Logitech unify receiver USB dongle and K400r wireless touch keyboard

Pairing to a Logitech Unifying Receiver

  • Adam Douglas

I have a home theatre PC (HTPC) setup with a really ancient Logitech cordless keyboard and mouse (820-000176) that doesn’t work very well. I’m always fighting with it to get the signal to reach across the room. I’ve been wanting to replace it with anything more modern, but just haven’t been able to. I was surprised one day by my son gifting me a used Logitech K400r with a trackpad. The only downside to this wonderful gift was that it didn’t include a Logitech Unifying receiver so that I could use it. Lucky I had a few extra ones kicking around that should work just fine. Now I just need to figure out is how to pair the device to the receiver under Linux. I’ve never had to pair a device to another Unifying receiver that wasn’t already setup. Here is how I was able to get the keyboard working using Linux from the command line and from a graphical user interface (GUI) application.

Environment

Tested using the following…

  • Arch Linux x86_64
  • Fish v3.5.1
  • GNOME v43.1
  • GNU bash v5.1.16
  • Pikaur v1.14.5

Assumptions

  • Steps prefixed with a “$” (dollar sign) represents the CLI (command-line interface) prompt
  • Steps prefixed with a “#” (number sign) represents the CLI prompt with elevated user permissions (e.g. root)
  • The text after the “$” or “#” is to be entered at the CLI
  • Understanding how to use an AUR helper (e.g. Pikaur)

ltunify

  1. Install ltunify.

    Arch Linux AUR

     $ pikaur -Syu ltunify

    Debian

     # apt install ltunify

  2. Turn on pair mode.

     $ ltunify pair

     Please turn your wireless device off and on to start pairing.
 Found new device, id=0x03 Keyboard

  3. Verify device is paired.

     $ ltunify list

     Devices count: 3
 Connected devices:
 idx=1	Mouse	Performance MX
 idx=2	Keyboard	K800
 idx=3	Keyboard	K400

  4. Reboot the system.

    Rebooting the system is necessary for all features of the device to operate correctly.

Solaar

  1. Install Solaar.

    Arch Linux

     # pacman -Syu solaar

    Debian

     # apt install solaar
  2. Open the Solaar application.

  3. Click on the text “Unifying Receiver”.

    Screenshot of Solaar application main screen

  4. Click on the “Pair new device” button.

    Screenshot of Solaar application in pairing new device mode

  5. Turn on the device.

    Screenshot of Solaar application in pairing new device mode, device found

    If device is already turned on, turn it off and then back on again in order to pair the device.

  6. Reboot the system.

    Rebooting the system is necessary for all features of the device to operate correctly.

This is post 41 of 100, and is round 2 of the 100 Days To Offload challenge.

References
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    • change 100DaysToOffload message

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