Very difficult to pair Apple Magic Trackpad in Bluetooth

[Naftuli Kay]

In order to pair my Apple Magic Trackpad in the Bluetooth settings, I have to go through a pretty non-standard process. I don't know if it's easy to tweak the Bluetooth pairing settings to do things on a per-device basis, but if it is, then I'd recommend a patch to natively support the device. Essentially, you need to go into "PIN Options..." and manually select "0000". Then, when pairing with the device, you need to hit the power button on the side of the device to finish pairing.

It'd be nicer if, based on the hardware id (05ac:030e) the PIN could automatically be set to "0000" and on-screen instructions to press the power button during pairing would be shown. This would lead to a much better user experience.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: elementary OS 0.2
Package: elementary-desktop 1.287-0~361~precise1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-34.53-generic 3.2.33
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-34-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia wl
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu15+elementary3~precise1
Architecture: amd64
CrashDB: elementary_meta
Date: Wed Dec 12 16:57:03 2012
InstallationMedia: elementary OS 0.2 "Luna" - Beta 1 amd64 (20121114)
MarkForUpload: True
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: elementary-meta
SuspiciousXErrors: [WARNING:flash/platform/pepper/pep_sslsocket.cpp(289)] 0x7f924f562048 PlatformSSLSocket::Receive()/Send() called from state 0.
ThirdParty: True
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Piotr Pałek (awesomepetter)]

Wow.. so that's how I accidentally paired the trackpad. It was driving me crazy to be honest o_O please fix this.. The pairing process of the bluetooth keyboard could be nicely improved as well. When I pair it on OSX it shows me interactively what keys I have already pressed (in order to authenticate the device) and when I have all keys pressed correctly then it shows me to hit enter.

Also the "new bluetooth device" dialog is crappy in general, the list of "found devices" is so small that it shows a scrollbar even for 1 device.

[Danielle Foré (danrabbit)]

OP, have you tried pairing your magic trackpad on a newer version of elementary OS? Are you still experiencing this problem in the latest release?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for elementary OS because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Keith Garrod (kpgarrod)]

I have just installed the latest Elementary OS and had some difficulty pairing my Apple Trackpad 1.

It turns out that the problem was caused by having visibility turned on (seemed like a good idea at the time). Once I turned visibility off and turned the Trackpad paring mode on (hold the power button for a few seconds until the light flashes continuously), clicked the + in the Elementary Bluetooth settings dialog and the Pin Options, choose 0000. Close the dialog out and the device is paired.