What would be the preferred way to connect a Bluetooth Keyboard mouse combo
to PathPilot ? Does the machine already have a built in Bluetooth hardware ?
Sandeep
I have an older 1100 but the manual recommends against bluetooth keyboard..
Dave
None of our controllers have built in blue tooth.
There are many keyboards available which are wireless, but use a USB key instead of Bluetooth. When that USB key (about the size of a small USB thumb drive) is plugged in it looks like a mouse and so it doesnāt need any special hardware.
I have ordered a Bluetooth USB key/dongle , what āADMINā command do I use to get to the System Configuration ?
Sandeep
I will apologize ahead of time for the long reply. I donāt know how much information you actually want or need, so Iām just putting it all out there. If, at the end, you want more information which is about Linux (which is what PathPilot runs on) I can probably answer that
Most mouse+USB dongle combinations do not require Bluetooth pairing operations and simply work when the USB is plugged in, thus no need for getting to system configuration, but I will add some details.
As an experiment I unplugged the original mouse and plugged in a wireless mouse with a USB dongle while the machine was off (USB is hot plug, so in theory this is not needed and should work if a mouse is added or changed even while running). This mouse ājust workedā, but it isnāt advertised as Bluetooth, it is just wireless.
I would have tried both mice, simultaneously, but I donāt have a USB HUB available. A small HUB would likely just work, and two mice added. I have not tried.
If this truly is Bluetooth and not just wireless, then I suspect you want to pair the mouse to the system. The dongle itself should already be preset to the USB key, but if it isnāt, then it wants a Bluetooth capability on the motherboard itself or added on (e.g., via USB); if you use Bluetooth to anything other than the USB key which came with the mouse, then you will need to pair.
To get to a command line you would use CTRL+ALT+X while the system is running. This gets you to a Linux prompt (to leave that click the āxā on the top of the console, or type āexitā), but this isnāt likely to help. It looks to me like one can make changes and updates to the underlying Linux system, but upon reboot changes are lost (e.g., you could name other systems on the network by editing ā/etc/hosts", but the file is lost upon reboot). The system is apparently either virtualized or copied from a read-only filesystem (such as OverlayFS, which runs read-only, and any changes are made in RAM, thus changes go away on rebootā¦a very popular choice among kiosk developers).
If going to the system and configuring Bluetooth is required, then I recommend ditching that mouse and getting a non-Bluetooth wireless mouse instead.
If it were necessary to add a driver, then you would need to compile it on Linux against the existing kernel source and configuration. To some extent this is easy if you work on Linux kernels, but probably not for anyone else. Even though I consider Linux kernel work easy, this kernel uses an older source code with the realtime (RT) extensions, and so it is patched and getting the correct source would be nearly impossible without Tormach actually giving it to you. Even if you had that source, then youād still need the existing kernel build configuration or any kernel driver you add would not load even with the correct source code (Iāve worked on Linux almost since it came out in the 1990s, and worked with a lot of embedded system kernels along with desktop, so Iāve run into this sort of question almost daily for many years).
USB itself is āhot plugā. Any hardware connecting to it provides information about the device upon plugin. If the driver is present for the reported plugin, then it will ājust workā (mice use a standard protocol unless something is very customized, e.g., macro programmable, but the basic mouse part itself always exists in any computer handling USB). If you need a driver, then you could add it, and the system would (after that) ājust workā. The trick is getting that driver in. So Iām back to recommending to just get an ordinary wireless mouse and not something needing Bluetooth pairing. Try a small USB HUB with the existing mouse, then try adding a second mouse. They should both just work without any special effort. Or unplug the existing mouse and plug in the wireless and test that way.
The ADMIN command is a custom application. I donāt think it will help unless the system already has a Bluetooth driver, and Iām pretty certain there is no such critter unless it is the same hardware that the wireless probe uses.
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Long time Linux user (back when we downloaded Slackware disk images to 1.44MB floppies).
Even though the PP Linux distribution is older, it should accommodate most modern mainstream hardware.
I kept the keyboard but switched to a Logitech Ergo M575 trackball. I unplugged the mouse, plugged in the Logitech USB dongle and it ājust workedā without any Linux configuration, kernel module installation/compile/etc. More or less the same process when I switched to a 3rd party touchscreen monitor (which is also a āpointing deviceā).