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I have a spare Mac keyboard that I'd like to use with my Raspberry Pi when it's plugged into my TV, so that I can use it for surfing internet on my TV.

Has anyone got a working configuration with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and a recipe for setting it up?

ArchHaskeller
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Maria Zverina
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  • The only info on compatible hardware that i've been able to find so far http://elinux.org/RPi_VerifiedPeripherals#USB_Bluetooth_adapters – Maria Zverina Jun 27 '12 at 17:58
  • I don't have a Mac keyboard/mouse - only a (pretty funky) Bluetooth keyboard. Are you interested in a writeup around that? – Flexo Jun 27 '12 at 18:44
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    I've got a couple of USB BT2.0 ones kicking around, they're all pretty cheap no-name ones but all supported by the standard Linux Bluetooth stack so I assume ought to work on a Pi – Flexo Jun 27 '12 at 20:08
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    So far the answers to this question suggest that people are looking at it like a recommendation question, which is of little use to future visitors to the site. Please consider rewording this question to make it clear that you are looking for how people set up their bluetooth keyboard, rather than just whether they have done it. So far none of the answers help you or any future visitor to set up a bluetooth mouse or keyboard yourselves. – Mark Booth Jul 04 '12 at 09:47
  • The K400 is awesome! Can you also use the 2.4 for other API services? Or is it limited to Keyboard and mouse? –  Jan 25 '14 at 16:02
  • I have a solution for Raspberry Pi 3, Apple Wireless Keyboard (v1) and current (as of March/April 2016) version of Raspbian but I don't have enough rep to post it as an answer, so here it is in a comment: 0. unpair the keyboard 1. sudo apt-get install bluetooth bluez , 2. bluetoothctl -a , 3. scan on , (4. wait for your keyboard to show up), 5. trust <your_keyboard_MAC>, 6. connect <your_keyboard_MAC>, 7. pair <your_keyboard_MAC>, 8. enter the code shown on the screen on the Apple keyboard and press Enter, 9. done! :) – Greg Dubicki Apr 02 '16 at 14:41

3 Answers3

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I was able to get my Apple Wireless Keyboard and Magic Trackpad(without multitouch) working using the following steps:

Packages & Tools

You only really need to install the 'bluetooth' package but, I used the following command to install some test tools and the GUI Bluetooth manager:

apt-get install bluetooth bluez blueman

Edit (2015-12-20): the original line above had bluez-utils instead of bluez - the package has been renamed.

USB Dongle Detection

lsusb shows a new device. This is the output:

Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0a12:0001 Cambridge Silicon Radio, Ltd. Bluetooth Dongle (HCI Mode)

There will be other devices in the list, but that (or something very similar) is what you are looking for.

The /etc/init.d/bluetooth status command shows whether Bluetooth is running.

Output should be:

Bluetooth is running

Scanning

Switch your phone's Bluetooth to 'visible'. Then use the hcitool scan command to discover our devices initially:

hcitool scan showed the following output:

Scanning ... A0:75:91:01:02:03 Nexus S

Pairing

Once you are able to see a device using hcitool scan, start a GUI session.

Under LXDE Menu>Preferences>Bluetooth Manager, you will find the Blueman GUI Bluetooth manager.

From there, you can scan and pair bluetooth devices as expected in any GUI system.

and that is what worked for me. Original tutorial found here

EDIT: This apparently only works for using the apple setup in the GUI. Once GUI session is logged out, Apple keyboard ceases to function. That means this is at best a partial and non-practical solution.

SlySven
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zenbike
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7

The "stock" debian image (currently debian6-19-04-2012.img) works with my Logitech diNovo Edge Windows edition Bluetooth keyboard/trackpad combo. I loaded a new SD card using the command-line Linux instructions and no additional drivers or packages were required.

Assuming the diNovo Edge, is a standard Bluetooth HID profile device then others should work equally well out of the box.

This was the closest thing to an extra USB keyboard that I had lying around when I received my RPi and it just worked. This isn't the most amazing keyboard or mousing experience but it meets your requirement of using Bluetooth and meets my requirement of replacing both keyboard and mouse for home media center uses.

EDIT: I have diNovo Edge and the diNovo media Desktop, the dongles on both of these can act like regular wireless dongles (like on the non blue tooth keyboard/mouse combo's) and as blue tooth dongles. In the windows drivers you can switch the mode, in blue tooth mode they are useless in accessing the bios, boot menu, or even hitting F8 to get into safe mode, in wireless mode they work like any other wireless keyboard allowing you to access the bios, boot menu / safe mode etc.. So the fact that they just "worked" does not necessarily reflect on the blue tooth functionality.

Community
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deaks
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    Thanks deaks, that makes your answer much more useful. Also, now that information is in your answer you, me and @MariaZverina can all tidy up (delete) our comments so that future visitors won't be distracted from your answer by comments which are no longer relevant. – Mark Booth Jul 04 '12 at 10:26
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I have a Logitech K400 up and working with an RPi. It's not Bluetooth, but 2.4khz radio, so it suffers fewer issues than with Bluetooth with drivers. It has a built in touchpad, which is particularly cool because it interprets multitouch gestures within the hardware, which should be very handy for a media device.

Jon Egerton
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b1ackcrow
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