Bluetooth mouse
Related articles
This article describes how to set up a Bluetooth mouse through the command line without relying upon a graphical application.
Contents
Installation
Install the bluez package which contains the current Linux bluetooth stack (Bluez5). You may also want to install bluez-utils which provides the bluetoothctl utility. See Bluetooth for more information.
Bluez5 instructions
The bluetoothctl utility provides a simple interface for configuring bluetooth devices. The text below is an example of how you can connect a bluetooth mouse using bluetoothctl:
# bluetoothctl [bluetooth]# list Controller <controller mac> BlueZ 5.5 [default] [bluetooth]# select <controller mac> [bluetooth]# power on [bluetooth]# scan on [bluetooth]# agent on [bluetooth]# devices Device <mouse mac> Name: Bluetooth Mouse [bluetooth]# pair <mouse mac> [bluetooth]# trust <mouse mac> [bluetooth]# connect <mouse mac>
In order for the device to start on boot you may have to create a udev rule. Please see Bluetooth#Bluetoothctl for more information.
Troubleshooting
Mouse lag
If you experience mouse lag you can try to increase the polling rate. See Mouse polling rate for more information.
Problems with the USB dongle
If you have trouble with your USB dongle, you may also want to try:
# modprobe -v rfcomm
At this point, you should get an hci0 device with:
# hcitool dev
Sometimes the device is not active right away. Try starting the interface with:
# hciconfig hci0 up
and searching for devices as shown above.