Ubuntu 11.04 on iMac - issues....

[ishueli]

Guys,

I have a 2.4 Ghz iMac from 2007 with Core II Duo processor and ATi 2600 HD graphics card. I had OSX (SL) and Windows 7 installed earlier. To avoid pressing ALT key to get OSX started, I installed rEFIT which gave me the idea to triple boot system with LINUX. So I repartitioned the system and installed Unity (Ubuntu 11.04) on it. The installation was smooth but somehow bluetooth did not work. I am using the proprietary ATi/AMD driver from Hardware Extra in Unity and the system works great (even 3D cube works fine).

I though of upgrading Kernel to 2.6.39.0 but the system gives an error while loading the files. The error is promarily with flgrx driver. Keeps giving [Fail] result. When I had replaced the proprietary driver with ATi open source driver, I could upgrade the kernel to 3.0. The bluetooth gat "ENABLED" but would not connect to Magic Mouse.

Now I have reinstalled the system with 2.6.38.8 Kernel and keeping it simple as the earlier efforts required 6-7 reinstallations of Unity. Please offer solutions if bluetooth can be enabled with present Kernel or how to safely upgrade the kernel without loading the Open souce ATi driver.

I have already tried "sudo service bluetooth restart" and it work but I have to do it every time I reboot the syatem, hence not desired.

[LtPitt]

Hello, my friend...

Probably my solution is not very elegant but I think you'll find it fine because it should work.

Open a terminal window and once in it digit:

sudo nano /etc/rc.local

In this moment you are editing a particular config file (all config files are stored in etc folder): rc.local
Everything written in this file is executed by root user when the personal computer boots.
So all you have to do is add to rc.local rows this one:

service bluetooth restart

and save (press control + x to exit and then press y to save your file and then enter)

Reboot and you should be happy.

Have fun!

[ishueli]

Many Thanks LtPitt,

It surely was a working solution. It surely got the bluetooth working. Now I am left with a very minor problem -

I wanted to get the bluetooth to work so that I could connect Magicmouse. I tried with the default Bluetooth and it would connect only for a second and disappear again. Hence I installed Blueman and managed to pair the mouse. Even got it "trusted" to secure the connection.

However when I restart the system, magic mouse does not connect. It only connect when I do the following -
- connect a wired mouse
- open blueman bluetooth manager
- click on "device" tab
- click on "input service"

This now defeats the purpose of enabling bluetooth. Are there any commands that I can add to rc.local file to have "input services" activated during startup?

Once again "THANKS FOR AN EXCELLENT SUGGESTION"

I like Linux even more now....

[johnmurrayvi]

I have a setup working for my 8,1 iMac with a Mighty Mouse and bluetooth keyboard. I never boot into OS X, though. The last time I used OS X I had to setup my keyboard and mouse again in Ubuntu afterwards. However, I have the mouse and keyboard working after sleep and reboots, I just have to click once and press one key to wake the mouse and keyboard.

Give this a try:

gksudo gedit /etc/default/bluetooth

Insert:

HIDD_ENABLED=1
HIDD_OPTIONS="--master --connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX --connect YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY --server"

Replace the addresses with your devices' addresses
XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX is the address of my keyboard
YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY is the address of my mouse

[ishueli]

Thanks johnmurrayvi,

Do you use default bluetooth applet or blueman or both. I am using blueman to connect to magicmouse.

One more question....can you have both bluetooth manager & blueman working together?

[ishueli]

I tried the command....The output is as below

(gedit:2048): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to set the permissions of `/root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but failed: No such file or directory

(gedit:2048): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to store changes into `/root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but failed: Failed to create file '/root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel.Q19XXV': No such file or directory

(gedit:2048): Gtk-WARNING **: Attempting to set the permissions of `/root/.local/share/recently-used.xbel', but failed: No such file or directory

However I see the bluetooth file in /etc/default directory and the commands are saved as well. Still no luck with magicmouse. Had to connect wired mouse to connect the magicmouse in blueman.

[johnmurrayvi]

I have the default bluetooth applet and installed bluez-compat and bluez-utils. The output into the terminal when using "gksudo" shouldn't effect anything, it usually, as in your case, mentions the root user's 'recently-used' file not being updated.

This may be better help:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BluetoothSetup#Setup Devices

That was the basis for my setup, however I found the "--master" option inserted in a different guide. Not sure if it helped, but it's still in my '/etc/default/bluetooth' file.

[ishueli]

There was some progress done after I reverted back to default bluetooth manager. I could connect to magicmouse by using following commands -

Opened "Bluetooth Applet" by clicking on the bluetooth icon on right (my right) top of the screen.
Selected mouse and clicked on "connect".
Mouse started to work.

Earlier when I was connecting thru blueman, the mouse would not connect to OSX. I had to reconfigure the connection for it to work. However using default bluetooth manager and connecting the magicmouse, I could still maintain my connectivity on OSX side, which is a good help.

I installed bluez compat & bluez utils but still have to connect the mouse manually. Clicking on magicmouse does not establish connectivity. Need to use a wired mouse to "connect" magicmouse under bluetooth menu.

Any other ideas?

[LtPitt]

I am glad you're enjoying Linux!

Right now my focus is on Cannelloni I'm eating in minutes: as soon as I have a little time I'll get back to help...
I've just found this video in a minute I don't know if it can be helpful but check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUHxcDpe7nw

[ishueli]

Thanks. Your help will be most appreciated. The magic mouse works pretty good on Unity. However it will not auto connect after reboot.

I ran a couple of commands in the terminal- take a look at them and advise -

Shows different address than magicmouse guess it is the internal bluetooth dongle address
shailesh@shailesh-iMac:~$ hcitool dev
Devices:
hci0 00:1D:4F:9C:4A:1F

No devices found on hcitool scan
shailesh@shailesh-iMac:~$ hcitool scan
Scanning ...

Nothing on hidd --search as well
shailesh@shailesh-iMac:~$ sudo hidd --search
Searching ...
No devices in range or visible

shailesh@shailesh-iMac:~$ sudo bluez-simple-agent hci0 00:1D:4F:9C:4A:1F
Creating device failed: org.bluez.Error.ConnectionAttemptFailed: Page Timeout

shailesh@shailesh-iMac:~$ dmesg|tail
[ 17.746355] Bluetooth: RFCOMM ver 1.11
[ 18.780522] EXT4-fs (sda3): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro,commit=0
[ 25.504047] eth1: no IPv6 routers present
[ 49.980554] process `skype' is using obsolete setsockopt SO_BSDCOMPAT
[ 98.052303] usb 1-2.4: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 8
[ 139.268341] usb 1-2.1: new low speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 9
[ 139.369138] input: Logitech Optical USB Mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.7/usb1/1-2/1-2.1/1-2.1:1.0/input/input8
[ 139.369459] generic-usb 0003:046D:C016.0007: input,hidraw4: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech Optical USB Mouse] on usb-0000:00:1a.7-2.1/input0
[ 148.263582] input: Shailesh’s mouse as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0/usb3/3-1/3-1:1.0/bluetooth/hci0/hci0:46/input9
[ 148.263731] magicmouse 0005:05AC:030D.0008: input,hidraw5: BLUETOOTH HID v0.84 Mouse [Shailesh’s mouse] on 00:1D:4F:9C:4A:1F

How to get Magicmouse auto connect at startup?