Using one keyboard and mouse with two computers

I have just bought a 27" iMac and have connected my MacBook to it via the DisplayPort. When using the iMac as an external display for the MacBook I want to be able to use my iMac keyboard and mouse to control. What is the best way of doing this, as I understand Bluetooth will only pair one device at a time? I want to be able to switch my keyboard and mouse between the 2 machines as smoothly as possible... Any suggestions or is this going to be too compicated?

I'm curious; if you pair your keyboard/mouse with one computer, does it lose the pairing to the previous computer?
To answer your question: yes; the both computer would need to be able to talk to each other via a network connection. If you can connect your Macbook Pro to the Internet wirelessly via the built-in Airport, then you can use the wired ethernet port, via a cross-connect ethernet cable (normal ones are straight-thru), to connect to your Power Mac (or connect them via a hub).
However, if you're not comfortable with networking, you may not want to take this approach.
Mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.7) core duo (early 2006)

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Successfully using BT Keyboard and Mouse with two laptops

We have both a PowerBook G4 and MacBook in the house, and a Cinema display with external mouse/keyboard setup in one room for times when one of us wants in instant desktop system or larger screen.
Recently swapped the USB mouse/keyboard for Apple Wireless, but quickly enountered the challenge of swapping the single BT mouse/keyboard between the two computers. After reading many threads here on the subject, I was starting to think I wouldn't be able to make it work without deleting the pairings each time (not possible if one of the laptops is off in a backpack somewhere).
But today I found a setup that is working well for me. Thought I'd share it. Will post back after a time to let people know if it continues to work smoothly long-term.
1. In Bluetooth Preferences > Settings, I turned off "Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer" on both computers. We'll use the Cinema display to wake them when docked at the desk.
2. I then paired both BT devices with Computer #1 and made them favorites.
3. Put Computer #1 to sleep. Wake Computer #2. Turn the mouse/keyboard off, then on.
4. I then paired both BT devices with Computer #2 and made them favorites.
Once setup as above, I can swap the two computers out and get BT connectivity for the BT mouse/keyboard, without unpairing. When finished using Computer #1, I put it to sleep and turn off the mouse/keyboard. When I wake Computer #2 I turn on the mouse/keyboard and after several seconds, Computer #2 finds them.
Mac OS X (10.4.7)

I'm curious; if you pair your keyboard/mouse with one computer, does it lose the pairing to the previous computer?
To answer your question: yes; the both computer would need to be able to talk to each other via a network connection. If you can connect your Macbook Pro to the Internet wirelessly via the built-in Airport, then you can use the wired ethernet port, via a cross-connect ethernet cable (normal ones are straight-thru), to connect to your Power Mac (or connect them via a hub).
However, if you're not comfortable with networking, you may not want to take this approach.
Mac mini Mac OS X (10.4.7) core duo (early 2006)

Want to run my PC on my G5 monitor, using one keyboard and mouse?

I have a IMAC G5 (pre-intel) and would like to hook my PC tower to the G5's monitor. It would also be great to use only one keyboard and mouse to operate both systems.
In this forum, I found a reference to the "Gefen SL Switcher". This looks like the solution, except my G5 has a wireless mouse and keyboard. The Gefen manual on line does not have much content.
Does anyone know of a solution for running my PC tower into my G5 with wireless mouse and keyboard?

The cordless keyboard and mouse are going to be problematic.
What kind of work do you plan to do on the PC?
if it isn't anything graphics intensive, you could set up a vncserver on the PC, and use "chicken of vnc" viewer.
Both are free:
http://www.tightvnc.com/
and
http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/
MacBook 2.0GHz (white) Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I have two IMacs and I want to set them up so i can use one keyboard and mouse- How do i make this happen?

How do i make it happen so I can use two seperate iMac computers as one set-up with one keyboard and one mouse?

If the keyboard and mouse are wired, then a USB KVM switch will work.
If they are wireless, you should be able to connect the wirelessly via Bluetooth settings. discover the same keyboard and mouse on each iMac.
However, you cannot use them on each iMac simultaneously. I think it would be rather difficult for you to switch between them (disconnecting and reconnecting them over and over again).
Most iMacs come shipped with a keyboard and mouse by default. How come you only have one keyboard?
Keyboards and mice are not that expensive either.

