HassOS VMDK bluetooth dongle support

Configuration
1

Is anyone whose using the HassOS VMDK on ESXi successfully using a bluetooth dongle?

There was a github pull at some point that was supposed to add support for Bluetooth dongles on all platforms which I took to include the HassOS VMDK.

I’ve got a BCM20702A0 chipset dongle and have passed it through to the Hassio VM. It sees it but doesn’t look like the proper driver is there…anyone know one that works?

[  691.356118] usb 2-2.2: USB disconnect, device number 5
[  731.623513] usb 2-2.2: new full-speed USB device number 6 using uhci_hcd
[  731.945697] usb 2-2.2: New USB device found, idVendor=0a5c, idProduct=21e8, bcdDevice= 1.12
[  731.948284] usb 2-2.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[  731.948847] usb 2-2.2: Product: BCM20702A0
[  731.949351] usb 2-2.2: Manufacturer: Broadcom Corp
[  731.949845] usb 2-2.2: SerialNumber: 5CF3709B8989
[  732.068548] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: chip id 63
[  732.072373] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: features 0x07
[  732.123356] Bluetooth: hci0: homeassistant
[  732.128409] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM20702A1 (001.002.014) build 0000
[  732.128959] bluetooth hci0: Direct firmware load for brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd failed with error -2
[  732.129509] Bluetooth: hci0: BCM: Patch brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd not found

Edit: Scratch this…it looks like it is actually able to use the dongle. A bluetoothctl scan on sees devices.

2

I have same problem

3

What are you trying to scan for? I found even though it throws and error the dongle is working and finds my device, in my case an Airthings Wave.

4

I have rebooted hassos and after that, dongle was detected. Only hotplug does not seem to work I used bluetoothctl to check device and it only detect fater reboot.
But the adapter seems to work.
So this adapter and CSR 4.0 are working well for me

5

I am using esxi too, my conbee stick was detected well, my usb camera not, so I did passthrough the whole usb controller, problem gone

6

By the whole usb controller you mean that hassos manage all usb port on the physical machine ?

7

Yeah, but my hp micro server had several usb controlleers, like on back it had two, also the front was a different one…

1 Like
8

interesting !

9

Too late to answer, but BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd is not present in the home assistant OS.

# ha os info
board: ova
boot: A
data_disk: /dev/sda8
update_available: false
version: "9.4"
version_latest: "9.4"

# ls /lib/firmware/ | head -n3
bnx2
bnx2x
i915

However, HA finds the bluetooth adapter and configures it, but it does not work properly (for instance, in my case it does not find any BLE device like beacons - even I having almost side by side).

On the PC, the error was the same:

[13508.025699] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM: chip id 63
[13508.026714] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM: features 0x07
[13508.042681] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM20702A
[13508.042684] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM20702A1 (001.002.014) build 0000
[13508.043727] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM: firmware Patch file not found, tried:
[13508.043731] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM: 'brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd'
[13508.043732] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM: 'brcm/BCM-0a5c-21e8.hcd'

After copying the firmware file to PC:

[13881.718717] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM: chip id 63
[13881.719711] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM: features 0x07
[13881.735718] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM20702A
[13881.735721] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM20702A1 (001.002.014) build 0000
[13881.736949] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM20702A1 'brcm/BCM20702A1-0a5c-21e8.hcd' Patch
[13882.713789] Bluetooth: hci1: Broadcom Bluetooth Device
[13882.713803] Bluetooth: hci1: BCM20702A1 (001.002.014) build 1764

and:

~$ sudo hcitool -i hci1 scan
Scanning ...
	24:41:xx:xx:xx:xx	xxxx-laptop
$ sudo hcitool -i hci1 lescan
LE Scan ...
CC:6E:xx:xx:xx:xx (unknown)

However, the wireless performance of this dongle is terrible to say the least. So I am sourcing for something newer. A Ugreen BT 5.3 did not work, no drivers for linux, need to find another.

BRs,
Jose

10

it works well with the pluggable 4.0, but I use a ugreen one (Amazon.fr) and it works too