Sharing Bluetooth devices with a virtual machine

Products

• VMware Desktop Hypervisor

Issue/Introduction

Fusion 4, Player 4 and Workstation 8 introduce the ability to connect individual Bluetooth devices to virtual machines. Previously, the Bluetooth radio could be connected to a virtual machine. This required all Bluetooth devices to be attached to a single guest, or left with the host, Now, the Bluetooth devices connect with and pair to the host and can be passed off separately.

 

 

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Environment

VMware Fusion 4.x
VMware Player 5.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 5.x
VMware Fusion 10.x
VMware Workstation Player 14.x (Linux)
VMware Player 7.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion Pro 10.x
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 8.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Player 15.x (Linux)
VMware Player Pro 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Windows)
VMware Player 4.x (Windows)
VMware Player 5.x (Linux)
VMware Player 6.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Windows)
VMware Fusion 11.x
VMware Workstation 8.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Pro 15.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation Player 12.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Player 14.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 8.x
VMware Player Pro 7.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Linux)
VMware Workstation Player 15.x (Windows)
VMware Workstation 9.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 10.x (Windows)
VMware Fusion 6.x
VMware Workstation Player 12.x (Linux)
VMware Player 4.x (Linux)
VMware Fusion Pro 8.x
VMware Fusion 7.x
VMware Workstation Pro 14.x (for Windows)
VMware Player 7.x (Linux)
VMware Workstation 11.x (for Linux)
VMware Player 6.x (Windows)

Resolution

To attach a new Bluetooth device to a guest virtual machine:

1. Enable Bluetooth sharing:
    
   • In Fusion:
     1. Go to Virtual Machine > Settings > USB & Bluetooth.
     2. Select Share Bluetooth devices with (Windows/Linux).
         
   • In Workstation and Player:
     1. Go to VM > Settings.
     2. Select USB Controller, then select Share Bluetooth devices with the virtual machine.
         
   The virtual Bluetooth radio appears in the guest. You may see notifications from the guest OS that new hardware was detected, but you don't need to do anything in order for the driver to load.
   
   After the driver loads, you can work with Bluetooth devices in the guest as you would on a physical computer. Use the guest's Bluetooth interface to search for nearby devices to pair with. Devices appear in the list as they are detected.
    
2. When the device you want appears, select it and connect to it.
   
   The guest operating system tries to pair with the device. The guest operating system says that it is connecting to the device and shows a progress bar.
    
3. Pair the device with the host. If you have not paired this device with this host before, you are prompted to do so now. The host may ask you for a PIN, or may display a PIN to be entered on the device.
   
   The guest operating system now sees its connection to the device complete. The guest does not ask for any PIN numbers.
   
   After the device pairs, the device is now available in the guest.

Additional Information

Supported OSes

Workstation, Player and Fusion support passing individual Bluetooth devices in these cases:

• Linux guests: ALL
• Mac OS guests: ALL
• Windows guests: XP SP1 and later
• Linux hosts: ALL
• Mac OS hosts: ALL
• Windows hosts: XP SP1 and later

Note: Both the host and the guest must be supported.

Windows has multiple Bluetooth stacks; an official Microsoft stack and a few vendor-specific stacks. The Microsoft stack (by far the most common) is the only stack supported on the host.

Supported device classes

Workstation and Fusion support passing these classes of Bluetooth devices:

• Cell phones
• GPS receivers
• Serial Port Profile (SPP) devices
• Most other devices

Workstation and Fusion offer limited support for these classes of Bluetooth devices:

• Input devices (HID): Can be attached to guests when using Linux/Mac OS hosts, but not on Windows hosts.
• OBEX File Transfer: Outgoing (guest to device) transfers only. Guest may not act as an OBEX server.

Workstation and Fusion do not support passing these classes of Bluetooth devices:

• Headphones, headsets, hands-free audio devices

Limitations

Workstation and Fusion have these limitations for Bluetooth support:

• Outgoing connections only. A virtual machine may establish a connection to a remote Bluetooth device, but remote devices do not see services that virtual machines try to advertise.
   
• Virtual machines cannot change the name, class, or discoverability of the host's Bluetooth adapter. The host is exclusively in control over setting whether other Bluetooth devices can discover the host, and what name it appears as.
   
• The host is exclusively in control of the pairing process and collecting/displaying PIN numbers. The guest may scan for devices, and initiate a connection with any device. If pairing is required, the pairing dialog box appears on the host, not in the guest. From the guest's perspective, the device appears to pair without having needed a PIN.
   
• Any vendor-specific capabilities on the host's Bluetooth radio are not passed through to the guest. For example, some radios provide a vendor-specific command to change their BDADDR. These commands do not appear in the guest. The guest sees a generic VMware-brand radio.
   
• The virtual Bluetooth controller itself is not part of snapshots. During snapshots, it is disconnected and reconnected. Any ongoing connections with Bluetooth devices are terminated at the time of a snapshot.