Virtualbox ha can't find zigbee

Configuration Zigbee
1

Hi everyone, I’ve been struggling to get my Zigbee USB dongle recognized by Home Assistant. I’ve tried almost everything I can think of, but HA still doesn’t detect the device at all. I would really appreciate some help.

:wrench: System Setup

  • Host machine: Mini PC running Windows 11 Pro
  • Zigbee dongle: Sonoff Zigbee 3.0 USB Dongle Plus / P version
  • Home Assistant: Running inside VirtualBox (imported HA OS VDI/OVA)
  • USB passthrough: Enabled in VirtualBox
  • Windows Device Manager shows the dongle as:
    Silicon Labs CP210x USB to UART Bridge

So the dongle is definitely detected by Windows.

:exclamation: The actual problem

Inside Home Assistant → Settings → Hardware
The Zigbee dongle never shows up.

In VirtualBox:

  • USB filter added (Vendor ID + Product ID)
  • Device shows as “Active”
  • But it never appears inside HA

HA behaves like no USB device is connected at all.

:heavy_check_mark: Things I’ve already tried

1. Reinstalled Windows 11

No improvement.

2. Reinstalled VirtualBox + Extension Pack

No difference.

3. Reinstalled Home Assistant OS image (VDI/OVA)

Still not detected.

4. Tried multiple USB filters

  • Full VID/PID
  • VID only
  • Empty filter
    Nothing works.

5. Tried different USB ports

Still invisible inside HA.

6. Tried different USB cables & port types

Same result.

:jigsaw: Important system information

Running systeminfo in Windows shows:

  • A hypervisor has been detected
  • Virtualization-based security: Running
  • Secure Launch: Enabled
  • SMM Firmware Measurement: Enabled

Even after disabling Memory Integrity, Windows still forces VBS = Running.

This means Windows is still running its own hypervisor layer, which is known to break VirtualBox USB passthrough.

:bulb: My current suspicion

This issue might be caused by:

1. VBS (Virtualization-Based Security) blocking VirtualBox USB passthrough

Even when Hyper-V is “disabled”, Windows 11 still runs its own hypervisor when VBS/Secure Launch are active.

2. BIOS Secure Launch / SMM protection enabling VBS at boot

These options are on by default on many modern systems.

3. VirtualBox may not fully support USB passthrough under Secure Launch / VBS environments

:pray: My questions for the community

  1. Can VirtualBox reliably pass through USB devices (like Zigbee dongles) when Windows VBS / Secure Launch is enabled?
  2. Do I need to disable Secure Launch / SMM Protection / DMA Protection in BIOS to make this work?
  3. Is there a better way to run Home Assistant on Windows 11 that fully supports Zigbee USB adapters?
    For example:
  • Hyper-V (but no USB passthrough)
  • WSL2 + HA
  • Running HA OS on the bare metal
  • Using a dedicated device (Raspberry Pi / mini PC with Linux)
  1. Are there any additional debugging steps I should try inside VirtualBox or HA?

Thanks so much for any advice — I’ve spent days trying to solve this and still can’t get the dongle recognized inside Home Assistant.

2

In the title of your post, did you intend to put “Visualbox”? If not, you might correct it - I don’t think people know what you mean, so you’re not getting many views.

3

Do you need Windows 11 on that box?
If not

  • HA OS on bare metal
  • Proxmox with a HA OS vm
1 Like
4

Feel you. I have the samo issues. Running Win10.
Been on Ubuntu + VB, but had issues with ETH adapter which had beedn renamed after Ubuntu update and HASS didn’t work with new named adapter.

Still looking for solutions (50 ZigbeeDevices offline, heating included).

5

I’m having a similar issue (Win10 + HA in VirtualBox), but sometimes HA sees it and sometimes it doesn’t and there doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason for the change in disposition. I’ve had it working when NOT telling the device to be passed to HA (what?!?) and I’ve had it working when adding it as a USB device in the VB instance settings. And of course I’ve had it not working in both of those situations too. I find some way to get it working, then I’ll come back later and it’ll complain that it can’t find the device.

6

2 options:

1 - run Ziggbee2mqtt on the windows host machine (so you don’t need to pass the usb to VB at all); it was my solution way back when I ran HA on HyperV :hugs:
2 - run VMware workstation instead of VB (a bit of steep learning curve, but way more reliable than VB)
PS: Workstation is free for personal use nowadays :wink:

7

Issue solved, at least for me. Migrated to Proxmox and everything solved. No issue since then.

1 Like