Using USB Keyboard and Mouse with S6000-f Ideatab

First you need a Microusb to USB adaptor pluged in, then plug in a usb hub I'm using a 4 port unpowered mini hub
then plug in a usb keyboaed and mouse.
it works good in Kingsoft office and AndrOpen office or any app that needs you to type
it does disable the touch pad keyboard, until you unplug the usb keyboard. It's alot cheaper than a blue tooth keyboard
I'm using a Samsung micro usb to usb connector model EPL-AU10WEGXAR
Keyboards tested: Dynex usb and Acer usb
Mouse tested: Kingston usb
Any usb keyboard and Mouse should work.
Also I tested a Thumb drive. Sandisk 8gig it shows up in the file manager .
So you dont have to use a MicoSD card. The one thing back up and restore only uses the MicroSD card slot.
I havent found out how to change that yet.
I dont think any of this is in the Manual I just like to share useful Info.

hi jpwes,
This is Great! This can help a lot of users of the same model,
Nice and Solid review here!
Thanks
Solid Cruver
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Mighty mouse with two computers

Is there a way to pair a Mighty Mouse with two computers and to them switch back and forth between them easily? I realize I could unpair from one and then pair with the other, but I’m trying to use a Mighty Mouse in lieu of a KVM switch with a wired mouse.

Yes and no. It all depends on the device, and I can't speak from experience when it comes to the Mighty Mouse, but I can speak from experience with other Bluetooth devices.
You can pair a device with multiple computers, but you cannot use it with multiple computers simultaneously. When switching, you'll have to tell your computer to disconnect from the mouse before the other computer can connect to it. Since we're talking about a mouse, reconnecting the mouse might be a little tricky, if you want to use only one. Perhaps adding something like an Optimus Mini Three (or similar HID) with an AppleScript attached to one of the buttons to trigger mouse reconnection could work.
There are software based solutions to your problem, enabling you to connect any HID (Human Input Device) to your computer, and then use a virtual KVM over the network. I've seen a few pieces of software like this in the Apple Downloads Database, but I don't know if they're free.

Trick for Pairing Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse With Windows 7 in BC 3.1

My Mac:
Mid-2007 iMac 20", 2.4 GHz; OS X 10.6.2; Windows 7 Home; Boot Camp 3.1
My Problem:
No matter what I tried, including all kinds of tips and tricks found in this forum and elsewhere on the web, I could not get my Apple aluminum bluetooth keyboard and bluetooth Mighty Mouse to pair in Windows 7. Windows 7's bluetooth setup panel would see them, from time to time, but never connected.
The same pair connected quite easily with Snow Leopard, and the keyboard connected before I installed BC 3.1 in Win 7 (never did get the MM to connect in Win 7 with BC 3.0). But with BC 3.1 in Win 7, it was no dice for either one until I made an accidental discovery.
While prepping another Apple bluetooth aluminum keyboard for my wife's Mac Mini, it was seen by my iMac's Win 7, which wanted to pair with it.
Aha! A Big Clue! The Win 7 BC 3.1 generic bluetooth drivers wanted to pair with an aluminum keyboard that wasn't already paired with the iMac. So, I booted back into Snow Leopard, connected a USB mouse and keyboard, renamed the bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and then deleted them. I rebooted back into Win 7, then easily set up both renamed mouse and keyboard which paired quickly with Windows.
Note that I first tried deleting them from the Snow Leopard side first, but Win 7 still wouldn't pair with them. That's when I went back to Snow Leopard and renamed them but didn't pair them with the iMac until it was booted into Win 7.
Finally, I rebooted back into Snow Leopard and paired the keyboard and mouse with OS X. Done.
Hope this trick/tip/hint helps someone else with keyboard and mouse bluetooth pairing problems.

You're welcome. My discovery was quite accidental, but that's often how things happen ... if you're paying attention and are looking for clues.
Sorry you had to trial and error before you succeeded, but as you've probably found, it is necessary to rename the bluetooth devices first, then delete them from OS X.
I don't understand why this trick was necessary, or even what caused it to happen. I've got 6 Win 7 installations via Boot Camp on 6 Intel Macs (2 white MacBooks, 1 Unibody MacBook, a Core Duo Mac Mini, a 27" iMac and the 20" 2.4 Mid-2007 iMac). All were running 10.6.2 and Win 7 (aren't Family Packs wonderful?) via Boot Camp 3.0 more or less without problems, except as noted in my first post.
Only the 20" iMac had problems after the Boot Camp 3.1. Not only did I have a devil of a time pairing the keyboard and mouse, but I also lost the Win 7 activation on the iMac 20" and the OS X partition started showing up as "EFI Boot". All happened right after I updated Boot Camp 3.0 to 3.1 via download from Apple while running Win 7.
I've heard reports of other Mac users discovering Boot Camp had done a FUBAR job on their machines, but this is my first experience. My guess is that there's some dialogue going on between 10.6, Win 7 and Boot Camp that shouldn't be happening. What I really don't understand is why my other 5 Macs didn't have any problems at all with the Boot Camp upgrade to 3.1. Let's hope the Apple Boot Camp team can reverse engineer my discovery and improve the next version of BC.

