HOWTO: Apple Wireless Keyboard (Bluetooth)

[kobayashimaru]

About the powersaving issue: Add the option "lm master;" to the device section of your keyboard in the /etc/bluetooth/hcid.conf. So it should look like this:

device YOUR_MAC {
name "Apple Wireless Keyboard";
auth enable;
encrypt enable;
lm master;
}

With this option, the keyboard will be detected by the system, if it wakes up from sleep.

[matthewcraig]

I'm trying to get this to work with the new slim keyboard I just picked up, but every time I try to use hid --connect xxx.. I get the following message:

Can't create HID control channel: Connection refused

I run the command from the terminal, hit 0000 <enter> on the apple keyboard, and then I get that message. I get the impression that I supposed to see some form of pop up in which to enter the pin, but I see nothing of the sort.

xr2 - I am having exactly the same problem. Is there supposed to be a pop-up with GNOME or something? I posted my efforts here. Let me know if you ever get this resolved. I have been working on this for four hours with no resolution. (Got it to work on my Linux tablet running Maemo in 5 minutes!)

... ... ... ...
... (UPDATED) ... I have it fixed. One MUST have "bluetooth-applet" running, in order to enter the pairing code on the desktop, otherwise, the "hidd --connect" command will immediately fail when the code is entered on the keyboard.

I am not sure why "bluetooth-applet" was not configured to run at login, but I do hope these error messages improve for this problem.

[stevenjoseph]

This works for me perfectly ... the keyboard reconnects also

[matthewcraig]

Anyway to get Page Up / Page Down functions working? Suppose there is always key remapping, but would be nice if done by default.

[Ches Martin]

Anyway to get Page Up / Page Down functions working? Suppose there is always key remapping, but would be nice if done by default.

Hey Matthew,

Page up/down functions work just fine for me with no extra setup, just use the fn key+up/down arrows like on a Mac.

Other function key stuff works too, like the volume control and mute buttons. This is all with kubuntu and kbluetoothd, but I'd imagine that at least the page up/down should work in any X environment, though maybe not.


Thanks to naag for the original article, and others in this thread for contributions. With a little fiddling it's all been working smoothly for me in Hardy. Keyboard sleeps for battery saving, reactivates, works after a system restart, etc.

I added 'lm master;' to the device section of hcid.conf as suggested above, and in /etc/default/bluetooth I simply have 'HIDD_OPTIONS="--server"' -- no master or anything else. The keyboard was working for awhile after reboots, but then stopped for some reason. Adding 'hidp' to /etc/modules as suggested in BluetoothSetup seems to have fixed it for good.

[aranad]

I spent quite some time going through these various forums to find a solution to my new Apple wireless keyboard not working, but the solution turned out to be simple!

I'm on Ubuntu Hardy and the device would come up in the list fine but it wouldn't connect. Sometimes I've noticed I have to use hidd --connect xxxxx from a root prompt to get things to connect, but in the case of the Apple keyboard it would just time out.

I then found (by reading the instruction manual!) that you must set a 4 digit pin number before it will connect and bond properly. To do this, turn it on, run the connect command and then type the PIN into the Apple keyboard followed by Enter. This should then bring up a dialogue box allowing you to confirm the code (with the existing functional keyboard). The connection should then be made and the keyboard will be present automatically after reboot or keyboard on/off.

[orion603]

It works for me and don't really have any problem reconnecting the keyboard after reboot, lock, and etc with some key strokes to wake it up and bond it with the computer. However, the keyboard is lagging after the keyboard is turned off and re-connect. Does anybody else have the same problem?

It sometimes, skips what I typed or prints same key twice and so on.

[gamajeal]

Or you can just uninstall bluez-utils. It worked like an instant charm for me. System -> Administration -> Synaptic Package Manager.

Search for bluez, uncheck (check for removal) bluez-utils. Apply.

Thanks man this worked like a charm

[driven1]

After running the

sudo hidd --connect [MAC ADD]

and entering the pass key, I get the following message

Can't create HID control channel: Connection refused

Please tell me where I went wrong

[olavjunior]

The bluetooth keyboard connects perfectly in Intrepid, no fuzz at all. But fn doesn@t do anything! So no fn up/down, neigther volume-control ect. (And as you can see I@m missing the `)