Hi, I wonder if there is a way to use a bluetooth wireless keyboard/mouse on OS 9.
I do not use the "Classic Environment" OS 9 but rather, boot into OS 9 on a MDD G4 Dual Boot desktop. I found older posts about this not being possible but maybe something new's been developed since 2002 to allow this(?)
Thanks for any input/advice!
Mike
G4 Dual Boot 1.25 MDD, TiBookG4, IbookG3, older PMacs,
Mac OS 9.2.x,
OS 9.2.2. + Tibook-OSX 10.39, Ibook 10.39
Hi, yes I had seen that item, but when I read through it there's something confusing near the end of
the description of the d-link bluetooth adapter i.e.,
the only caveat is that you have to have paired your devices in OS X before you can use them in 9. <<</div>
I'm confused here because if I'm booting into 9, how would I pair the devices in OS X..?
I'm guessing that if a 3rd party adapter is the only known option this is not going to be a
simple task. Perhaps i'll have to settle for some ol fashioned 25+ foot monitor & usb extension
cables for this particular situation 😟
RE:
Update 11/14/05: Source Code released
OS 9 USB Bluetooth Driver and Bluetooth Control Center Source Code (3.6 MB)
Update 5/11/04: Bluetooth Mice and Keyboards already work in OS 9!!!
Well, it seems that I've wasted a lot of time getting Bluetooth devices to work in OS 9, because they have worked since 10/15/2003...its just that nobody noticed. And who was responsible for adding this support? None other than Apple themselves. On October 15th of last year, Apple released firmware update 1.0.2 for the D-Link Bluetooth adapters. The release notes noted that the firmware update will render the adapter unusable under Windows systems. I had always wondered about this, but never looked into it further because I had a Belkin adapter...not a D-Link. It turns out that this firmware update turns the adapter into a generic composite USB device with 2 HID interfaces, one for the keyboard and one for the mouse. Apple did this because they needed to be able to use the mice and keyboards earlier in the boot process, particularly at the open firmware prompt. This tricks the system into thinking that the Bluetooth USB dongle is really just a mouse and a keyboard. That way they didnt have to write an openfirmware driver for the bluetooth devices since they already had an open firmware driver for USB devices.
The side effect of all this is that OS 9 sees the device as 2 HIDs, and loads the USB keyboard and mouse drivers for them. I can't believe nobody ever noticed this (by the way, thanks to Tim Porter for alerting me to this so I didn't waste any more time).
This only works with the D-Link bluetooth adapter that Apple supports. All other USB Bluetooth adapters can't do this without a firmware update.
The other caveat is that you have to have paired your devices in OS X before you can use them in 9. This is because the Bluetooth module needs to save your <<
Just bumping this unresolved question up again since I was unable to figure out an answer and hoped someone might have an idea. Trying to figure a way to use bluetooth to do wireless keyboard/mouse on an OS 9 desktop machine.
There's an adapter/interface as per earlier post in this thread but it seems to require running OS 9 in "Classic" on an OSX machine to run it. I was hoping to find a way to use bluetooth on a machine that is booted on an OS 9 System.
Hi, Someone posted a quest about OS9 Bluetooth, I read this thread and am posting to save time of the apple core user base. Be advised by apple documentation about bluetooth OS9. The only known apple approved bluetooth device is the DBT-120 Dlink which appears currently out of stock in the uk as stated by dlink to me on the telephone as or the time of posting 2009 Nov. Other bluetooth adapters are in d link range, currently uncertain and untested use with os9. Os 9 forever site posts a control panel and source code is available for os9 as a driver, this pack of source is a) an unfinished project and b) requires metroworks code warrier not macintosh programmers workshop to compile, the source is not documented, no instructions are available for porting to compile with MPW, and the package ostensibly presented as is, only the control panel works as a compiled binary, and without the driver, just sits as a front end gui control panel without much else occuring. Sorry to be vague, but these are facts not fiction. Dlink 120, as apple support and sales suggest, requires the firmware update to use with mac os 9, apple support and d link support, advise me that the blue and grey unit in the preferred unit to purchase for os 9, if you can find someone who has stock and can sell. Avoid IVT bluesoile dongles as they just present driver not found, and the mac os just sits looking online for the driver to install, nothing occurs in finding it, france ivt said they will not support mac as they offer windows only solutions, that was 2006. Recently china hq at ivt said they might consider the option an put it to the board, but as yet their support people have not be able to acquire the code necessary to complete the package, ivt bluesoile for mac os 9 and above. What appears to me to be the facts is that third party product developers seem to expect apple to produce drivers for their product. I know the efforts it takes to build a driver for a product which can take even the best apple team of dev up to 6 months. On the other hand, if an apple dev team does spend time on producing a solution, they have to make some thing out of it to justify the time. Bluetooth support came with x later because apple spent time on providing the solution. This done, it appears that third party product people are content to rest on their laurels and not provide drivers themselves because, they argue, Apples solution exists already. It is an age old chicken and egg situation whereby third party companies provide only solutions offered by apple themselves, I don't think apple is in a position to offer everyone who produces a device, free development time to produce a driver for their devices. It is 3rd party developers responsibility to provide drivers for their devices, themselves, or, to pay apple their license fee to distribute the apple solutions provided by apple, as part of their product. That is the state of play of bluetooth support for os 9, in facts. The D-link bluetooth device is the solution offered by apple for os 9 people, that is what apple have posted in the past, there must be a reason for this, an that is probably the matter of licensing issues, ie dlink support apple. Don't waste your time trying to challenge the position, of find a work around yourself, when you hit a brick wall on a problem, like I have done, it is for a good reason, that reason is dlink support apple for os 9, no one else out there can be bothered. DBT-120 is the established solution. Good luck David
But it appears the Apple 1.0.2 firmware update has been pulled. Is there anywhere else to download it, or will the new D-link firmware updates make the module OS 9 compatible? Please advise.
