Hi all! I've been using Linux for over 20 years now, but this is my first experience with a Debian-based distro. I started out with Slackware in the early 90s and since then it's been variations on a theme of Redhat. So I'm admittedly a little clueless about the APT packaging system.

Today I successfully installed the x64 version of antix-13.2 Luddite on my Dell Latitude D620, and it seems to be running nicely. But I'd like to connect my Dell Bluetooth Travel mouse so I don't have to deal with the touchpad. The bluetooth service is enabled and running, and"hcitool scan" and"hcitool inq" are able to see and report on the mouse. But to actually connect the mouse, from all of the documentation I've seen, I need a tool called hidd, which does not appear to be installed.

Seems hid is part of a package called bluez-utils, but when I try to"apt-get install bluez-utils" I get a message that"Package bluez-utils is not available, but is referred to by another package." and further down"However the following packages replace it: bluez". Problem is bluez is already installed, but hidd is still missing. Is there any repo I can get this thing from?

dpkg-query reports that version 4.99-2 is currently installed. (Came with the distro.)

Even stranger, the web interface to the Wheezy repository says it's there:


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/admin/bluez-utils"
linktext was:"https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/admin/bluez-utils"
====================================


So why is apt-get not getting it?

Did you do 'apt-get update' before trying to install the app?

The bluez package appears to have replaced bluez-utils.

The documentation you are looking at is old from what i can find.

Go look at unix.stackexchange.com/questions/42526/how-to-get-my-bluetooth-keyboard-to-be-recognized-before-login

down near the end of the script it runs the programs:

bluez-simple-agent
bluez-test-device
bluez-test-input

my guess is you need to run those programs with the correct parameters for your mouse.

i have a D620 with 13.2, but I have no bluetooth input devices, and generally avoid using bluetooth, LOL, but that doesn't make it wrong, etc. Also, it appears the bluetooth was an option, not standard, and I don't think mine has it.

On antiX-14 I used the pre-installed bluetoothctl program (part of Bluez 5) to connect to my bluetooth mouse. I think antiX-13.2 has an older version of the bluetooth tools (Bluez 4) pre-installed which includes bluetooth-agent, bluez-simple-agent, and hcitool (among others). I'm not familiar with the hidd program and I don't know which version it comes with. It is not pre-installed on antiX-13.2 or antiX-14. Maybe it was an add-on to Bluez 4 but is no longer relevant in Bluez 5. Just a wild guess.

I suggest either using the pre-installed Bluez 4 tools or, if it is possible to upgrade to Bluez 5, then use bluetoothctl. It's CLI and seems a bit strange. Its saving grace is tab completion. Both Arch and Gentoo provide instructions. Did I mention the tab completion?

"apt-get update" did the trick.

After I ran"apt-get update" I was able to install bluez-utils, but it turns out that hidd wasn't in there either.

Had to install bluez-compat, which gave me hidd.

After that all I have to do is put the mouse in pairing mode and run"hidd --search" as root and it connects.

__{{emoticon}}__

thriftee> Go look at unix.stackexchange.com/questions/42526/how-to-get-my-bluetooth-keyboard-to-be-recognized-before-login
thriftee> down near the end of the script it runs the programs:
thriftee> bluez-simple-agent
thriftee> bluez-test-device
thriftee> bluez-test-input
thriftee> my guess is you need to run those programs with the correct parameters for your mouse.

Tried the three commands at the bottom of the script and those work too. Many thanks! Seems like the hidd utility is a legacy from bluez 3, so I needed the compatibility package to use it with bluez 4, which comes with antiX 13.2 Luddite.

When time permits I'm going to play around with that script to try and get it to connect the mouse at boot or at login when the mouse is present.

Thanks again everyone!