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Dongles can also be handy for peripherals that are frequently used on different machines, particularly if they don't have built-in multi-pairing and quick host
by jwells89 2y ago
Dongles can also be handy for peripherals that are frequently used on different machines, particularly if they don't have built-in multi-pairing and quick host switching.
One exception to the "no BT/LE stack" case is the combo of Apple input devices paired with Macs or hackintoshed generic PCs with a handful of Broadcom-based BT chipsets used by Macs. macOS flips some bit on those cards that tells them to keep Apple peripherals paired at all times, which allows you to type and mouse around in the pre-boot environment and subsequently-booted OSes without drivers even on old BIOS-based machines which can't load EFI drivers.
- felixg3 2y agoIt’s an apple exclusive thing, as they seem to be the only implementer of a USB Bluetooth HID bridge which the Broadcom adapter essentially exposes in firmware. There are a few Bluetooth dongles with CSR chips that can be turned into USB HID interfaces with previously paired Bluetooth peripherals.
- AshamedCaptain 2y agoIt just remembers any peripherals you have already paired with the controller, it's nothing specific to "Apple peripherals". And on the next boot it then shows up as a USB HID device in the pre-OS environment, talking Bluetooth behind the scenes to those same peripherals. I have a (10 year old?) DBT-120 from D-Link which did this, and even Windows had some support for it. Never seen anything for BLE; my wild guess is that Apple now simply puts a BT stack on their UEFI. Not too far-fetched. But it doesn't really help the noOS use case, since you still need a BT stack with UI _somewhere_ in order to pair your keyboard for the first time.