Bluetooth using D-Link Dongle in OS9?

[caver01]

Has anyone messed around with the D-Link DBT-120 USB Bluetooth dongle on a G4 using OS9? I was going to try to pair a wireless mouse on my eMac which is a dual-boot (triple boot) OS9 and OSX. I have the D-Link dongle which seems to work fine in OSX (Sorbet Leopard in my case) as without it, my 1GHz model does not have Bluetooth, but now I can see the little logo in the upper-right of the menu bar!

I should be able to pair a mouse with this setup as-is, but before I did, I thought I would boot into OS9 (native not classic mode). I realized there is no control panel or extension that I can find, so after some digging around it was getting late last night so I shutdown and went to sleep. This morning, I am reading that I might need to pair my mouse FIRST in OSX before it will work in OS9. I am also reading that Apple released some kind of Bluetooth Firmware Updater (1.02?) that supposedly flashes the D-Link dongle so it flips into HID mode with the paired devices (mouse and kbd supported) so that it operates pre-boot in Open Firmware. That's a neat trick, but I cannot find the Apple Updater for this and if I am honest, I might have done it already, years ago when I first picked up the D-link. I have had this thing in a drawer for years (decades I guess at this point).

I will do more testing tonight but I figured I'd throw a question out there, and if nothing else, document what I find in next steps for whomever else comes looking down the road.

TO DO:
1. Check system profiler for version numbers on the D-Link to see if there is anything to be learned there.
2. Try pairing devices in OSX to verify BT is working there
3. Restart in OS9 after pairing to see if it "just works".
4. If NO on #3, keep looking for a firmware updater or read comments on this thread from you fine folks!

Thanks!

 

[François]

The firmware updater seems to have disappeared from Apple’s website, but archive.org has a copy (direct download).

It’s in French, but Le journal du lapin describes exactly what you want to do!

 

[caver01]

According to that French page, my D-Link, which is HW revision B3, is already running the appropriate firmware to be detected in HID Proxy mode as a mouse and a keyboard. So, I paired a keyboard and it worked fine in OSX.

Rebooted and was unable to use the ALT key to select startup disk. That was not a good sign, as it means my paired keyboard was not communicating to Open Firmware--HID Proxy not enabled? So, I used another USB keyboard to press ALT, selected OS9, and unplugged it hoping for HID Proxy mode in OS9.

The keyboard is not working in OS9, but if I open System Profiler I definitely see the device on USB 0 bus with a Keyboard and a Mouse device. So, to me, that is looking a lot like proxy mode is running, but it's not communicating to my paired keyboard. Perhaps my keyboard is too new for OS9? I am paring it with a little Apple aluminum--the one with the rounded top edge that holds two AA batteries. I would not have thought it could matter, bat maybe proxy mode only works with specific keyboards?

I am awaiting a delivery of a wireless Mighty Mouse, so maybe I will have better luck with that.

Thoughts?

 

[V.Yakob]

I tried using this USB adapter, the Apple Wireless Keyboard (Aluminum) (A1314) worked fine on the PM9600. But the boot menu is not called by the Opt button. As I understand it, it's normal behavior.

But Magic Mouse 2 and another mouse from Logitec does not work in OS9, although in OS X 10.4 on QS worked perfectly.

 

[caver01]

Tried the Mighty Mouse Wireless. Works in OSX. Does not work in OF and does not work in OS9.

So, I figured it was time to see if flashing the firmware helps. Downloaded the Apple BT Firmware Updater 1.2. Loaded this in Tiger. Ran it. Said I was already up to date. No updates. So, I OPTION-CLICKED the UPDATE button. This seemed to force it to run, but after a while it was IDLE status again, so I don’t know if it did anything at all. It definitely disconnected my mouse while it did something—or nothing. At some point I decided nothing was happening (30-40 minutes) and so I pulled the adapter, re-plugged, and then it found my mouse again. Tried restarting. Nope. Not working in OF. Not working in OS9.

 

[caver01]

I am finally following up on this project. Having failed to make progress with my BT dongle in OS9, and not able to observe obvious success with the firmware updater, I decided to try running the update in Panther since I have a few partitions with which I can mess around.

I opted to keep Sorbet and decided to overwrite the Tiger partition with Panther. The install went fine, but after booting, I could not do the Bluetooth Firmware 2.1 installer, as it complained that it needed at least 10.3.6. Nowhere could I find a 10.3.6 combo updater, but I did locate a 10.3.8 combo updater and installed that (Apple Software Update no longer functions on these older systems I guess).

Once installed, I launched the Bluetooth firmware update installer, then ran it and tried to update the firmware, but it told me I was up to date. However, I sometimes try option-key clicks when stuff like this happens and sure enough, you can force-override the detection and do the update anyway by option-clicking the UPDATE button. This detected my bluetooth device and started uploading. It says it can take 15 minutes, but there is a progress bar that moved a lot faster. I suppose it took 60 seconds or so. Then, unlike my attempts in Tiger, it said it was waiting 16 seconds for the bluetooth to restart, then went ”idle” before finally popping up a dialog that it was finished. That was new! I thought it probably worked.

I pulled the dongle to reset it for good measure, then popped it back in. Paired with my wireless Mighty Mouse which worked just fine. Then, restarted. Since I still have a USB keyboard connected, I held option, selected my OS9 partition and booted OS9. At first, no mouse. But I think it times out and shuts down. I had to click it before the light came on and lo and behold—it works! I have a Bluetooth mouse working in OS9.

I am confident that this proves HID Proxy mode is working now for me and I could pair up a keyboard and have the same results. I need to do more tests to see if I can awaken the mouse during the alt-boot picker screen and open firmware, but I am pleased so far.

Next, I want to make some firmware adjustments so the emac will show my my OS9 boot option in the Startup control panel in OSX. Right now, the only way I can get OS9 to boot is by using the option key at boot.