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- - how to get bluetooth pc105 keyboards to work with N900 (https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=38372)

Re: how to get bluetooth pc105 keyboards to work with N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by technosopher (Post 730817)

I've figured out how to connect non-HID (ie, SPP) bluetooth keyboards! It turns out that once you establish the initial bluetooth connection (ie, with rfcomm connect /dev/rfcomm0 XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX), you need to run an intermediary driver binary called kbdd, which can handle a fairly impressive range of non-HID keyboards. I wasn't immediately able to find a pre-compiled binary for Freemantle, so I went ahead and compiled my own, which you can download here. Usage is extremely staightforward, but be sure to read these instructions anyway.
Now on to applying the correct layout settings! (The keyboard may be connected, but I'm now having the same keymap-related woes that many of the rest you have reported).

Many thanks to those who helped me get this far!

EDIT: It turns out that this svelte little daemon package may also help with many of the keymap problems that people have been running into - because if you download the kbdd source, you can actually code specific keyboard layouts directly into the compiled executable. I know this because the supplied profile for my particular keyboard (a freedom model) was actually somewhat incorrect, and I discovered that the most effective and painless way to fix those errors was simply to go into the source code and move keys around. Granted, this approach only works (a) if someone has already set up a base profile for your model of keyboard, or (b) you have a fairly sophisticated understanding of the physical architecture of your keyboard, but I figured it was worth describing here nonetheless.

Anyway, the gist is that I now have a non-HID Freedom keyboard running pretty much flawlessly. Thanks again to everyone who made that possible!

I also have a spp keyboard. But it appears the kbdd file and the instruction link are both broken. Does anyone still has the binary and the instruction? Thanks in advance.

Re: how to get bluetooth pc105 keyboards to work with N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by ldrn (Post 696831)

Lots of thanks to Qole; I was able to modify his instructions to get x2x working with all the normal keyboard buttons to share my laptop's keyboard and mouse. :D

I did have to make one change; enter wasn't working quite right. I had to press it twice on the terminal, and it didn't work at all in some other programs. Editing the pc file under symbols (both copies) to change KPEN to Return and RTRN to KP_Enter (to match the default rx-51 file) fixed that, though.

Thank you so much. I was looking everywhere for that information. It drove me crazy. Although. The file to change (at least for me) was /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/us

I just added your suggestion to the standard keyboard layouts and my su8w works just like it should. Later I am going to figure out how to map the special keys (if I can). Thanks again.

Re: how to get bluetooth pc105 keyboards to work with N900

Feeling a bit foolish at the moment and wondered whether anyone might be able to help. I've looked around quite a lot for this but probably not under the most obvious stone - most of the information seems to be about how to get the kb to map correctly. I'm falling at the first fence - I cannot get the devices to pair!

I'm trying to pair a BT-KB (MS mobile BTKB 6000) with my N900.
I have edited /etc/bluetooth/main.conf as recommended and I have extkb installed.
The problem is the devies won't pair. This before I get to trying to make various keys known to be difficult to work!

On pairing, a pin is automatically generated. Do I need to alter it?
Below is a screenshot of a pairing attempt.

All assistance gratetfully received.

Re: how to get bluetooth pc105 keyboards to work with N900

did you try this?

also, try manually setting the passcode to "0000" or "1234" (or maybe you'll find the default passcode your keyboard uses on the net).

some BT keyboards also allow you to enter the passcode during pairing - type the passcode then hit enter and see if that helps.

Re: how to get bluetooth pc105 keyboards to work with N900

in the instructions for the KB, it says:
"In the bluetooth programme, use the option to add a new device and follow the instructions on the screen. If you are prompted for a passkey, let the program create it."

- so, I thought it had more to do with the N900 than the KB. 0000 and 1234 didn't work, unfortunately.

I'll have a look at doing it manually with the terminal commands... brb

Edit:
Does it matter if I'm running power-kernel v0.46?

Re: how to get bluetooth pc105 keyboards to work with N900

Okay, feeling increasingly stupid now.
As "root"...

Code:

/home/user # dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.bluez \

Code:

> / org.bluez.Manager.DefaultAdapter

method return sender=:1.216 -> dest=:1.376 reply_serial=2

   object path "/org/bluez/2623/hci0"

Code:

/home/user # dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.bluez \

Code:

> dbus-send --system --print-reply --dest=org.bluez \

> /org/bluez/2623/hci0/dev_00_07_55_39_E1 \

> org.bluez.Input.Connect 

Must use org.mydomain.Interface.Method notation, no dot in "/org/bluez/2623/hci0/dev_00_07_55_39_E1"

Is the "dev_ ..." the mac address for the N900 or the keyboard? If N900, mine is 20 : D6 : 07 : 55 : 39 : E1 *, which doesn't quite fit with the format given in post #161. I can't find the mac address for the kb.

Slightly lost now but I'll keep trying. Hopefully I'll get it.

* extra spaces inserted to prevent smilies.

Re: how to get bluetooth pc105 keyboards to work with N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by demolition (Post 1048880)

Is the "dev_ ..." the mac address for the N900 or the keyboard?

that should be the BT keyboard's address. you can get it's mac via "hcitool scan" (as described by JoHnY here).

Quote:

If N900, mine is 20 : D6 : 07 : 55 : 39 : E1 *, which doesn't quite fit with the format given in post #161.

yes it does :) those "xx"es are just placeholders. every mac address has the same length, twelve bytes. (six pairs)

btw, all those commands were single commands split by a backslash ( \ ). using a backslash, you can write a multiline command, by "masking" the linebreak with it.
JoHnY did the same in his post (manually connecting the BT keyboard), he just wrote every command in one line.

Re: how to get bluetooth pc105 keyboards to work with N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by SubCore (Post 1049363)

that should be the BT keyboard's address. you can get it's mac via "hcitool scan" (as described by JoHnY here).

Thank you. I'll get on to it. I can't find the KB's mac address. Scanning for it would really help.

Quote:

yes it does :) those "xx"es are just placeholders. every mac address has the same length, twelve bytes. (six pairs)

I wasn't clear. I got that the xx pairs and underscores was a mac-address. but the one for the N900 is in a different form. The _07_ is in the wrong place, which makes sense seeing as it should have been for the KB. That's also why the code I used was only 5 pairs - because I was just giving the pairs to the right of the _07_.

Quote:

btw, all those commands were single commands split by a backslash ( \ ). using a backslash, you can write a multiline command, by "masking" the linebreak with it.
JoHnY did the same in his post (manually connecting the BT keyboard), he just wrote every command in one line.

Ahh, ok - like how std::cout can be one long line or put << at the start of each new line of code?

When I've got this ironed out, think I need to update the wiki with some pairing instructions. Thanks for your help so far - I'll post back if I have any more troubles, hopefully not though!

Re: how to get bluetooth pc105 keyboards to work with N900

Quote:

Originally Posted by guoyuucla (Post 898212)

I also have a spp keyboard. But it appears the kbdd file and the instruction link are both broken. Does anyone still has the binary and the instruction? Thanks in advance.

This reply is maybe a little late but now kbdd is available and packaged for maemo:
http://maemo.org/packages/view/kbdd/

Version kbdd 0.10Maemo0-4 should work for quite many spp keyboards. It is in extras-devel but there are virtually no dependencies and it should not harm a running system. You can install the .deb from the webpage if you do not want to add extras-devel to the apt repository.

Help on building a nice GUI for the driver selection would be appreciated.