While browsing through Lazada – a local Amazon-like shoppers haven – a came across the Logitech K375s keyboard. It promised the ability to seamlessly move about 3 devices while using just this one keyboard. A simple tap on the on the dedicated device toggle keys and voila – you’re now connected to the device of choice.
Connecting it to my smart phone was a breeze. The Samsung S7 Edge quickly detected the keyboard in a couple of seconds and quickly prompted me if I’d like to connect. I simply followed the on-screen instructions and in less than a minute it was done.
Connecting to my Ubuntu machine was a different story. Tried the unifying USB adaptor at first. Supposedly, the adapter and the keyboard are pre-paired so it’s just a plug and play. But, no dice. A notification saying the keyboard was low on power showed up for a moment and was gone in a few seconds. That’s all I got to indicate that the 2 devices “saw” each other.
I thought the notification was odd considering the batteries came with the package and was supposedly new. In any case, I opened a brand new pair from my stash and replaced the batteries on the keyboard. Still no dice. Still got the same notification.
Then I tried to connect via Bluetooth. I wasn’t surprised when my laptop ended up on an endless scanning loop. There’s been a Bluetooth issue since a while now and I only remembered about when I tried this option. Obviously, this route wasn’t possible unless I resolve this general Bluetooth issue. I suspect driver issues but nah… the Bluetooth issue is for another time.
A quick Google search revealed 2 things:
One is that the support page on the Logitech site indicated support for Windows, Mac, Android and Chrome. But no mention of Linux. But I wasn’t about to give up.
Second is there’s an Ubuntu GUI app that helps manage unifying adaptors from Logitech – Solaar. How cool is that?
So I followed the short guide. And I in no time, was able to get the new wireless keyboard to work with my Ubuntu machine. I actually typed this post using said keyboard.
Here’s what I did/followed:
Solaar is available to install from Ubuntu Software on Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and above.
Installing Solaar on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS or 14.04 LTS requires the addition of the following PPA.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:daniel.pavel/solaar
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install solaar
Those using GNOME Shell should swap the last command for:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install solaar-gnome3
So I added up the PPA and followed the option for the GNOME shell.
The installation via apt-get was pretty quick and straightforward. Once installed, I was able to launch Solaar from the Dash. I had to remove and reinsert the receiver before it got detected by Solaar.
From within the Solaar interface, I unpaired and the re-paired the keyboard device. And that’s it. I now have a working keyboard.
Resources:
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2013/12/logitech-unifying-receiver-linux-solaar
http://support.logitech.com/en_us/product/k375s-multidevice-keyboard/getting-started#
Update:
So not too long after I’ve been using my wireless keyboard, I noticed my WiFi connection dropping at random. And after doing all the fixes I’ve come to know without much success I turned to the new addition to my setup – the wireless keyboard. With great reluctance, I disconnected the wireless keyboard and reconnected my wired one. And the WiFi was ok. Ugh.
