mebubo

Bluetooth mouse in linux using blues-tools

Configuring a bluetooth mouse is easy with the excellent bluez-tools package.

First we need to discover the MAC address of the mouse. To do this, press the button on the mouse labeled "connect" or something similar, then issue the following command:

$ bt-adapter -d

You should see the output similar to the following:

Searching...

[00:01:02:03:04:05]
  Name: Bluetooth Laser Travel Mouse
  Alias: mouse
  Address: 00:01:02:03:04:05
...

Next we'll connect to the mouse (replace 00:01:02:03:04:05 with the MAC adress you saw in the output of the previous command):

$ bt-device -c 00:01:02:03:04:05
Connecting to: 00:01:02:03:04:05
Agent registered
Device: Bluetooth Laser Travel Mouse (00:01:02:03:04:05)
Enter PIN code: 0000
Agent released
Done

You'll be asked to enter the PIN code; "0000" worked in my case.

Now we can see our mouse in the list of known devices:

$ bt-device -l
Added devices:
Bluetooth Laser Travel Mouse (00:01:02:03:04:05)

Let's give it a shorter alias:

$ bt-device --set 00:01:02:03:04:05 Alias mouse
Alias: Bluetooth Laser Travel Mouse -> mouse

From now on, we can use the alias instead of the MAC address in the command line.

In my experience, setting the Trusted property is necessary for mouse to be able to reconnect automatically:

$ bt-device --set mouse Trusted true
Trusted: 0 -> 1

The only thing that remains is to connect the input service. The bt-input command does just that:

$ bt-input -c mouse
Input service is connected

That's it! After this, the mouse works all the time, including after reboot or sleep. All you need to do is move your mouse, and it reconnects within a second.