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hciemu

legacy BlueZ tool that emulates a Bluetooth HCI device via the hci_vhci kernel module

TLDR

Emulate an HCI device with a given local address
$ sudo hciemu [00:11:22:33:44:55]
Emulate a specific device type
$ sudo hciemu -d [vhci] [00:11:22:33:44:55]
Capture emulated traffic to a snoop file
$ sudo hciemu -s [capture.snoop] [00:11:22:33:44:55]
Run in the foreground without detaching
$ sudo hciemu -n [00:11:22:33:44:55]

SYNOPSIS

hciemu [options] local-address

DESCRIPTION

hciemu is a legacy BlueZ test utility that emulates a Bluetooth Host Controller Interface (HCI) device through the hci_vhci kernel module. It creates a virtual Bluetooth controller with a given local address, letting the Bluetooth stack and applications be exercised without physical hardware.

PARAMETERS

-d device

Device type to emulate (e.g. vhci).
-b bdaddr
Bluetooth device address to emulate.
-s file
Write captured HCI packets to a snoop file.
-n
Do not detach from the controlling terminal.

CAVEATS

Requires the hci_vhci kernel module and root privileges. This standalone command dates from the pre-BlueZ5 bluez-utils test suite and has been dropped from the tools shipped by current Linux distributions; modern BlueZ only keeps an internal emulator library (used by its own test suite) under the same name, not a user-facing binary. For interactive Bluetooth testing today, use bluetoothctl.

HISTORY

hciemu was part of the original BlueZ (bluez-utils) test tools, predating BlueZ5. It has since been removed from mainstream distribution packages.

SEE ALSO

hciconfig(1), hcitool(1), bluetoothctl(1)