Using bluetooth on android x86 virtualbox

[asif....@gmail.com]

Successfully verified on:

Ubuntu: 16.04<br>
Virtualbox: 5.0.24<br>
Android x86: 4.4-r5, 5.1-rc1, 6.0-rc1*<br>
Bluetooth USB Dongle Tested:

PASSES: Cambridge Silicon Radio CSR8510 A10 [8891]
FAILS: Broadcom BCM20702A0 [0112]

To be able to do the following:

Android -> Settings -> Bluetooth -> On

You need to physically attach the Bluetooth USB dongle to the Host and virtually attach it to the VirtualMachine **before** starting it up the VirtualMachine.

***NOTE:** For Android 6.0-rc1, you can virtually attach the bluetooth USB dongle (and do a Android settings bluetooth enable) **after** boot up.

Virtualbox -> AndroidVitrualMachine -> Settings -> USB -> USB+ (Button icon with the balloon help that says - Add new filter with all fields set to the values of the selected USB device attached to the Host PC.)

I have verified this which included running the nRF Master Control Panel Android app and scanning for Bluetooth LE devices on the AndroidVirtualMachine.

[Sebastian Weber]

> PASSES: Cambridge Silicon Radio CSR8510 A10 [8891]
> FAILS: Broadcom BCM20702A0 [0112]

A warning about this:

I have several identical dongles of the CSR8510 type. One works, the other not.

Finally, the reason is that Android (at least Android6) stores the MAC adress of the first BT dongle ever connected in /data/misc/bluetooth/settings, and will never again accept any other dongles.

Either edit the MAC adress, or simply delete the file, and Android will accept an other dongle again (once, of course)

This does not mean that the Broadcom dongle will work then, it just means that once you got the Cambridge dongle running, you will not be able to test other dongles, even almost identical ones.