Sharing bluetooth mouse between Windows and Ubuntu

[axos88]

Hello!

I have a Mac mighty mouse which I have been using under Windows.

I want to switch to Ubuntu, but because games don't really work under Ubuntu, I have to stick with windows for a while for gaming.

I would really like to be able to share the mouse between Ubuntu and Windows so that I don't have to pair up every time I boot into the other operating system. Actually not being able to do this slows down my switch considerably, because I keep booting into Windows out of convinience. There should be a way to extract the link key from windows and register it under linux... I suppose that is a kind of a hack, but maybe there are better ways?

HW:
Asus F3SV
Mighty mouse

SW:
Windows XP: Toshiba Bluetooth manager

(I don't think anything else is of interest)



Thanks for your help,
axos88

[steveneo]

My mighty mouse does not works for 8.04. Ubuntu can find bluetooth device and show mighty mouse on device list as well. But mouse never works.


I have same problem to switch back to window.

[tarvtarv]

Hey there Im New to the Whole Linux System Im Impressed So far Just that i Have the same problem as You Aswell

"I have a Mac mighty mouse which I have been using under Windows."

I really want to get on with my work so if anybody knows the solution Please share

[roy430]

bump for a similar issue.
(want to share a bluetooth mouse between my macboook and linux box)

[jbiggs12]

bump again.
I want my trackpad to appear as a mouse on bluetooth (penryn macbook pro)

[Platypus222]

OK, I think I figured it out. In Windows (I'm using XP), go to Control Panel > Bluetooth Devices> Hardware> Properties > Advanced. Here, it shows you the radio's name and address. Copy these down or remember them or whatever.

Now, in Ubuntu (I'm using 9.04), open the terminal and type

hciconfig

The BD Address given should match the radio address in Windows, seeing as how it's the same physical machine. Now, type

hciconfig hciX name "name"

where "name" is the name of your Bluetooth radio in Windows. Alternately, you can go to Ubuntu's Bluetooth preferences and change the "Friendly Name" to this name.

Or, you could do the reverse of this and change the one in Windows to match that in Ubuntu. Either one should work just fine.

Next, you'll need to connect your mouse in both OSes, making sure to use the same passkey/PIN (or to not use one).

Both OSes should recognize the mouse immediately upon activation. Depending on the mouse, you may need to turn it off and back on upon changing OSes.

This is what worked with me, but your mileage may vary. Good luck!

Oh, and as an unrelated note, having just started with Ubuntu recently, I'd like to thank the entirety of ubuntuforums.org for being so damn helpful!

[Platypus222]

I just got this reply as a PM from dgttm (http://ubuntuforums.org/member.php?u=1019330). I thought it might be of some help to someone in the future.

hi,

could you please help me a little more with your explanation how to get a bluetooth mouse working with a dual boot windows + linux laptop..

(this is the thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=764756)


could you please tell me, which values exactly got be replaced with hciconfig and where to find them in windows (i have windows 7).

I just changed the name to the same name in windows and linux but it is still not recognized and requests a password/key.


thank you very much

Nicolas

[Platypus222]

hi,

could you please help me a little more with your explanation how to get a bluetooth mouse working with a dual boot windows + linux laptop..

(this is the thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=764756)


could you please tell me, which values exactly got be replaced with hciconfig and where to find them in windows (i have windows 7).

I just changed the name to the same name in windows and linux but it is still not recognized and requests a password/key.


thank you very much

Nicolas

OK, so since the original post, I've upgraded to Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10, so let's see what's different.

In Windows, go to Bluetooth Settings (in the Start Menu, type in "bluetooth" and choose "Change Bluetooth settings"). There, go to the Hardware tab and select your primary Bluetooth radio (for me, one had a physical location and the other had the first one as its location, so I picked the first one). Hit the "Properties" button and go to the "Advanced" tab. Here, you'll want to copy down the Name and Address.

OK, now, on Ubuntu, go to the terminal and type the same command as before, although a sudo would probably help:

sudo hciconfig hciX name "name"

where "name" refers to the Name as stated in Windows (including the quotes). As I said before, you could also go into the Bluetooth Settings in Ubuntu (System > Preferences > Bluetooth) and change the "Friendly name" to match that in Windows.

I would assume you could change it the other way around (match Windows to match Ubuntu), but I think this is probably the easier route to take.

Now, I'm not sure if you got this far or not, but I had to cover my bases. If it's still not working at this point, you just have to make sure that the mouse is using the same PIN on each OS. When connecting the mouse, it should ask you for a PIN. You can have no PIN (not a big deal for a mouse), but you have to have no PIN on both. If it doesn't ask for a PIN, then I would assume it's using the default PIN for the mouse, which can probably be found on the underside of the mouse or in the documentation that came with it. If you still can't find it, Googling the specific model of mouse may help. You then need to try putting in the default PIN on the other OS for the PIN.

At this point, it should work, but if it's not, let me know (as a reply here, not another PM) with specifics.

Good luck!

[dgttm]

Thank you very much for your explanation. I followed this and now i got it working... I had to set it up (ms laser bluetooth mouse 5000) first in ubuntu lucid beta, and afterwards in win 7. Windows required a password, but I could use "no password" after a previous try with default pin 0000. But now I have no problem connecting it without entering any pin.

Now almost everything is working on my tm2 1090. Touch screen with pen, even with pressure recognition.. Way better working as with ps cs4 in win 7.

Did you get your touchpad buttons working already?

My biggest issue is setting the display brightness. Popups and hotkeys are working but there is no impact on the brightness.. Already found bug id for that one, but no solution so far.

[Platypus222]

Thank you very much for your explanation. I followed this and now i got it working... I had to set it up (ms laser bluetooth mouse 5000) first in ubuntu lucid beta, and afterwards in win 7. Windows required a password, but I could use "no password" after a previous try with default pin 0000. But now I have no problem connecting it without entering any pin.

Now almost everything is working on my tm2 1090. Touch screen with pen, even with pressure recognition.. Way better working as with ps cs4 in win 7.

Did you get your touchpad buttons working already?

My biggest issue is setting the display brightness. Popups and hotkeys are working but there is no impact on the brightness.. Already found bug id for that one, but no solution so far.

Glad to hear it's working!

The touchpad issue was not mine. I came here, I assume, as you did, hoping to find a solution to a problem that other people asked about. I fixed my problem and hopefully some of their problems as well. My touchpad never had any issues, but maybe that issue will be solved/has been solved.

Good luck with the brightness buttons. Mine work fine, but part of Linux is hoping that all the different hardware configurations can work together well under one OS.