Virtualbox Bluetooth

Assumptions:

There are some prerequisites before starting the steps.

  • Windows PC with Bluetooth adapter
  • Ubuntu installed as VirtualBox guest OS and running on Windows
  • VirtualBox Guest Additions installed on Ubuntu guest OS
  1. Disable Bluetooth adapter on Windows

    1.1. Launch Device Manager. (Right-click on the Windows icon at the bottom left corner of the desktop, then select Device Manager.)

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    1.2. Disable Bluetooth adapter (right-click on your Bluetooth device and select Disable device by toggling Enable/Disable device.)

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  2. Launch Ubuntu

    2.1. Launch Oracle VM VirtualBox.

    2.2. Select your Ubuntu guest and click on the Start icon in the Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager window.

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  3. Enable Bluetooth Adapter on Windows

    Go back to Device Manager, enable the Bluetooth adapter. (Right-click on the Bluetooth device and select Enable device.)

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  4. Enable Bluetooth adapter on Ubuntu (Guest OS)

    4.1. In Oracle VM VirtualBox window, select Devices -> USB from the top menu bar.

    4.2. Then select Bluetooth adapter to enable.

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  5. Verify

    Check if Bluetooth is enabled in Ubuntu by typing the following command.

    hciconfig -a
    

    If everything is fine, you should be able to see something like in the below example. Be sure it says UP RUNNING (line 4 in the below example).

    $ hciconfig -a
    hci0: Type: BR/EDR  Bus: USB
        BD Address: xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx  ACL MTU: 1021:7  SCO MTU: 240:3
        UP RUNNING 
        RX bytes:1039 acl:0 sco:0 events:54 errors:0
        TX bytes:2435 acl:0 sco:0 commands:54 errors:0
        Features: 0xff 0xfe 0x8f 0xfe 0xdb 0xff 0x7b 0x87
        Packet type: DM1 DM3 DM5 DH1 DH3 DH5 HV1 HV2 HV3 
        Link policy: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF 
        Link mode: SLAVE ACCEPT 
        Name: 'vm'
        Class: 0x0c0000
        Service Classes: Rendering, Capturing
        Device Class: Miscellaneous, 
        HCI Version: 4.0 (0x6)  Revision: 0x8300
        LMP Version: 4.0 (0x6)  Subversion: 0x9172
        Manufacturer: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (72)
    

Source: revised from Enabling Bluetooth in VirtualBox