Lenovo Bluetooth keyboard not pairing on Ubuntu 14.04

Question

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.

Solution

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.

Comments

[stevecoh1]

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]

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.

[Steve Cohen]

did you mean bluemon?

[Steve Cohen]

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?