Bluetooth mouse not working, Ubuntu 11.04 Live CD A Navigator 905BT Flying Scroll Bluetooth mouse - which works fine on my ASUS Eee PC running Windows XP SP3 - did not function when test-driving Ubuntu 11.04. Natty Narwahl was booted from a 2.0GB USB memory stick and to avoid challenging a 10.1”-screen netbook with the new Unity desktop I selected Ubuntu Classic at login. I always test-drive Linux distros from a Live CD (CD-R or USB pen-drive) to determine if Wi-Fi, sound, webcam and the rest all work out of the box before deciding to install them. Natty Narwhal performed flawlessly with the sole exception of this Genius Bluetooth mouse on this ASUS Eee PC 1000H Netbook PC. Googling for a solution revealed Bluetooth devices can have issues with Ubuntu 11. A nifty solution is to use VMware Player 3.1.4. With VMware Player’s “Easy Install” feature – includes download, hassle-free installation of key VMware Tools for Linux – I installed Ubuntu 11.04 from a previously-saved ISO image to become the guest OS in a new virtual machine (VM). Bluetooth works normally because it is the host OS, Windows XP SP3 pre-loaded on this netbook, in reality that controls the 905BT mouse.

Folder sharing between Windows XP host and Ubuntu 11.04 guest using VMware Player 3.1.4

In a set-up of two OSes like this one it will only be seconds before you ask yourself how to configure a folder that can be shared between both OSes. The answer is surprisingly simple, unless you prefer to fiddle around with Samba network shares. Let me walk you through the steps I took – note, the guest OS should not be running yet:

1. Create a new directory in the same disk partition in the Windows host where you store your personal data files. I created D:\LINUXshare for this purpose.

2. Right-click your equivalent D:\LINUXshare folder icon and click on Properties

in the right-click context menu that opens.

3. Click on the tab in the Properties window labelled Sharing.

4. Look down in the Sharing tab dialogue for the sub-section with the heading Network sharing and security. I suggest you type a short name, like for example LINUXshare, in the blank Share name box to keep things simple (no spaces).

5. Check both of the boxes above and below the Share name line labelled respectively, Share this folder on the network, Allow network users to change my files – if that is what you intend. Press the Apply button, and then OK.

daibak 1 13/05/2011

6. D:\LINUXshare directory icon now shows a tiny hand holding the directory, meaning it’s shared. Make sure the hand symbol is now displayed under yours.

7. Launch VMware Player, select the guest OS – mine is Natty Narwhal 11.04. Click the line Edit virtual machine settings, at bottom right of the VM window.

8. The Virtual Machine Settings dialogue window will open. Click the Options tab.

9. Click Shared folders in the list of Settings.

10. On the right-hand side headed Folder Sharing, check the box Always enabled.

11. Click the Add button below, and the VMware Player wizard will let you navigate to the folder you want to share. Mine was D:\LINUXshare.

12. Click OK to exit the Virtual Machine Settings dialogue window.

13. Now click Play virtual machine.

14. Once Ubuntu has loaded you are free to roam the Natty Narwhal desktop and all the OS’ resources. Now inside the guest OS Ubuntu you can navigate and/or type anything in Ubuntu after toggling the Ctrl+G key pair in the VMware Player environment (Ctrl+Alt key pair to return to your host OS).

15. So either open a terminal, if you like to use the command line, and type cd /mnt/hgfs at the prompt to navigate to the shared directory you saved in your Virtual Machine Settings. Typing ls -l at the command line lists the contents and permissions shown below before navigating to (my) LINUXshare example:

daibak 2 13/05/2011

16. Or you can use Ubuntu’s Places menu in the panel to navigate via File system to the /mnt directory where you will find /hgfs auto-mounted and your shared directory like my LINUXshare ready to share with your host OS, Windows XP:

hgfs is easy to remember, it’s short for host guest file system

17. Finally a caveat I’m sure I don’t need to mention but I will do so all the same: Only open a file to read or write in your shared directory while in either the host OS or the guest OS. Do not attempt to access the same file simultaneously from both the host OS and the guest OS as this can invite disaster, possibly corrupting the file. File handling management by Windows OS and Linux OS is different.

Happy but safe folder sharing - without needing to worry about Samba shares!

daibak 3 13/05/2011