Bluetooth mouse dies

JohnJasonJordan · #1 12th December 2009, 02:31 AM

Fresh install one week ago of Fedora 11 x86_64.

The first thing I did after installing Fedora was to get my Pro|Click Mobile mouse working. It remained working perfectly until this morning.

All wireless mice use batteries and, to conserve battery life, the manufacturers build a sleep mode into the mouse. If the mouse is unused for fifteen minutes or so it goes to sleep. Wiggling it back and forth a couple times wakes it back up.

Until this morning that feature was working fine. But when I sat down at the computer this morning wiggling the mouse did not bring the computer out of the screensaver. I had to hit Esc on the keyboard. And once I could see the screen I discovered why wiggling the mouse did not turn off the screensaver - the mouse was dead.

To get it working again I had to remove it, then reinstall it. Now it works, but every time it goes into sleep mode it completely disconnects. I have to go back into Blueman and reconnect it. And if I leave the computer for fifteen minutes, when I come back the mouse has disconnected again.

I put fresh batteries in the mouse, but it didn't make any difference.

I've poked at all the options in Blueman, but I can't find anything that will fix the problem. I hope someone has some suggestions.

JohnJasonJordan · #2 13th December 2009, 05:06 AM

From a Blueman forum I found this advice:

"Try removing everything under /var/lib/bluetooth and restart bluez."

And a followup:

"i didn't help to only restart bluez, though. i had to reboot."

So I renamed the /var/lib/bluetooth/ folder to /var/lib/bluetooth.old/, and created a new, empty /var/lib/bluetooth/ folder. Then I shut down and restarted the computer.

When Fedora came up and I logged in I opened Blueman. None of my devices were listed any more. So I put the mouse in discovery mode and clicked on Search. When it found the mouse I added it to the list, then connected. All has been fine since (crossing fingers).

Looking at the /var/lib/blutooth.old/ folder and the new one I find just about every config file is different in the new one. And in the old one there was a file called "linkkeys" owned by root that does not exist in the new one. I wonder if I might have been able to fix things just by removing that file.

---------- Post added at 09:06 PM CST ---------- Previous post was at 05:23 PM CST ----------

I spoke too soon. It takes longer before it goes idle, but when it goes idle it still disconnects.

Why did it work flawlessly for seven days after installing Fedora 11, and suddenly develop this problem?

Darr247 · #3 4th May 2010, 10:06 PM

You got further than I did... Blueman applet 1.21-4 won't detect my mouse at all.
(Logitech M-RBB93 which works fine with the same laptop/bluetooth adapter under Win7.)

Dead1nside · #4 31st May 2010, 05:02 PM

On a separate note, have any of you managed to get the battery level reporting for your Bluetooth mice working?

JohnJasonJordan · #5 1st June 2010, 01:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dead1nside

On a separate note, have any of you managed to get the battery level reporting for your Bluetooth mice working?

I didn't know there was a battery level report available. I just use the mouse until it quits. Then I turn it over and notice there is no red light. Then I replace the batteries. I'm not sure I need a battery level report.