Always asked to identify keyboard

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Level 1

70 points

Always asked to identify keyboard

I discovered something while trying to get a logitech MX 5500 Revolution keyboard/mouse (bluetooth version) to work.

First I noted that every time I rebooted, it would ask me to identify the keyboard. Worse, it would occasionally ask me again as I worked. Whether or not I answered the questions by pressing keys or just closed the window, the keyboard acted exactly the same - mostly working example for some of the special keys I don't care about.

It was suggested I remove from the Library/Preferences folder the file named com.apple.keyboardtype.pist

Supposedly it would recreate it when restarting the computer and hopefully stop asking me over and over.

Well, that didn't work. But the important point is that when I looked it that folder, the file had not been recreated. Only my original, which I had put on the desktop, existed!

Then I thought to check info on that file and discovered that the create and modification dates were both the same - November 18th.

I think that is two days after I bought the macbook I'm using and may match up with the time I first attached another wireless logitech keyboard and mouse.

So, anybody know why this file doesn't change when I put a new keyboard on or even replace the file I removed?

I know this keyboard/mouse is not officially Mac compatible, but most things work using Steermouse software. The proper names show up in the bluetooth preferences so something is being recognized.

Could really use a solution to this constant asking me to identify the keyboard.

I've read various places online about others using these devices - though I think they may be using the other wireless versions, not bluetooth. Not sure about that though.

Macbook, Mac OS X (10.5.6)

Posted on Jul 10, 2009 10:28 PM

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Answer 1

dbk9999 Author

Level 1

70 points

Jul 11, 2009 12:04 AM in response to dbk9999

Well, after two days of trying to figure this out, wouldn't you know that I seem to have solved it not long after my first post!

Reading other ideas online, nothing worked until I took the suggestion to use Disk Utility to repair permissions.

I first ran "Verify permissions" just to see what came up. Darn big list - that worries me. If OS X is supposed to be pretty stable, why such a big list?

Then I ran the repair option - it looked to me like it came up with another list and I couldn't tell if they were actually fixed or not, beyond a few which specifically said they had been user altered and would not be repaired.

Then I ran verify permissions again and got a big list again! What gives with this?

Anyway, it must have changed something because I rebooted and it asked me to identify the keyboard. Then I checke for the keyboardtype.plist file and, sure enough, it was there.

I then rebooted to see if it asked me to identify again and it didn't. Rebooted once more to be sure.

So far so good.

But I would appreciate and general info about this repair permissions thing - especially why I still get a big list.

Oh, and just in case someone has any info on how to get the MX 5500 Revolution mouse to work a little better, that would be great.

The two main issues are that the search button behind the scroll wheel doesn't do anything and Steermouse doesn't even seem to see it is there.

The other is the scroll wheel click. Right now that alternates between ratchet and free spinning. But from what I've read, at least on a PC, there is a way to get it to act like a regular middle click, which is what I want.

If I could solve that, I could pass it on and make a lot of mac users happy!

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