Installing native Bluetooth driver inside Parallels? Will bootcamp driver work?

Discussion in 'Windows Virtual Machine' started by mdrejhon3, Jul 22, 2011.

  1. mdrejhon3

    mdrejhon3 Member

    Messages:
    24
    Hello!

    For several reasons (including software development) I need to install a Bluetooth driver inside my Parallels VM.

    It seems possible. Native Windows driver for a Bluetooth stack (It shows up as a USB device, and I'm able to assign this device to Parallels (and cause the Bluetooth icon to disappear from my Mac menubar, Bluetooth being reassigned to the virtual machine) -- and when I do, Windows XP inside Parallels prompts me to install the driver for this Bluetooth device.) ... But what driver can I install, since I need a Windows driver for a Mac Bluetooth built into my Macbook Air 2010. Clearly, it's already possible to reassign my Bluetooth radio to the virtual machine, and it's potentially just a simple matter of a Windows driver...

    I do not use Boot Camp. I heard the Boot Camp Bluetooth driver would work fine. But how do I obtain it, since I do not have a Windows partition? The Bluetooth driver is stuck in a big Boot Camp package.

    Thanks!
    Mark Rejhon
     
  2. CalSurfer

    CalSurfer Bit poster

    Messages:
    3
    The bluetooth drivers from the Snow Leopard DVD don't work with Lion. I had a perfectly working setup with the previous build of Parallels 6 and Snow Leopard 10.6. Since upgrading to Parallels Desktop build 6.0.12094 and initial release of Lion OS 10.7 bluetooth simply no longer works. The "Bluetooth radio" is gone in Windows and reinstalling the Bootcamp drivers won't bring them back, plus after selecting USB->Apple Bluetooth..., it appears to disable the Mac's driver so with such toxicity that it doesn't even appear in System Preferences any longer until after a hard reboot.

    Assuming they create a fix for bluetooth, if you can obtain and mount a Mac OX DVD you can use the free archiving program Pacifist to dig into the package - takes several minutes to open due to size but then you can select the Windows .EXE files by name for AppleBluetoothInstaller.exe and AppleBluetoothInstallerEnabler.exe, transfer them into your VM and execute them there in either order.
     
  3. mdrejhon3

    mdrejhon3 Member

    Messages:
    24
    Any update to this? I've updated to Lion, I'd like to install Bluetooth drivers. Are there any updated Bluetooth drivers, that would work within Parallels 6 or 7, like they did for Parallels 6+Snow Leopard?

    (I bought Lion via App Store)
     
  4. WadeC

    WadeC Bit poster

    Messages:
    1
    I'd like this too. I bought a new Macbook Air with Lion installed.
     
  5. mdrejhon3

    mdrejhon3 Member

    Messages:
    24
    I have a solution!!!!

    I got a Bluetooth dongle (cheap iogear wart), permanently assigned it USB plugin to Parallels, and now Windows has its dedicated Bluetooth dongle, which solved my problem.

    The reason is I am using an application that supports multiple keyboards being used simultaneously in different windows, and this made it necessary to get native keyboard support, rather than virtualized keyboard (i.e. keyboard directly to Windows, rather than going through OS X)

    I'd rather use the Mac builtin Bluetooth for this, though -- should be possible to do.
     

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