Bluetooth and Docker (part 2)

1

Yes, I know there is already a topic on this subject, but it’s out of date.

I have HA running in docker. I have 2 Bluetooth radios, and from the Linux OS I used hciconfig to confirm the OS can see the radios.

docker@foo:~$ hciconfig
hci1:   Type: Primary  Bus: USB
        BD Address: 00:1A:7D:DA:71:15  ACL MTU: 310:10  SCO MTU: 64:8
        UP RUNNING 
        RX bytes:2444 acl:0 sco:0 events:158 errors:0
        TX bytes:3246 acl:0 sco:0 commands:158 errors:0

hci0:   Type: Primary  Bus: USB
        BD Address: C0:B6:F9:8D:A6:75  ACL MTU: 1021:4  SCO MTU: 96:6
        UP RUNNING 
        RX bytes:1965 acl:0 sco:0 events:97 errors:0
        TX bytes:2858 acl:0 sco:0 commands:97 errors:0

docker@foo:~$

I then used bluetoothctl, to scan for devices. I discovered the device (a SwitchBot) I was looking for:

[NEW] Device E9:2B:61:A9:60:9D E9-2B-61-A9-60-9D

My problem is, HA isn’t seeing either radio. I remember some time ago I had to pass in the radio as a volume, like

 - /opt/bluetooth:/var/lib/bluetooth

But I can’t find a directory for the radios. FYI I installed bluez if that is somehow relevant.

sudo apt install bluez

And to cap it all off, I did a docker exec -it homeassistant /bin/bash to enter the container, and ran hciconfig and I see both radios.

Any suggestions on how to get HA to see my Bluetooth radio and get SwitchBot working with HA?

2

Did you do this?

image
image890×428 36.9 KB

1 Like
3

Hello,
i have added everything, which is described as instructions:

 "Volumes": {
                "/config": {},
                "/dev": {},
                "/etc/asound.conf": {},
                "/etc/machine-id": {},
                "/etc/pulse/client.conf": {},
                "/media": {},
                "/run/audio": {},
                "/run/dbus": {},
                "/run/udev": {},
                "/share": {},
                "/ssl": {}

dbus-broker:

● dbus-broker.service - D-Bus System Message Bus
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/dbus-broker.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Sun 2022-11-13 17:22:58 EET; 12min ago
TriggeredBy: ● dbus.socket
       Docs: man:dbus-broker-launch(1)
   Main PID: 702 (dbus-broker-lau)
      Tasks: 2 (limit: 9319)
     Memory: 5.9M
     CGroup: /system.slice/dbus-broker.service
             ├─702 /usr/bin/dbus-broker-launch --scope system --audit
             └─708 dbus-broker --log 4 --controller 9 --machine-id 2880c2c5af404678b6e9f4050366da65 --max-bytes 536870912 --max-fds 4096 --max-matches 131072 --audit

BlueZ :

Package: bluez
Version: 5.64-0ubuntu1
Priority: optional
Section: admin
Origin: Ubuntu
Maintainer: Ubuntu Bluetooth team <[email protected]>
Original-Maintainer: Debian Bluetooth Maintainers <[email protected]>
Bugs: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug
Installed-Size: 3759 kB
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.34), libdbus-1-3 (>= 1.9.14), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.31.8), libreadline8 (>= 6.0), libudev1 (>= 196), kmod, udev, lsb-base, dbus
Suggests: pulseaudio-module-bluetooth
Conflicts: bluez-audio (<= 3.36-3), bluez-utils (<= 3.36-3)
Breaks: udev (<< 170-1)
Replaces: bluez-audio (<= 3.36-3), bluez-input, bluez-network, bluez-serial, bluez-utils (<= 3.36-3), udev (<< 170-1)
Homepage: http://www.bluez.org
Task: ubuntu-desktop-minimal, ubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-desktop-raspi, kubuntu-desktop, xubuntu-core, xubuntu-desktop, lubuntu-desktop, ubuntustudio-desktop-core, ubuntustudio-desktop, ubuntukylin-desktop, ubuntu-mate-core, ubuntu-mate-desktop, ubuntu-budgie-desktop, ubuntu-budgie-desktop-raspi
Download-Size: 1106 kB
APT-Manual-Installed: yes
APT-Sources: http://bg.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
Description: Bluetooth tools and daemons
 This package contains tools and system daemons for using Bluetooth devices.
 .
 BlueZ is the official Linux Bluetooth protocol stack. It is an Open Source
 project distributed under GNU General Public License (GPL).

