How do I boot into recovery mode with wireless keyboard

If booting after doing a restart and then holding down the 'option' key to allow you to select the Recovery HD doesn't work, as a workround, you could try creating a boot drive using this:

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/39701/lion-diskmaker

You'll need a 8gb USB stick and the original download file of OS X Lion installer to be able to create it.

The only problem is you'll still need to access it as a startup drive by using the option key - hopefully it'll will see it as an external drive.

It's a bit tricky with the wireless keyboards: once you hear the startup bong, you should hit the keys; however, you have to make sure that the keyboard is actually on (the tiny green light will flash on and off). So, I've found that a) it works better on a bootup rather than a restart, and b) I watch the keyboard with my finders perched above the key(s) and hit them as soon as the light goes off...........

Or, get a cheap USB keyboard (I've got one as a backup).....

I understand your concerns - I'm glad both of my machines are dual bootable (just in case) and I have my Snow Leopard install disks..... However, this is what Apple has decided, so we need to find the best way to deal with it. Personally, I've tested the recovery mode several times and, at least on my machine, it was not reliable (i.e. it wouldn't work - I tried it again and it did, but it spent more than an hour downloading the entire 4 GB installer again and then another 30 minutes installing it), and on a third try, I found that it had vanished because I had cloned by drive. When you clone, only your system is cloned, not the extra partition.

So, I've decided to rely on a) my bootable clones and b) a copy of the installer (.dmg) in case my clones fail. I don't feel comfortable relying on something that requires an internet connection and a full download to work. But, that works for me; you may want to take a different approach.

yep bootable clones are the way to go! and anyone with wireless keyboards and mice ought to have usb backups too.

well if you only want one keyboard, wireless is not the way to go, IMHO.

Have to say that I've (so far) never had a problem booting with the option key down on my wireless keyboard. However, in the event things decide to go pear-shaped, I have a spare wired keyboard and mouse, bootable clones, all my install disks that have come with my Macs, Snow Leopard Retail Disk, USB recovery drive, Disk Warrior, Time Machine back-ups – I hope I've got it covered 😉

Niklas- You may not have a Lion Recovery Partition on your drive. See this thread for some detail:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3277203?answerId=15991535022#15991535022

You forgot Drive Genius and a wired keyboard....... 😉 😁

Oops - that should have said 'spare wired keyboard and mouse' (it does now). Just need to get that Drive Genius you talk about.
P.S. Does TechTool Pro count 🙂

Following John Hammer's suggestion, there is now a tool that lets you recover it if it is indeed gone:

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1433

Well, not really. "...the Mac must have an existing Recovery HD" for that to work.

P.S. Does TechTool Pro count

Maybe (or maybe not - I've never used it so I can't say.......) 😝

Yes, I'm aware of that - that was one of the tests I did (and I didn't have the recovery partition) - the process was rather frustrating, but it did result in a new download and install of Lion. So, one needs to re-download the entire installer first, install, and then one can use the Assistant. I now have it on a USB stick, but will never use it for reasons explained previously.

P.S. My wording could have been better in the last post - I'm in a hurry to go somewhere......