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I have a brand new Lenovo Thinkpad 14.04. I also ordered a bluetooth keyboard. When I start the bluetooth app in Ubuntu, it quickly finds the keyboard. When I try to pair with it, though, it generates a number for me to type on the keyboard. I type the number, press ENTER, and yet it fails to pair.

What could be the problem here?

(Incidentally, after much gnashing of teeth, I inadvertently managed to completely wipe out the Windows 8.1 that came with the computer so it's all Ubuntu now.)

EDIT:

Hmm: I see a lock on the Bluetooth indicator. This sounds like it could be related. Not sure what to do about it. I didn't see anything about locking in the bluetooth app. I'm a bluetooth noob, by the way.

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  • Can't pair my BT mouse under 14.04. But the upowerd and battery indicator grab its signals anyway so it really doesn't matter -- it wouldn't work anyway. Try killing the upowerd and indicator first.
    – ubfan1
    May 7, 2014 at 16:43

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
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The workaround that I am using works as follows.

1) Figure out the Bluetooth address of your keyboard. I think I used blueman to do that. The address should look like this 23:AF:61:45:E8:3C (This is just an example)

2) Run the following two commands in a terminal. Use the address you determined beforehand.

sudo hciconfig hci0 up
sudo hidd --connect 23:AF:61:45:E8:3C

That should connect your device.

3) optional. You can put those commands in a .sh file and make it executable to save you from typing them repeatedly.

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  • did you mean bluemon?
    – Steve Cohen
    Jul 29, 2014 at 12:24
  • Well, got bluemon and it doesn't show the address. But hciconfig does. However hidd doesn't exist in my system (Ubuntu 14.04) and apt-get doesn't find it either. What package is it part of?
    – Steve Cohen
    Jul 29, 2014 at 12:39
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On the connect new bt device (the + sign under the bt settings) Select the type of device and also the pin the device is looking for (0000, 1234, etc.). That is the typical way to get the pair to work. Doesn't work anymore for me though, so good luck. There are other BT problems with the battery indicator which make my mouse not work (bug filed). If you get it paired, and it still doesn't work, take a look at hcidump and see if you see the clicks/move signals -- if so and the cursor isn't moving, probably the battery indicator is grabbing the signals looking for bt battery state, and not requeueing the moves. Another machine will work with the mouse until the battery indicator finds the mouse battery and starts processing, then the cursor stops moving.

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  • Dang! I don't know what the device is looking for. Presumably the Windows bluetooth would have told me that, but, as I said, Windows is GONE!
    – stevecoh1
    May 7, 2014 at 17:21
  • Actually, though, on rereading the instructions, it looks like the Windows pairing functionality works like Ubuntu's - it presents you some random number, and tells you to type it on the keyboard. This looks like an Ubuntu bug, I think.
    – stevecoh1
    May 7, 2014 at 17:32
  • Looking around more at the Internet, it seems bluetooth has a lot of problems in 14.04. Ick. Oh, well, maybe it will be fixed soon.
    – stevecoh1
    May 7, 2014 at 23:59
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This post on the RedHat bug tracker really helped me solve my problem. The basics are:

  • Run sudo hcidump -at
  • Then run bluetooth-wizard and select your keyboard
  • Watch the output for Passcode: xxxxxxx
  • Type that passcode into the keyboard and press Return.
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