But still no one of my BT devices at home appear in my HA.
What I missing ?

4

I am facing the same issues

Home Assistant 2022.12.1 on docker on a rpi4. Source: linuxserver/homeassistant - LinuxServer.io

After login to HA (on Portainer), I could see bluetooth adapters (hcitool dev), scan and see BLT devices (hcitool lescan). But Bluetooth passive monitoring shows no Xiaomi Bluetooth Thermometer (running customized firmware). In the meantime, on HA OS running on another rpi3, I can see my devices.

I tried to enable log for bluetooth plugins and got some errors.

HCIdump thread: Something wrong - interface hci0 not ready, and will be skipped for current scan period.

The thing is I bought a “compatible” bluetooth USB dongle as mentioned somewhere, but that does not seems to help.

Looked up and found this: [Bug]: HCIdump thread: Something wrong - interface hci0 not ready, and will be skipped for current scan period. · Issue #827 · custom-components/ble_monitor · GitHub
That ticket is still open.

Tried many things like setting permission so python can use bluetooth script/devices. Bind /run/dbus. Install dbus-broker.

No luck so far.

Is anyone pushing to solve this extremely annoying issue?

5
1 Like
6

Not sure if this helps, but I had a similar issue (running lsio HA on Ubuntu server 22.04 LTS miniPC) and I solved it by apt install dbus-broker. After restarting, HA picked up Bluetooth

7

esp bluetooth proxy solved it for me

8

Having similar problem. I am running HA on top of docker (compose) and the container CAN see the bluetooth dongle’s MAC address upon running hciconfig & hcitool dev. However, trying to add the Bluetooth integration just gives me the “0 devices found” error. The OS is also able to use the bluetooth adapter at the same time.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

9

Same for me

10

Thank you for this post. Thats the first time I read about .

11

For some, but probably not all, the actual issue can be seen in the logs searching for “dbus”. If you see “EXTERNAL, REJECTED” there it’s an issue with the python library dbus-fast and running H-A in a rootless Docker container (or podman).

It’s probably this error, which has unfortunately been closed as a configuration issue (it isn’t): Bluetooth in container (podman) gives dbus-related error: authentication failed: REJECTED: ['EXTERNAL']) · Issue #76429 · home-assistant/core · GitHub

I spent way too much time looking into this today, since not being able to set up bluetooth stopped me from being able to use ESPHome. It turns out that dbus-fast isn’t authenticating the way it should, and patching the code makes it work.

My dirty patch follows.

Enter your container using docker exec, then:

# vi /usr/local/lib/python3.11/site-packages/dbus_fast/auth.py

Add a line to this function:

   def _authentication_start(self, negotiate_unix_fd: bool = False) -> str:                                                
        self.negotiate_unix_fd = negotiate_unix_fd                                                                          
        self.uid = UID_NOT_SPECIFIED                                                                                        
        uid = self.uid

Save, restart your container. The information behind this patch comes from a discussion on libdbus: libdbus client should try "AUTH EXTERNAL\r\n" first? (#195) · Issues · dbus / dbus · GitLab

I now have host bluetooth working fine inside my rootless docker H-A container without resorting to using --privileged or other security problems.

12

Thanks for the input, it works indeed. The edited function shall look as follows:

def _authentication_start(self, negotiate_unix_fd: bool = False) -> str:
        self.negotiate_unix_fd = negotiate_unix_fd
        self.uid = UID_NOT_SPECIFIED
        uid = self.uid
        if uid == UID_NOT_SPECIFIED:
            return "AUTH EXTERNAL"