Lubuntu 20.04 LTS sees USB Bluetooth dongle - 21.10 does not

I am trying to run Lubuntu in a virtual machine, using virt-manager to create, Debian Bullseye is the host OS. USB ‘virtual’ hardware (USB hub (internal and external), Bluetooth, printer, mouse, etc) must be individually added to the installation process before the VM is created.

The Bluetooth dongle contains the Broadcom BT20702 chip.

When the 20.04 LTS image is run from the live DVD, or installed into the VM, the lsusb -v command will show the Bluetooth dongle, I am able to pair headphones and the audio works fine.

With the 21.10 image run from the live DVD or installed into a VM, it does not see the Bluetooth dongle.

Am curious as to what may have changed between the releases? I’m concerned that if I decide to keep Lubuntu running in a VM, once it’s eventually upgraded to the next LTS release, Bluetooth will no longer work.

Thank you in advance.

Still do not know why it didn’t detect Bluetooth originally, but lsusb is showing it now. A package at GitHub (broadcom-bt-firmware) for this particular Bluetooth dongle, once installed, now has Bluetooth working perfectly.

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My only guess is that maybe it’s due to the kernels being different but I cannot verify.

It sounds like what you installed is a driver for the bluetooth dongle specifically.

I don’t know if this means that it was shipped in 20.04 or if something was done differently in 21.10 than previously during install. There is an option somewhere where you can install additional firmware for things like WiFi cards.

https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/4/4.3/software_sources.html#proprietary-drivers

Quite possibly could have been the kernel. But Bluetooth is now working perfectly in the Lubuntu VM.

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