# Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth and Gentoo

## KraziKid

I haven't been here for a while since I got my MSDN subscription and installed Windows Server 2003 Enterprise on my Server (Windows Server 2003 is by far the best Server OS I have ever used, and please don't flame me because of that, and do not start a Microsoft vs. Linux fight), but I am thinking about dual booting Gentoo with Windows XP on my workstation.  The only problem is I use the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth on my Workstation.  There is no way I am going to stop using this keyboar/mouse combination.  Does anyone have a guide for installing this under Linux?  I have tried searching google, but have so far come up empty.  Thanks in advance for the help.

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## puggy

 *KraziKid wrote:*   

> I haven't been here for a while since I got my MSDN subscription and installed Windows Server 2003 Enterprise on my Server (Windows Server 2003 is by far the best Server OS I have ever used, and please don't flame me because of that, and do not start a Microsoft vs. Linux fight), but I am thinking about dual booting Gentoo with Windows XP on my workstation.  The only problem is I use the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop for Bluetooth on my Workstation.  There is no way I am going to stop using this keyboar/mouse combination.  Does anyone have a guide for installing this under Linux?  I have tried searching google, but have so far come up empty.  Thanks in advance for the help.

 

Bluetooth seems to be supported in the kernels, I don't see why it shouldn't work.

Tell you what, why don't you get me one of those Bluetooth Wireless Desktops and I'll get it working and let you know how I did it.  :Very Happy: 

Puggy

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## btsg

http://www.knoppix.org/

Knoppix has great hardware auto detection, try booting it and see if your bluetooth stuff is auto detected .... if Knoppix auto detects it there should be a way to get it work in Gentoo (unless you just want to install Knoppix)

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## KraziKid

 *btsg wrote:*   

> http://www.knoppix.org/
> 
> Knoppix has great hardware auto detection, try booting it and see if your bluetooth stuff is auto detected .... if Knoppix auto detects it there should be a way to get it work in Gentoo (unless you just want to install Knoppix)

 

Knoppix doesn't work.  I just tried it.  The keyboard and mouse do not function in X11 or on the console.

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## mmontg1

I thought I'd give yall the start of an answer to this...

http://www.visi.com/~pmk/msbtkb-linux.html

I haven't got it to work yet with my keyboard....I haven't got it to compile correctly yet.  It seems to bve NOT finding my .h files in /usr/src like:

#include <sys/sock.h>

and such.  weird...

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## KraziKid

 *mmontg1 wrote:*   

> I thought I'd give yall the start of an answer to this...
> 
> http://www.visi.com/~pmk/msbtkb-linux.html
> 
> I haven't got it to work yet with my keyboard....I haven't got it to compile correctly yet.  It seems to bve NOT finding my .h files in /usr/src like:
> ...

 

The problem is I need a definite way to get them working.  I don't want to reformat, repartition my box, than have the keyboard/mouse not work.  I need them to work without me having to sit here a few days to get them to work.

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## puggy

Well. You could always repartition your drive, with current partition and gentoo linux, then at any point you can duck out of the install, and boot back into windows, then continue it later. So you can have a functional machine, as well as working on getting Gentoo up and running.

That bit of hacking looks good, you could try implementing the hack in knoppix, then installing gentoo from there and again implementing the hack.

As I said, I'll do the hard work and write you a guide if you'll just get me a MS BT Desktoip.  :Very Happy: 

Puggy

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## Achilles

Anyone get this to work yet? I'm still trying to get mine to work (I got it to compile, but havent figured out how to get the keyboard/mouse communicating with the daemon).

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## Vanquirius

Just writing here to post a success story. I just got a MS Wireless Optical Desktop today, and reading that page (http://www.visi.com/~pmk/msbtkb-linux.html) seemed like a foreshadow of a huge headache and driver hacking. It wasn't. 

I plugged the "station" in an USB port, put batteries in the keyboard and mouse.

Then I recompiled a kernel (gentoo-sources 2.4.20-r6) with Bluetooth support (I just built everything available as modules --- actually I just built the modules, no need for a new kernel), emerged the bluez* tools and... I realized the keyboard was working when I pressed a random key to test it. I don't even know if the bluez* tools were necessary of not; I just suppose hotplug took care of everything. All I need to do now is switch the ABNT2 layout of my old keyboard to American standards and bind those funky keys to something useful   :Cool: 

dmesg:

```

usb.c: USB disconnect on device 00:02.1-1 address 2

hub.c: new USB device 00:02.1-1, assigned address 3

input1: USB HID v1.11 Keyboard [Microsoft Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop® 1.00] on usb2:3.0

input2: USB HID v1.11 Mouse [Microsoft Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop® 1.00] on usb2:3.1

