletDriver. Check here for compatible tablets.

Installation mentioned in the wiki worked like a charm.

Not everything works, e.g. you don’t get the application-specific presets for the buttons on the stylus, and I can’t seem to get the buttons on the tablet to work, but rest seems to work fine.

I just opened up a PR for the Xencelabs drivers, since I am also using a Quick Keys device, which isn’t supported under OpenTabletDriver.