HOWTO: Apple Wireless Keyboard (Bluetooth)

[mattewong]

daanieo,

I had the same problem and it took me several days to familiarize myself with the bluez and how it works-- or is supposed to work (linux/ubuntu community: why is there no documentation whatsoever on this, other than old outdated documentation for versions of bluez that are no longer supported and whose instructions don't work for the new version?).

the problem I had was that bluez was buggy: it was not saving the linkkeys in /etc/../bluetooth/../linkkeys.

I posted the solution that worked for me at http://askubuntu.com/questions/12502...rking-in-10-10 (entry starting with "OK folks") and at https://prodigyone.com/in/doc/docs.php?nid=333&view=1.

basically, to get this garbage to work, I had to rebuild it from the latest source code. But thankfully, it's worked without the slightest flaw since.

Hope it helps

[bemental]

Hi folks,

Like everyone here I've got the Apple Wireless Keyboard. Everything was working in Ubuntu 10.04, but I thought I was supposed to have a newer version: 10.10. When I was upgrading the keyboard was still working, but when I rebooted and logged on it didn't work anymore.
It does connect, but there only appears something on the screen when I'm typing numbers. To me it looks like Ubuntu says it's a number pad. Of course, I didn't buy it to use it as a number pad, so I asked you guys for some help.

Thanks in advance

There was a poster before who solved this problem earlier in the thread:

"Just solved a nasty bug with the Apple Wireless Keyboard (Bluetooth): It works to log-in, but after log-in it shows very strange behaviour: Most keys do not work and only some few keys on the right side produce numbers.

Reason: Numlock is switched on after log-in which disables most keys and some alpahnumeric keys get numeric (even if the keyboard does not have a numpad).

Solution: Press fn-F6 twice to disable numlock. To switch numlock off permanently after log-in go to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Layout -> Layout Options -> Miscellaneous compatibility options -> turn on "Default numeric keypad keys"

This setting takes effect after logging in and does not affect the graphical login screen or local consoles."


Hope this helps!

[bemental]

Found another solution that worked for the most part.

http://askubuntu.com/questions/12502...rking-in-10-10

I went with the poster's first method (A) and am now only trying to figure out how to have the bluetooth daemon start on login (then I think I'd be set). Haven't given his second method a try yet.

[mhope]

Hey everyone,
I have a Toshiba Satellite R25 with Ubuntu 10.10 installed on it. I use it primarily as a drawing tablet, so I got one of the newer aluminum Apple bluetooth keyboards to use with it. I am attempting to pair it with a Targus USB bluetooth dongle.

When I try to "Set Up A New Device" using gnome-bluetooth, I will sometimes receive a message saying that the pairing failed, sometimes it will succeed but then require me to enter "the pin mentioned on the device," and other times it will say the pairing is successful, but I still can't enter any characters using the Apple keyboard.

I know it's not the dongle, because on the same machine I've been able to connect with the Apple keyboard when using Windows 7. I've also tested pairing it with my CR-48 which is running the same version of Ubuntu, and that worked without a hitch.

Has anyone encountered the problem I'm having and solved it? I'm trying to move away from Win7/Photoshop, but these kinds of little bumps in the road keep coming up. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
-M

[Quarkrad]

Can anybody help me? I have tried 10.10 and 11.04 and I get the same problem. I have the wireless keyboard and mouse. The mouse works OK on both although in 10.10 I have to manually pair each boot but on 11.04 it pairs automatically each boot. The problem is the keyboard. The bluetooth manager window 'see's' the keyboard but when it asks me the enter the (pairing) password the keyboard is totally unresponsive. I have tried all the suggestions in this thread but noting seems to work. I know the kb is OK because it works on a mac.

[HeinekenPissr]

I recently installed a fresh copy of ubuntu 11.10 and paired my keyboard as previously described by my earlier post but after the pairing the apple keyboard would only output numbers (when pressing only some of the letter keys).

**** When you are doing the initial pairing of the apple keyboard make sure your num Lock key is not turned on in any of the other keyboards that may be attached to your system. That is what happened to me and then when my apple keyboard was paired it thought it was a number pad keyboard and not an actual keyboard.

I had to remove the device and re-pair for it to finally work properly

[slayer66]

I recently installed a fresh copy of ubuntu 11.10 and paired my keyboard as previously described by my earlier post but after the pairing the apple keyboard would only output numbers (when pressing only some of the letter keys).

**** When you are doing the initial pairing of the apple keyboard make sure your num Lock key is not turned on in any of the other keyboards that may be attached to your system. That is what happened to me and then when my apple keyboard was paired it thought it was a number pad keyboard and not an actual keyboard.

I had to remove the device and re-pair for it to finally work properly

I had the same issue. On an apple keyboard "mini" no keypad on this keyboard, however if you simply click on the fn control keys the keyboard jumps out of numlock.

If you have a long keyboard I think it is control clear keys to get out of numlock.

I hope this helps someone, it was driving me mad.. lol

[TheLastWilson]

Just solved a nasty bug with the Apple Wireless Keyboard (Bluetooth): It works to log-in, but after log-in it shows very strange behaviour: Most keys do not work and only some few keys on the right side produce numbers.

Reason: Numlock is switched on after log-in which disables most keys and some alpahnumeric keys get numeric (even if the keyboard does not have a numpad).

Solution: Press fn-F6 twice to disable numlock. To switch numlock off permanently after log-in go to System -> Preferences -> Keyboard -> Layout -> Layout Options -> Miscellaneous compatibility options -> turn on "Default numeric keypad keys"

This setting takes effect after logging in and does not affect the graphical login screen or local consoles.

Thank-you, I'm running 12.04 and was baffled.