Logitech MX5000 not working properly

[Amedee Van Gasse (Ubuntu)]

Hello,

I'm using Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) 64bit. I have a multiboot
configuration with OpenSuse and Gentoo already installed. Other
distributions can be installed if needed.

I have a Logitech MX5000. This is a bluetooth keyboard/mouse combination
with an usb bluetooth dongle. The keyboard has an LCD that shows when it's
(dis)connected.

It's a gift from my dear wife so because of emotional value I can't
replace it if I really don't need to. This is of course irrelevant. :-)


The symptoms:

* Turn the computer on, with the dongle plugged in.
* The keyboard becomes responsive after a few seconds, just in time to use
it for "Press F1 to enter setup", "Press F8 to enter boot menu" -->
typical BIOS messages.
* After the usual hardware checks, I get the GRUB menu. I can use the
keyboard.
* I can use the keyboard during the init scripts.
* I have automatic login. (I'm the only user)
* The keyboard and the mouse do not work in Gnome.
* There is a bluetooth icon in the top bar.
* I unplug and replug the usb dongle.
* Bluetooth icon disappears.
* The keyboard and mouse work.
* Bluetooth icon doesn't come back.


What I already did:

The symptoms are identical with an Ubuntu livecd (tested with 8.10 and
9.04 beta).
I compared with OpenSuse, Gentoo (installed on hd) and several other
distros on livecd, and Ubuntu is so far the only distro where I have
encountered this problem.

I searched Launchpad for "mx5000", and I found a lot of bug reports, but
they go back to Ubuntu 6.06 or earlier. Shirley those bugs must already be
fixed, I cannot imagine that a bug stays unfixed for 3 years. Not in the
excellent Ubuntu. My problem simply cannot be related to those bugs. It's
probably not a bug at all but some misconfiguration that I did.


I would like to hear about further troubleshooting that I could do to
investigate this problem.


Kind regards,
Amedee Van Gasse