# HELP with microsoft bluetooth mouse

## Moriah

I don't know whether this should be in Desktop Environments, or Networking and Security.  Bluetooth is networking, but mouse is dektop.    :Confused: 

Anyway, I'm going nuts trying to get my microsoft bluetooth mouse to work on my Lenovo w500 laptop.  I can sometimes get it to connect, but only sometimes, and after a period of inactivity, it drops out.  I must always push the little pairing button on the moue to get it to connect, but I only need to do this under windoze the first time; after that, it remembers that it is paired.  This has become a major pain, as I hate the little tappy-pad, and almost always use the bluetooth mouse.  I am an experienced linux and gentoo user, but this is my first bluetooth adventure, and it is turning into a great discouragement.  The mouse is probably the main reason many people use bluetooth at all.  So why can't we get it to work smoothly, seamlessly, and effortlessly with gentoo?

I have read the bluetooth and bluetooth mouse wiki articles, but I get the distinct impression that this stuff is changing way faster than the documentation is being kept up to date.

I have installed:

x11-base/xorg-server 1.6.5-r1

net-wireless/bluez-libs 3.36

net-wireless/bluez-utils 3.36

The Lenovo w500 uses a Broadcom bluetooth controller which is internally on USB.  I have configured the btusb driver.

Can anyone help me tame this stupid mouse?    :Question: 

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## dE_logics

Oh no...it's Microsoft.

It appears impossible since MS should have done something to make it work only in windows.

Verdict -- Quit MS completely.

Check out HID_MICROSOFT in the kernel configuration...it says  *Quote:*   

> Support for Microsoft devices that are not fully compliant with HID standard.

 .

In that case MS is never compatible.

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## Moriah

Yeah, well is is a nice mouse from a look and feel point of view -- the smoothest mouse I have ever had, and fits my hand better than any other mouse since the old Logitech 3-button "boxy" model from the 1980's.  I have no trouble with it under windoze xp on the same machine.  I don't doubt that it might break HID rules a bit.  Maybe I'll get a Lenovo bluetooth mouse.  But I would still like to get this one to work properly.

BTW HID_MICROSOFT =y in my config.    :Confused: 

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## Ant P.

 *dE_logics wrote:*   

> Oh no...it's Microsoft.

 

The maker of the hardware doesn't matter at all; it's the Linux Bluetooth stack which sucks and doesn't work in this case. I had exactly the same awful experience trying to use a bunch of different hardware with anything bluez-related. For the record MS's mice and keyboards are one thing they actually do get right. The KB I'm using doesn't have all buttons functioning, but that's actually due to a limitation of X.

As for the actual topic: It's been a while since I got anywhere close to a working setup, but IIRC one of the files in either /etc/ or /var/lib/ controls whether it reconnects automatically. Good luck with that, I've never been able to find even the most basic documentation for this stuff.

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## Moriah

Thanks for the anti-help.    :Evil or Very Mad: 

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## NeddySeagoon

Moved from Desktop Environments to Kernel & Hardware.

A mouse is hardware

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## Moriah

True, but bluetooth is a secure encrypted networking protocol -- at least that's what it is supposed to be.

I don't know whether the problem is with the mouse itself, or with the bluetooth protocol, or with the USB HID mode that the mouse runs in after it gets off the bluetooth radio and onto the USB infrastructure.    :Confused: 

You will note my opening comment in my initial post -- that I wasn't sure where this belonged.    :Rolling Eyes: 

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