tp-compact-keyboard is a small utility
to control some features of the keyboard, most
importantly to enable FnLk. It works only with the Bluetooth keyboard,
whilst the USB keyboard accepts the same commands but not in the same way,
one has to tweak the hidraw ioctls which (AFAIK) can't be done in a Bash script.
This was developed under a Debian unstable kernel, 3.12-1-amd64, and has been reported to work on kernels as early as 3.10 (CentOS 7). However older kernels (3.6, for example) don't send the report; I'm not currently sure why.
To enable or disable FnLk on all connected ThinkPad Bluetooth
keyboards, run ./tp-compact-keyboard --fn-lock-enable or
./tp-compact-keyboard --fn-lock-disable. The program has a few
other functions as well, but they're not very useful on their own.
Have a look at the source.
There are a few other options, however they are mostly useless without a custom kernel module handling the keyboard:
--sensitivity xx
Set sensitivity of TrackPoint. xx is hex value 01--09 (although values
up to FF work).
--native-fn-enable
By default, F7/F9/F11 generate a string of keypresses that might be
useful under Windows. This stops this, and instead only generates
custom events.
--native-mouse-enable
The middle button generates 2 events by default, but Linux only
understands one of them. This disables the event that Linux does
understand, leaving you with no middle button.
--native-mouse-disable
Restore middle button to a working state.
Pair/unpair isn't enough to reset the keyboard, you need to power down the keyboard to get it back to it's original state.
The Bluetooth keyboard uses BT 2.1 Simple Secure Pairing (SSP), which should be supported by modern Linux distributions. Several different utilities can be used to pair the keyboard.
If your distribution does not support SSP, or if you have problems pairing with SSP, you can try disabling it with hciconfig hci0 sspmode 0. See this note on a Logitech keyboard.
Pairing can be done with the pair command. You should be prompted for the PIN code to type
as part of the process.
See: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Bluetooth_keyboard#Pairing_process
Select the device (keyboard) and click "Continue". Watch for the PIN code in the hcidump window and enter that.
See: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1019287#c3
Versions of Bluez that ship with these scripts don't support SSP and thus don't report the PIN code the keyboard requires you to use.
To get around this, run the following in a separate console before you start pairing:
sudo hcidump -at | grep -i passkey -A1
During the pairing process, you are looking out for lines like:
> HCI Event: User Passkey Notification (0x3b) plen 10
bdaddr 90:7F:61:01:02:03 passkey 123456
In this case, 123456 is the PIN you need to enter.
Put the keyboard into discoverable mode by holding down the power button until
the light starts flashing. Then use hcitool scan to find out what the
address of your keyboard is. It should resemble 90:7F:61:01:02:03.
Firstly, create the device:
bluez-test-device create 90:7F:61:01:02:03
Then start trying to pair:
bluez-simple-agent hci0 90:7F:61:01:02:03
You should see the passkey appear in the hcidump window. Type that passkey at the prompt (using a keyboard already connected to your computer) and press enter. You should now be paired. Finally:
bluez-test-device trusted 90:7F:61:01:02:03 1
bluez-test-input connect 90:7F:61:01:02:03