Add driver support for TP-Link UB500 (Realtek RTL8761B) Bluetooth adapter

[Grootbelle]

Describe the enhancement

Request:
Please add native driver and firmware support for the TP-Link UB500 Bluetooth 5.0 USB adapter, which uses the Realtek RTL8761B chipset.
This chipset is not currently recognized by Home Assistant OS (no /dev/hci0 appears).

On most modern Linux distributions (Ubuntu 22+, Debian 12, etc.), it works after loading the btusb kernel module and the Realtek firmware (rtl8761b_fw.bin).
Adding this to Home Assistant OS would enable many users to use BLE devices directly without requiring an ESP32 Bluetooth proxy.

Device information

Device information

Device: TP-Link UB500
Bluetooth version: 5.0 BLE
Chipset: Realtek RTL8761B
Protocol: Standard BLE (no mesh)

Use cases

This enhancement would allow Home Assistant Green and other Home Assistant OS devices to use the TP-Link UB500 as a native Bluetooth adapter.
It would enable stable detection of BLE sensors, trackers, and devices without needing additional hardware or complex proxy setups.
The UB500 is one of the most widely sold Bluetooth 5.0 dongles worldwide, affordable and powerful, but currently unusable because the driver is missing.

Anything else?

Realtek firmware installer (for Linux reference): https://github.com/TheSonicMaster/rtl8761b-fw-installer

Related kernel module: btusb

Example Linux patch: https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/bluetooth/btusb.c

Related HA OS issue: home-assistant/operating-system#2417

“Thank you for considering adding support for this very common chipset!”

BR. Raymond.

[mik-laj]

It looks like the related HA OS issue (home-assistant/operating-system#2417) you referenced has already been merged upstream - has that resolved the issue for you on the latest HA OS builds?

If not, I wonder if you’d be interested in taking a closer look yourself. You clearly understand where the problem comes from and have the right setup to verify any potential fix.

Otherwise, it might take a while until someone else with the same hardware has time to contribute the necessary changes.

[Grootbelle]

Hi @mik-laj,

Yes, I noticed that the related HA OS issue (#2417) was merged upstream — that’s great news.
I can confirm that on the latest Home Assistant OS build, my TP-Link UB500 (RTL8761B) adapter is now detected correctly and works for passive BLE devices without any manual driver installation.

If there’s anything specific you’d like me to test or verify (e.g. firmware load messages or hci0 behavior), I’d be happy to help confirm that everything is functioning as expected.

Thanks for following up and for your work on this!

— Raymond

[mik-laj]

I don't have any ideas for testing. If you encounter a problem, please open a new GitHub Issue.