Bluetooth on Inspiron 9400

[aulus]

I have an inspiron 9400/E1705 I just installed vector on and everything seems to be working great. Except I can't seem to find a tool for connecting a bluetooth mouse. I'm currently using the touchpad which works fine but would also like to use my bluetooth mouse as it's more convenient than a touchpad. I did find a program in the repository for connecting a phone with bluetooth but no other device types. Also I don't have one but would like a bluetooth headset as well for using in teamspeak and the like. Is there another program somewhere I need to install. I'm using vector 6.0 deluxe.

[bigpaws]

The config file for bluetooth is in /etc/bluetooth.

You need to set hcid.conf

and for sound set

asound.conf

After that make bluetooth executeable as  root:

chmod  +x /etc/rc.d/rc.bluetooth 

Here is an example that was posted on LQ:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/slackware-14/solved-ms-bluetooth-notebook-mouse-5000-and-slack-12.1-679821/

HTH

Bigpaws

[wcs]

Just to elaborate, you'll have to access /etc/rc.d/rc.bluetooth.conf. That file has the configurations for bluetooth and what will be running.

The first thing is to check that the bluetooth module is loaded. This should have happened automatically.

Code:

lsmod | grep bluetooth

If it gives you some output with the bluetooth module, everything is fine.

Then, because you're using a mouse, edit that script (rc.bluetooth.conf) and set the values for true or false according to what you want running.

I think you want to change HIDD_ENABLE to true, because you're using an input device, such as a mouse. I'm not sure about the other stuff... I think you might need to set some other things to true for the headset.

Then start the bluetooth service (as root):

Code:

service bluetooth start

This should load other modules and you should see a message saying that it started hidd, hcid, and passkeys... and whatever else you told it to run.

At this point, doing

Code:

hciconfig

should show your bluetooth hardware and say that it is "UP".
If not, you can do something like:

Code:

hciconfig hci0 up

You're ready to scan for devices:

Code:

hidd --scan

Which will give you an identifier for your mouse.

And connect:

Code:

hidd --connect <address of your mouse>

It it works, great.
I guess you would want it to work after you boot your computer, so you should put "--connect <Address>" in HIDD_OPTIONS inside /etc/rc.d/rc.bluetooth.conf .
(many websites tell you to put the option --server in HIDD_OPTIONS. It's not needed, it's handled by the bluetooth scripts)

Finally, go to VasmCC and in services select the bluetooth service for whatever runlevels you want it running.

Everything should really be more or less automatic. All this stuff is just to check that things are working properly, step by step.

The only things that REALLY need to be done to get the mouse working permanently on boot are: (1) enabling hidd in that file; (2) put your mouse address in the options for hidd; and (3) enable the service in Vasm.

EDIT: if you follow this method, you don't need to make that script executable as bigpaws suggested. That's taken care of. But, as he said, if you want to get the headset going, you most likely will need to fiddle with the asound.conf file, and maybe set some other things to true in the configuration file.

[aulus]

Thanks. That doesn't sound too hard. I will try it and get back with you as soon as I can. With all those steps I wish I new programming so I could make a graphical tool that could do all that for me to help make the distro more user friendly though.

[wcs]

With all those steps I wish I new programming so I could make a graphical tool that could do all that for me to help make the distro more user friendly though.

That's what I've been thinking. Slowly teaching myself python, and I'll try to write some configuration tool for bluetooth. It shouldn't be too hard as there are python bindings for the bluetooth libraries.

Don't expect it any time soon, though... 

[aulus]

Well I followed your steps and it works great. They only annoying thing is that if I don't have the mouse on and in range when I boot up the system the mouse does not get connected automatically. I guess to fix that there would have to be something like hal or vl-hot created for bluetooth. Would certianly needed for full user friendliness or at least a program where you can hit connect once it's turned on but I can live with it as is. Thanks a lot.

[wcs]

There might be some more automatic way... I think hidd is a daemon that keeps running.
But I'm not sure what that might be.

The solution if your mouse is not around is to type the "hidd --connect" command again.
Perhaps putting it in a script and even in a launcher or shortcut key, to make the process easier.