Bluetooth on Oracle VirtualBox?

im running windows 10 , virtualbox vm running Hassio, i dont think that i have this option

In the command prompt in the VM, it doesn’t accept the command noted above?

If not, I would maybe check out the link up in the thread about how you can setup ubuntu server on a windows VM, then you can run a 1 liner to let it install hassio. From there you will have more control and it should allow you to install bluetooth as mentioned in my last reply.

I went this route per the suggestion of @msauto and I wish I would’ve done it sooner.

I have been watching your comments in the monitor thread, so i figured you went that route. I tried presence first then went with “monitor” and boy oh boy!!! a working presence detection system that seldom fails!! (i have it running on an old linux laptop by the way, @andrewjfreyer designed it to pretty much run on anything that will run linux, WHAT A SMART GUY, LOL.) Wish i had gone this route a long time ago but it looked too complicated, thing is its really simple once you just install it and stop reading about it lol. So to anyone debating on going with “monitor” for presence detection, GO FOR IT , you will not regret it! Wish @frenck could build it into hassio somehow but really its just a script, once you realize that it kinda gets easy for the somewhat technically inclined like me.
Thanks for all the time and effort that every one has put in on “monitor” it has saved me tons of hair,lol!!

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Looks like he is having the same issue that you were @bbalz . It seems that the bluetooth component doesn’t work on some cli or vm direct downloaded installs. After your issue got fixed i went and downloaded the hassio vm that was hosted by home assistant and tried the Bluetooth component and immediately experienced the same issues as you . So @yoni3210 you may have to follow the instructions from above like bbalz said. And would highly recommend going with “monitor” if you are needing presence detection. The Bluetooth component is not reliable for device tracking. Watch this video and install this way https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HA9GW4IXaw, i have been running the same system on multiple vms for over a year now. It just works.

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installed still not working, including installing Bluetooth i dont know else what to do

yoni3210 Is it possible that you have a faulty dongle? Using the on board Bluetooth has been very problematic for me. I have installed with Bluetooth dongle several time successfully.
Also make sure you are running newest updates.
open terminal and type

sudo apt-get update

then after it stops downloading type

sudo apt-get -y upgrade

then after done installing updates

sudo apt-get install bluetooth bluez bluez-tools

a little overkill but this will make sure that you have all the tools.

Restart the server not just hassio

then open terminal and type

sudo systemctl enable bluetooth.service

sudo systemctl start bluetooth.service

Then
sudo hcitool scan

Should see
scanning…

if this doesn’t work its outside my expertise,which isn’t much,lol
Also make sure if you are trying to use on board Bluetooth(i do not recommend) that nothing else on your pc is using Bluetooth as virtual box and hass will not share.
Good Luck!

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I bought new Bluetooth dongle and now everything is working!

Tx man,

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question,

how can i enter on ubuntu shell to Hassio Shell, i want to change the ip address ?

The device is Bluetooth LE (sometimes called Low Energy), not Bluetooth (sometimes now called Classic). They are not compatible although some devices support both.

The USB Dongle you bought that works specifically says Bluetooth Low Energy.

Mi Flora plant sensor is a small Bluetooth Low Energy device that monitors the moisture and conductivity of the soil as well as ambient light and temperature.

if you installed via the video by hasscasts in previous post you will change ip just like you would in any Linux Ubuntu server install, that is what he helped you install then you just installed hassio on Ubuntu server. So to sum up .You are now running a virtual machine in virtual box with Ubuntu server 18.4 installed (or whatever is newest release) as the operating system with Hassio installed and running on that. With that said you will change the ip the same way that you would on any other Ubuntu server install. This link should help you out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sg9ij3IAKDE

Glad you got it working!!

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Thanks for the information. I was able to get it working without any issues but I don’t have the BLE portion in my configuration.yaml. When I added that, it actually caused me more issues.

Either way it’s been working for months now without any issues.

Are you able to get the onboard BT of the NUC working from Windows Host to Ubuntu Guest?

I didn’t try to be honest. I installed Ubuntu server and run HA with docker with the link mentioned earlier in the post. I had the dongle already so I plugged it into the NUC and it has been consistently reporting since going this route. I don’t have Windows on the device at all.

The only blip I have really had is I’ve opened the miflora app on my phone and the devices synchronized and it seemed to put them into a stale state for HA. Wondering if there is just a conflict with multiple devices trying at the same time and it was a coincidence or what… since then I just cleared cache/storage on the app on my phone and don’t check it on there at all and it’s been perfect. That only happened maybe 1-2 times though .

The NUC that I’m using is pretty light weight and not the heavy lifting versions. It’s the compute stick version and I can’t recall the exact model off the top of my head.

Not sure if any of this is useful, sorry.

Hey @yoni3210, which dongle did you end up buying? Looks like the one I just got is the same as your first one.

Cheers

Linton

The problem for me was with the distance , I’ve managed to get it working with both Bluetooth adapters .

what is the distance between your Home assistant and the Bluetooth device?

Link : https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-TL-WN725N-wireless-network-Adapter/dp/B008IFXQFU/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?keywords=TP-Link+Nano+USB+UB400+-+4.0&qid=1562862376&s=gateway&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&sr=8-1-fkmr0

This worked for me, thank you!!!

For people who find this thread like I did, I wanted to report that I managed to get built-in (Intel) bluetooth running without having to do anything special using the VirtualBox image on a Windows 10 host laptop. What’s more, the guest runs bridged even on the built-in wireless adapter, so I have a completely mobile and functional HA instance :slight_smile:

After a few days of usage, I have to add that it only became stable when I set a static IP for HA in the virtualbox.

just to let you know this really helped me. VirtualBox has the NUC’s internal bluetooth installed but it did not have “Any” selected. Once I made that change the bluetooth in the HA VM started working.

I wasn’t able to get my NUC’s built-in bluetooth shared this way. What’s the trick?

I manually added the USB filter with the Vendor ID and Product ID, but this doesn’t seem to work