I have recently decided to try my Zorin O/S, having found an EDA program (KiCAD) that has a Linux build. My system is set up with separate SSD's for W11 and Zorin 19 O/S. When I plugged in the Zorin SSD and booted up, neither my bluetooth keyboard nor mouse was recognized. I went through a variety of terminal magic using my USB keyboard and mouse, and found that neither of my Bluetooth input devices was paired, so I did that, and all was well. I had to go back to my Windows 11 O/S temporarily, and found that my previously working Bluetooth keyboard and mouse no longer were connected, so I plugged in the USB devices and re-paired them.
So - what is going on here? I really like not having to deal with the cords, but cannot figure out why the Bluetooth devices only seem to work with one O/S or the other, but not both - the Bluetooth hardware is the same, so what's the problem?
GnuLInux stores the Bluetooth pairing keys in /var/lib/bluetooth/ and Windows OS stores them in the registry.
They are not and cannot be shared between two operating systems.
If the BlueTooth Devices themselves do not support Multi-Host bluetooth, then only one OS will favor them at a time - Using Windows OS will break the GnuLInux connection. Logging in on Windows aligns the key it has stored - and the device stores only that Windows OS Key, wiping out the one provided by Zorin OS in its memory.
This is down to the device itself, which hosts the support, not Linux Firmware or Windows registry.
Well... that is very unfortunate, as it means that I am forced to use the USB devices, as they work with both. I suppose life is like that sometimes. Thanks for the quick reply.
There are some options. Replacing the devices is the first one - and selecting a brand/model that does offer multi-host support. Logitech almost always does, off the top of my head.
Another option is to copy and move the keys stored on Windows OS to Zorin OS which sounds great in writing but is tricky to do and likely to only work for a limited amount of time - and it does not always work depending on the device (Some encode an OS I.D. and if it does not match the key, won't pair.)
These security features make sense - you do not want your computer being susceptible to outside devices. But, there is a cost; and this is one of them.
If it was me - I would replace the devices.
Fortunately, this is not an expensive feature and you do not need to buy high end keyboards or mice to get it.