Introduction

I recently got a Medialink USB bluetooth adapter. This is their latest Bluetooth V 4.0 class 2 device. It's very small and barely sticks out of the USB port.

Here is how I got it working with my Apple Magic Trackpad in Ubuntu 11.10.

On first install the system does not detect it as a bluetooth device.

lsusb 

shows the device ID as: 0a5c 21e8

I found a review of the device by Yuri Wiitala on amazon.com taht help in completeing the guide. 03/24/2012.

Adding the device

First, create the .conf file...

gksu gedit /etc/modprobe.d/medialink-btusb.conf

Next, Paste in the following line of code...

install usb:v0A5Cp21E8d*dc*dsc*dp*ic*isc*ip* /sbin/modprobe btusb; echo 0a5c 21e8 > /sys/bus/usb/drivers/btusb/new_id

Click to save the file.

Finally, reboot and the adapter will show up as a bluetooth device in the top panel.

Activate device

Next, click on the bluetooth indicator in the top panel and select Preferences. Make sure both the Bluetooth and Visibility sliders are set to "ON".

Pairing

The last thing I had to do to make my Apple Magic Trackpad work with this adapter was to briefly push and release the power button on the side of the trackpad to start the green light blinking. If the light is not blinking, the Apple Magic Trackpad is not in discoverable mode.

While the light on the trackpad is blinking, click the + in the bottom left corner of the Bluetooth window, then click continue and while it's searching, change the PIN options to '0000' (most headsets, mice & GPS devices), then click close.

It should quickly find the trackpad, first as a string of numbers that then changes in a few seconds to Apple Wireless Trackpad. Click on it to select the Apple Wireless Trackpad and then click Continue.

The next dialog that opens should tell you that the pairing was successful.

Configure Device

The last thing I did was go to the mouse preferences and under touchpad, clicked to enable 2 finger scrolling, horizontal scrolling and Enable Mouse clicks with touchpad.

You can adjust the Acceleration and Sensitivity sliders to your preference.

The Apple Magic Trackpad now does the following:

• Finger is simple pointer motion and one finger tap is the same as a left click
• Finger tap is the same as a right click. (handy for easy back and forward in web browser)
• Finger vertical and horizontal scrolling works in dialog boxes and web pages ctrl and two finger vertical scroll will zoom in and out (same as ctrl scroll wheel)
• Finger tap brings up the "Unity Handles" that let you easily grab a corner or edge or center of a window to move or resize it.
• Finger tap brings up the main Unity Menu (same as the super key)

That's all I could discover. There is no "pinch zoom" that I can find although I think the ctrl two finger trick will work to zoom pictures is Shotwell.

Originally posted The Ubuntu Forums (ubuntuforums.org)