```

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## KraziKid

 *ManuChao wrote:*   

> Just writing here to post a success story. I just got a MS Wireless Optical Desktop today, and reading that page (http://www.visi.com/~pmk/msbtkb-linux.html) seemed like a foreshadow of a huge headache and driver hacking. It wasn't. 
> 
> I plugged the "station" in an USB port, put batteries in the keyboard and mouse.
> 
> Then I recompiled a kernel (gentoo-sources 2.4.20-r6) with Bluetooth support (I just built everything available as modules --- actually I just built the modules, no need for a new kernel), emerged the bluez* tools and... I realized the keyboard was working when I pressed a random key to test it. I don't even know if the bluez* tools were necessary of not; I just suppose hotplug took care of everything. All I need to do now is switch the ABNT2 layout of my old keyboard to American standards and bind those funky keys to something useful  
> ...

 

So let me get this straight.  Firstly, you recompiled your kernel with the built in bluetooth support?  Then you did this:

```

emerge bluez*

```

then you restarted and it worked?  If so, I may re-install gentoo tonight.

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## Vanquirius

I built Bluetooth kernel support as modules, but I suppose it should work built-in as well. It was quite a surprise that it worked so easily. Coupled with lineakd I even got those extra keys working. 

Here's the relevant /etc/lineakkb.def section for anyone that is interested:

```
[MWOD]

  brandname = "Microsoft"

  modelname = "Wireless Optical Desktop"

  [KEYS]

        docs                    = 228

        pics                    = 231

        music                   = 237

        mute                    = 166

        play|pause              = 159

        stop                    = 151

        volumeup                = 158

        volumedown              = 165

        previous                = 164

        next                    = 162

        media                   = 129

        mail                    = 236

        webhome                 = 130

        msn                     = 218

        calculator              = 161

        logoff                  = 214

        sleep                   = 223

        help                    = 226

        undo                    = 103

        redo                    = 196

        new                     = 213

        open                    = 202

        close                   = 101

        reply                   = 215

        fwd                     = 216

        send                    = 217

        spell                   = 197

        save                    = 212

        print                   = 110

  [END KEYS]

[END MWOD]
```

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## puddpunk

 *KraziKid wrote:*   

> (Windows Server 2003 is by far the best Server OS I have ever used, and please don't flame me because of that, and do not start a Microsoft vs. Linux fight)

 

Oh come on dipshit, if you really didnt want to start a flame you wouldn't have said anything.

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## smiler.se

Anyone knows if you can buy the mouse separately or another bluetooth mouse? 

Im looking for a mouse to use on my bluetooth-capable laptop (but Im VERY) happy with the keyboard so I dont want to waste money on it.

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## KraziKid

 *smiler.se wrote:*   

> Anyone knows if you can buy the mouse separately or another bluetooth mouse? 
> 
> Im looking for a mouse to use on my bluetooth-capable laptop (but Im VERY) happy with the keyboard so I dont want to waste money on it.

 

Yes, you can buy the mouse seperately.  I don't believe you can buy the keyboard seperately, but I am 100% sure the mouse can be because one of my friends purchased it.

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## smiler.se

Ok cool, lets go find a store  :Smile: 

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## russo79

ManuChao, can you please post your kernel config and tell me exactly which bluez tools have you emerged?

I'm trying to make it work (only the mouse), but I'm having some problems.

Thanx in advance

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## russo79

ManuChao, can you please post your kernel config and tell me exactly which bluez tools have you emerged?

I'm trying to make it work (only the mouse), but I'm having some problems.

Thanx in advance

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## Vanquirius

Sure. Here it is.

I emerged all bluez* tools you can find with emerge -s bluez, although I'm pretty sure you wouldn't need all of them.

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## russo79

Sorry to disturb you again ManuChao... 

but i still can't get it working

what kernel did you use?

do you still emerge the bluez-kernel package

Can you post your kernel .config file so i can compare it with mine?

thnx

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## KraziKid

 *ManuChao wrote:*   

> Sure. Here it is.
> 
> I emerged all bluez* tools you can find with emerge -s bluez, although I'm pretty sure you wouldn't need all of them.

 

Does the keyboard and mouse work in LILO or GRUB?

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## feliperal

krazikid, you will need to use the gentoo-sources or 2.6 version of mm-sources.  I would go with the gentoo-source-2.4.20-r7 I believe.  I was able to get it to work by compiling all bluetooth as modules.  Some of the options under bluetooth are for Ethernet over Bluetooth, but I figured that I might need them later.