Hi, I bouhgt a used Apple Power Mac G5, I want to buy a blue tooth card for the same to use wireless keyboard and mouse, i am just curious that why do i need to provide the serial number of my computer, is there any compatibilty issue?

Hi, I am new in Apple Computer, I bought a used Power Mac G5. I want to buy a blue tooth card for the same to use wireless keyboard and mouse. so why it is mandatory to provide the serial number of the machine?

Hello, Serial# not needed...
At the Apple Icon at top left>About this Mac.
Then click on More Info>Hardware and report this upto *but not including the Serial#*...
Hardware Overview:
Machine Name: Power Mac G5 Quad
Machine Model: PowerMac11,2
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 4
CPU Speed: 2.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 10 GB
Bus Speed: 1.25 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.7f1

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Can I use a blue tooth external keyboard and mouse with iphone 5?

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I have a mouse with two scroll wheels (one for vertical scrolling, the other should be for horizontal). Currently, java sees both wheels as the same (the parameters in MouseWheelEvent are the same regardless of which wheel is used). Does anyone know how to get Java to differentiate these two wheels?

Thanks for your replies.
Sansui350A wrote:Just a quick thought.. if you install lxrandr and run it, what happens?
Gives the same as the command line utility. One single VGA monitor.
I tried deleting /dev/vga_arbiter. Didn't change anything, tried unplugging monitor/rebooting, no change. After reboot file got recreated giving the same output on a `cat /dev/vga_arbiter` which looks like this:
count:1,PCI:0000:00:02.0,decodes=none,owns=none,locks=none(0:0)
I'm not all too happy with downgrading the kernel, I'll eventually try it though (after I found out how to do that).
What do you think about this in dmesg:
[drm:radeon_dvi_detect] *ERROR* DVI-I-1: probed a monitor but no|invalid EDID
For me this looked like it could be the origin of the problem. But I have no idea how to circumvent this.

Locking keyboard and mouse with screen still visible?

Kids are nice but can be a real bugger near computers.
*Does anyone know of a way to lock the keyboard and mouse but with the screen still visible?*
I'm using my MacPowerbookPro to play music at home and would like to see whats playing without my kids changing tracks, applications and god knows what more.
It feels like this is a funcion that should be included in the system but I have googled the topic without success.
Anyone?
Apple?
/partho

partho wrote:
Kids are nice but can be a real bugger near computers.
*Does anyone know of a way to lock the keyboard and mouse but with the screen still visible?*
I'm using my MacPowerbookPro to play music at home and would like to see whats playing without my kids changing tracks, applications and god knows what more.
It feels like this is a funcion that should be included in the system but I have googled the topic without success.
Anyone?
Apple?
/partho
In Keyboard & Mouse, under Keyboard Shortcuts there is a listing for "Turn full keyboard access on or off" but it doesn't seem to do anything on my computer.
A quick search turned this up
http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/Victor.shtml
Message was edited by: nerowolfe

When I disable my left windows key for gameing using Microsoft keyboard and mouse software, I can no longer type in firefox. How can i fix this?

Microsoft Keyboard and Mouse Software that you install with Microsoft keyboard and mice, (latest version) allows you to disable your windows key so that you don't accidentally hit it when gaming. When I take advantage of this feature, I can no longer type in Firefox. Typing in Firefox is completely disabled. Other browsers, windows, applications work, but not Firefox. What is it about the windows key that firefox needs for typing. Strange problem, but annoying because I have to use a different browser while game. Certainly not a deal breaker, but kinda strange.

Try:
*[[/questions/947513]]

Need to use external keyboard and mouse

i need to use .. the external USB keyboard and mouse.. for ... my macboook pro...
can any one help me...

well my kbd and mus is wroking well but i am trying to use external kbd and mouse so it is more convince for me.. .. but when i join my external usb kbd and mouse it is not working .. even it is detected....
that's why i have ask for help
and this macbook pro is the one of the best i have ever.. in my life.. i love it so much ..... <3

Using one keyboard and mouse with two computers

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