We need log-in on-screen keyboard.

[My2CentsWorth]

I am using Linux Mint 14 Cinnamon. I have a blue tooth keyboard (Logitech k810) it works great for multiple devises, switching with just a touch of a button. The problem I have is until I am logged in it does not work. Other Distributions have an on-screen keyboard option at the log-in for just this situation. Windows and Mac the blue-tooth works at log-in, I don't know of a Linux distro that does, but the on-screen keyboard option is a nice way around the issue.
I was going to post this in the About Mint Editions section but there was no NEWTOPIC* button for me. I hope this is OK to post this here as I could not find anything n the subject in the search results.
-Mark

[jbb]

I have just clean installed Linux Mint 14, as I broke it while trying to get the K810 to work. After the clean install I managed to figure out how to get the keyboard to work in about 5 minutes, and it works just fine from the login screen.
Not sure what your issue would be then.

[catweazel]

Not sure what your issue would be then.

The poster would like to know how you got it to work.

[jbb]

Not sure what your issue would be then.

The poster would like to know how you got it to work.

Oh yer that might be useful..

The standard Cinnamon Bluetooth GUI did not work for me (the pairing always failed even though I was typing in the passkey... ). After doing some searches I found this guide http://devasive.blogspot.com.au/2012/11 ... iring.html which unfortunately did not work either. No matter how I did things I kept on getting time out errors, so I had to explore around for another option. After doing a bit of reading about the Linux Bluetooth protocol (from http://www.bluez.org), I had a browse through the bluetooth packages in Synaptic, and discovered two packages that seemed like a good place to start. I installed them both, although I only ended up using one of the packages to find a fix.

bluez-tools
Bluez-tools provides comamnd line tools to functions of Bluetooth.
They are Bluetooth adapter control, Bluetooth agent, sound, input, network
and other.

bluez-hcidump
The hcidump utility allows the monitoring of Bluetooth activity. It
provides a disassembly of the Bluetooth traffic and can display packets
from higher level protocols such as RFCOMM, SDP and BNEP.

Following the guide linked above, once you type in "sudo bluez-simple-agent hci0 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX" the computer just seems to sit there for a while thinking, and then throws a timeout error. Using the 'bluez-hcidump' tool, you can see what it is actually doing; waiting for a the passkey to pair the devices. It also has the bonus of showing you the passkey, enabling you to enter it into the K810 before the connection times out.

SOLUTION (may work for other devices):

• Turn on PC bluetooth and set to discoverable (maybe not necessary, but I wanted to get rid of as many obstacles as possible)
• Turn on keyboard, press the connect button followed by F1, F2 or F3
• In a new terminal type:
  

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  hcitool scan

  and copy mac address XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX of the keyboard
  
  
• Now in another terminal type (switches are for ascii output, and date stamped):
  

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  sudo hcidump -at

  
  
• You should get output similar to what is posted below (followed by a blinking cursor):
  HCI sniffer - Bluetooth packet analyzer ver 2.4
  device: hci0 snap_len: 1028 filter: 0xffffffffffffffff
  
  
• Assuming the keyboard is device 'hci0', switch back to your original terminal and type:
  

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  sudo bluez-simple-agent hci0 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

  
  
• Now in the hcidump terminal you will see a few things scroll past until you get something that looks like:
  2013-02-07 15:35:40.653393 > HCI Event: User Passkey Notification (0x3b) plen 10
  bdaddr XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX passkey xxxxxx
  
  
• Type the 'passkey' in to the keyboard of the K810 and press ENTER; as you type the hcidump terminal will update with your key presses
• In the original terminal, on success you should get "Release" and "New device (/org/bluez/..."
• Now set device as trusted:
  

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  sudo bluez-test-device trusted XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX yes

  
  
• You might have a connection now, but still need to:
  

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  sudo bluez-test-input connect XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX

That should be it