I wanted to connect the conveniently svelte Apple wireless keyboard and mouse to my Ubuntu media server. I don’t often have issues connecting peripherals to my Ubuntu systems these days, so I naively assumed this would be a walk in park. Well, it could have been, but I did not find the royal road on my first attempt. Here’s the right way.
Install blueman (assumes you are on 10.04):
1 2 3 | sudo bash -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ppa/ubuntu lucid main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list" sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 951DC1E2 sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install blueman |
Now go to System -> Preferences -> Bluetooth Manager. This should bring up a handy utility:
For the mouse:
- Right click on entry
- Select Pair, passcode by default is “0000″
- Once paired, right click again and select Connect to Input Service
And keyboard:
- Right click on entry
- Select Pair, didn’t ask for a passcode
- Once paired, right click again and select Connect to Input Service
After these easy steps both devices started working flawlessly. As it should be.
