CastorisCausa

Scenario

You have a Bluetooth (BT) Device (headphones, keyboard, mouse, etc.) with MAC address XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX, and you want to use this BT device in a dual OS PC (in this case Linux and Windows), which as a BT Adapter with MAC address YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY.

Pairing the device in both OS does not work!

Because of the way the Bluetooth pairing process happens: every time the Device and the Adapter are paired a shared secret Link Key is generated. This Link Key is used to authenticate the Device-Adapter connection. As such pairing in one OS will overwrite the Link Key.

The solution

The solution is to use the same Link Key in both operative systems.

1. First, pair the Device and Adapter in OS A
2. Pair the Device and Adapter in OS B
3. Get the Link Key generated in OS B
4. Modify the Link Key in OS A to be the one you got from OS B.

The specific instruction vary depending of which OS does first the pairing. Below the instructions for both cases:

• If Linux is the OS A: instructions
• If Windows is the OS A instructions

Linux first

1. Pair the Device in Linux
2. Pair the Device on Windows

3. Get the Link Key in Windows

   Get PSTools: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec

   Run as Administrator:

   1	$ ./psexec -s -i regedit.exe

   Go to:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTHPORT\Parameters\Keys\YYYYYYYYYYYY\

   Copy the Value (this is the Link Key) corresponding to Key: MAC address of the Device (XXXXXXXXXXXX)

   The Link Key in Windows has spaces and lower cases. To be used in Linux, it should not have spaces and be in Capitals.

4. Set the Link Key from Windows into Linux
   Open the directory: /var/lib/bluetooth/[YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY]/[XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX]/
   Edit the Key field in [LinkKey] section of the info file with the Value obtained from Windows

   1 2	[LinkKey] Key=B99999999FFFFFFFFF999999999FFFFF

   Reboot

Windows first

1. Pair the Device in Windows
2. Pair the Device on Linux

3. Get the Link Key in Linux

   Open the directory: /var/lib/bluetooth/[YY:YY:YY:YY:YY:YY]/[XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX]/info
   Copy the Key field in [LinkKey] section of the info file, this is the Link Key

   1 2	[LinkKey] Key=B99999999FFFFFFFFF999999999FFFFF [the LinkKeys for the device]

4. Set the Link Key from Linux into Windows Get PSTools: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec

   1	$ ./psexec -s -i regedit.exe

   Go to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTHPORT\Parameters\Keys\YYYYYYYYYYYY

   Edit the Value (this is the Link Key) corresponding to Key: MAC address of the Device (XXXXXXXXXXXX)

   The Link Key in Windows has spaces is in lower case. Format the Link Key from Linux accordingly.

5. Reboot

   If the Device cannot be forgotten in Windows (to do a fresh pairing), use BluetoothCLTools to remove it from the Command Line.