While all of my computers run Linux, sometimes it’s useful to have Windows – fortunately, not often. Due to the long wet grey dreary winters here in the WA state Puget Sound area, I recently got an indoor cycling trainer. You can use lots of different software with these. The software emulates rides in either the real world (based on video & GPS tracks) or the virtual world (like a video game). It connects to the trainer using Bluetooth or ANT+ to dynamically control the resistance (simulating hills) and measure the rider’s power output.<\/p>\n
The only software I could find that runs natively on Linux is very basic and not well supported. These include Auuki<\/a> and Golden Cheetah<\/a>. I wanted something more full featured. The next best thing would be Android.<\/p>\n Most of the popular apps (Zwift, MyWhoosh, Rouvy, Kinomap, icTrainer, etc.) support Android. MyWhoosh was out of the question because it consumed 7 GB of space on my tablet before it could even start running. It is a big, slow, steaming pile of bloat-ware. Most of the others are too expensive for my frugal nature. So I started with icTrainer, which is less well known. At $30 per year, it is the least expensive of the non-free apps. They had great support, promptly answering a couple of questions I emailed them. Their Android app ran just fine on my old slow tablet. The rides I downloaded are huge since they have full video, and icTrainer stored them on the external SD card, which was a nice plus.<\/p>\n So far, so good. But I wondered if I could run indoor cycling software on my laptop, which runs Ubuntu 22. This would give me a bigger screen, and the ability to drive an even bigger external monitor. But it would require getting Windows to work.<\/p>\n First I installed VirtualBox on my Ubuntu 22 laptop, then unearthed an old Windows 10 installer ISO file and unused license key I had hanging around. The Win 10 install went fine and I installed the icTrainer Windows app, which also went fine. The problem was: how to get the Windows 10 VM to use the laptop’s Bluetooth so icTrainer could control the trainer?<\/p>\n I’ll cut to the chase. Start by ensuring that the Win10 VM is shut down.<\/p>\n First, shut down Ubuntu’s bluetooth service, so it releases the computer’s Bluetooth hardware.<\/p>\n Next, find the computer’s Bluetooth hardware. It’s considered a subset of the USB system, so list the USB devices:<\/p>\n In the list, look for an entry related to Bluetooth. On mine, it is this:<\/p>\n Next, start the Win10 VM and then log into it.<\/p>\n In VirtualBox, go to USB Devices, look for that same device in the list, and check the box so VirtualBox so it can make it available to the VM.<\/p>\n Now in Win10, confirm that it’s there by going to “Device Manager” and finding the Bluetooth section. If it doesn’t appear, try rebooting the Win10 VM.<\/p>\n At this point, the Win10 VM has access to the computer’s Bluetooth and any apps that use Bluetooth (such as indoor cycling training programs) should work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Introduction While all of my computers run Linux, sometimes it’s useful to have Windows – fortunately, not often. Due to the long wet grey dreary winters here in the WA state Puget Sound area, I recently got an indoor cycling trainer. You can use lots of different software with these. The software emulates rides in … Continue reading Bluetooth in a Windows 10 VirtualBox VM<\/span> Android?<\/h3>\n
Windows 10<\/h3>\n
sudo service bluetooth shutdown<\/pre>\n
lsusb<\/pre>\n
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 8087:0a2b Intel Corp. Bluetooth wireless interface<\/pre>\n