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Bluetooth HID

PiKVM is able to emulate a Bluetooth keyboard & mouse. This is not the main case of using PiKVM since you still need it to pair with a remote host, but can be used for something like mobile KVM.

Warning

Using Bluetooth HID requires additional configuration of the operating system. For v2+, this means losing the UART port, since it will be used by Bluetooth. Also, Bluetooth operation was tested only on RPi4 and v2+ platform. Other boards may require different system service settings. Making the required changes for BT to work will also disable normal KB/MOUSE functionality therefor this will need to be disabled before normal operation can occur.

Note

Bluetooth mouse can work only in relative mode. The reason is that many Bluetooth host drivers do not correctly implement HID descriptors. Horizontal scrolling is not supported for the same reason.

Configuring the OS

  1. Switch filesystem to RW-mode and install some packages:

    # rw
# pacman -Syy   
# pacman -Su bluez bluez-utils raspberrypi-bluetooth

  2. Edit /boot/config.txt and comment these lines:

    #enable_uart=1
#dtoverlay=disable-bt

  3. Create an empty directory /var/lib/bluetooth and add mountpoint to /etc/fstab:

    # mkdir /var/lib/bluetooth
# echo 'tmpfs /var/lib/bluetooth tmpfs nodev,nosuid,mode=0755 0 0' >> /etc/fstab

  4. Override and enable the services:

    # mkdir /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.service.d
# cat << EOF > /etc/systemd/system/bluetooth.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
ExecStart=
ExecStart=/usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd --noplugin=*
EOF
# systemctl enable bluetooth
# systemctl enable raspberrypi-btuart

  5. Override kvmd service:

    # mkdir /etc/systemd/system/kvmd.service.d
# cat << EOF > /etc/systemd/system/kvmd.service.d/override.conf
[Service]
AmbientCapabilities=CAP_NET_RAW CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE CAP_SYS_ADMIN CAP_SETUID CAP_SETGID CAP_CHOWN
CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_RAW CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE CAP_SYS_ADMIN CAP_SETUID CAP_SETGID CAP_CHOWN
EOF

  6. Add following lines to /etc/kvmd/override.yaml:

    kvmd:
    hid:
        type: bt

  7. Perform reboot.

  8. To reverse, uncomment lines from Step 2 and remove lines in Step 6, and reboot.

Using Bluetooth HID

  • After a reboot, the PiKVM will be ready for detection and pairing with no auth. You will see the PiKVM HID device.

  • Once the server is connected, PiKVM will no longer be discoverable and pairable to other clients until you unpair the server.

  • If something went wrong, use the web menu System -> Reset keyboard & mouse. This will cause unpair the device and switch the PiKVM to public mode before the first client is connected.