If your kernel compiles correctly, you should see this in /lib/modules/linux-2.4.20-r7-gentoo/kernel/drivers/bluetooth:

```
hci_uart

hci_usb

Hci_vhci
```

The utilities are: 

```

bluez-pan

bluez-utils

bluez-sdp

hotplug
```

You will definately need the 2nd and 3rd of those.  Also, you might want to add hotplug option in kernel.  this way you can easily connect and disconnect usb devices.

One last note, when your building your system DO NOT USE XFS.  The gentoo-sources-2.4.20-r7 does not support xfs as a bootable partition.  I made this mistake and ended up using the boot cd to make a spare partition and copy all files from one partition and back to the new reiserfs.  Just a nice note to save people alot of trouble when building a bluetooth capable kernel 

Hope this helps  :Smile: 

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## feliperal

If anyone is interested , I'm going to try to build a basic LiveCD that will basically the same off of the servers, except with the addition of bluetooth.  This way, off the bat, bluetooth will be available and you could easily install a fresh install of Gentoo Linux without connecting a old serial or usb keyboard.  Let me know if anyone is interested or wants to help me.  Thanks

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## KraziKid

 *feliperal wrote:*   

> krazikid, you will need to use the gentoo-sources or 2.6 version of mm-sources.  I would go with the gentoo-source-2.4.20-r7 I believe.  I was able to get it to work by compiling all bluetooth as modules.  Some of the options under bluetooth are for Ethernet over Bluetooth, but I figured that I might need them later.
> 
> If your kernel compiles correctly, you should see this in /lib/modules/linux-2.4.20-r7-gentoo/kernel/drivers/bluetooth:
> 
> ```
> ...

 

So you built the standard bluetooth drivers in, along with the bluez utilities?  Also, do the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse work under LILO or GRUB?

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## feliperal

Unfornately, the keyboard and mouse will not work with any bootloader.  That's the real downside.  The reason for this is that the kernel has not loaded the bluetooth drivers.  This is also the case in Windows, you can't use those devices in the NT bootloader.  So, if you want to access your windows partition or another one, just make three boot entries in the grub.conf or lilo.conf and comment the sections so that only one section that pertains to the OS you want to load is active, for example Gentoo or Windows.

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## KraziKid

 *feliperal wrote:*   

> Unfornately, the keyboard and mouse will not work with any bootloader.  That's the real downside.  The reason for this is that the kernel has not loaded the bluetooth drivers.  This is also the case in Windows, you can't use those devices in the NT bootloader.  So, if you want to access your windows partition or another one, just make three boot entries in the grub.conf or lilo.conf and comment the sections so that only one section that pertains to the OS you want to load is active, for example Gentoo or Windows.

 

That's the thing.  I know how to configure GRUB or LILO, but if I need to access one partition over the other (choose between Windows or Linux), I will need to install a second a keyboard.  Isn't there a more elegant way?

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## KraziKid

Bump

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## xeonburn

Does anyone know how to get the USB Wireless Optical Desktop to work? When I plug it in the keyboard works fine but the mouse does not work. I am using my laptop with a glidepoint mouse configured as well. I get the same message that you guys get at startup about recognizing the MS mouse and keyboard though... but for some reason I can't get X or Gnome to recognize it. Any ideas?

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## idunno246

Im having trouble, but maybe ill figure it out.  Would on of you be willing to help over AIM?

Krazikid, One solution for choosing if its just 2 OSs, windows and this, is put LILO on floppy and use the windows boot loader on the hard drive.  If the disk is in, load linux.  Out, load windows.Last edited by idunno246 on Fri Nov 07, 2003 4:27 am; edited 1 time in total

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## xeonburn

How does dual-booting help solve the problem?

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## scoobydu

 *xeonburn wrote:*   

> Does anyone know how to get the USB Wireless Optical Desktop to work? When I plug it in the keyboard works fine but the mouse does not work. I am using my laptop with a glidepoint mouse configured as well. I get the same message that you guys get at startup about recognizing the MS mouse and keyboard though... but for some reason I can't get X or Gnome to recognize it. Any ideas?

 

Do you have 2 references in X, 1 for each pointing device?

You should have if you are using a glidepoint as well.

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## nidua18

Could anyone who got the keyboard and mouse to work write an nice little HOWTO with step by step instructions so other owners of this fine BT setup could benefit from your experience and expertise.   :Idea: 

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## xeonburn

yeah, I do have two listed in X... although its weird cuz even if I comment out my Glidepoint mouse that one will always work... and the USB mouse never works... even though they both have different settings and shouldn't be confused.

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## nidua18

It seems I am having little trouble compliling bthid. The process stops while compiling fake.o. Did anyone else encounter this problem and more importandly found a fix?

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## iwasbiggs

This should answer all questions:

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=752982#752982

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## nidua18

Thank you. Thats exactly what I was looking for.

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