forums.xandros.com

[BillyBarcode]

Hello world,
I need some help on how to connect my Apple bluetooth keyboard to the eeePC 701 (Xandros distribution).


Here's the situation:

1- The keyboard works fine when I connect to my Windows laptop (Vista).

2- My bluetooth dongle that I added to the eeepc seems to be working ok. When i type in the terminal "hcitool dev", I get the following reply:
"Devices:
hci0 'mac address of the bluetooth dongle'

3- BUT when I scan for bluetooth devices (even though the Apple keyboard is on), the eeepc can not find the mac address of the Apple keyboard.

4- When i try to connect to the apple keyboard (sudo --connect 'mac address of my keytboard'), I get the following error message:"Can't get device information:connection refused"

From message I have read in this forum it looks like some people out there have managed to make it work. I'm new to Linux.
What do I need to do? What would you suggest?

Thanks for you help.

[kalwisti]

Hi, BillyBarcode,

Welcome to the Xandros User Forums! I hope you'll find it to be a friendly place with some helpful people on board. There are some "regulars" here who own Asus Eee PCs and can offer firsthand advice, but unfortunately most of us don't own one of these units.

In the meantime, I suggest that you visit the Asus Eee User Forum and pose your question there (I apologize if you already know about this excellent resource):

http://forum.eeeuser.com/

The Eee User Forum is your best source of info, as it is very active and populated with lots of tinkerers who have managed to successfully install a variety of Linux distros on it. I hope that someone there can answer your question. With best wishes,

=david
_________________
Registered Linux User # 442201

[farenheit]

Is the bluetooth keyboard already paired with your Windows machine? If so, you will likely have to de-pair it and re-pair it with the eeePC. That is the normal practice with Bluetooth devices - before you can use it, you have to setup the trust relationship.

I suggest, resetting the keyboard to be keyless (see your manual about pairing the keyboard) and then try again.

Might help.

[BillyBarcode]

I thought I could sometimes use this keyboard with my windows laptop and some other times with my eeepc (because I never have both laptops up and running at the same time).
Does it mean that I have to change my plans and pair / de-pair each time I want to use the Apple keyboard?

Thanks very much for your help.

[farenheit]

Depends on the hardware, but I would probably say yes. Pairing is a security feature in Bluetooth to stop people being able to pair to your headset while you are using it (by way of example).

As far as I am aware (and I am not an expert on this having only ever really used bluetooth with phones and even then not very successfully) it is not possible to share accessories with multiple devices. You should check with your keyboard manual and/or the help files / Apple website.