Cannot use bluepy without sudo #313

spachner · 2018-10-03T18:34:29Z

Hi,

I am starting with bluepy and found that I cannot call the scanner without sudo.

$ python3 scanner.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "scanner.py", line 18, in <module>
    scanner.scan(10.0, passive=True)
  File "/home/spachner/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 734, in scan
    self.start(passive=passive)
  File "/home/spachner/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 672, in start
    self._mgmtCmd("le on")
  File "/home/spachner/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 283, in _mgmtCmd
    "Failed to execute mgmt cmd '%s'" % (cmd))
bluepy.btle.BTLEException: Failed to execute mgmt cmd 'le on'

Calling with sudo works fine:

$ sudo python3 scanner.py
2018-10-03 18:31:28 38:01:95:0a:4f:d8 [(255, 'Manufacturer', '750042040180ae3801950a4fd83a01950a4fd701000000000000')]
2018-10-03 18:31:28 38:01:95:0a:4f:d8 [(255, 'Manufacturer', '750042040180ae3801950a4fd83a01950a4fd701000000000000')]

How avoid using sudo?

Thanks in advance

spachner

The text was updated successfully, but these errors were encountered:

nescio007 · 2018-10-09T19:42:41Z

The linux protocol stack needs additional capabilities. If you do not want to run your script as root (or under sudo), you may also give the required capabilities to the bluepy-helper binary, that comes with bluepy.
E.g.

sudo setcap 'cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip' bluepy-helper

For more details check this stackexchange thread: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/182559

IanHarvey · 2018-11-12T16:14:55Z

On my Pi (currently Debian Stretch) the above command just gives a very unhelpful

  fatal error: Invalid argument

The following two commands do, however, fix it:

  sudo setcap cap_net_raw+e  <PATH>/bluepy-helper
  sudo setcap cap_net_admin+eip  <PATH>/bluepy-helper

Where <PATH> is the place where bluepy-helper is installed; it's easiest to just search for this, e.g.

  find /usr/local/lib -name bluepy-helper

spachner · 2018-11-13T09:52:09Z

Hi nescio007,

many thanks for the advice. Works perfect on Ubuntu 17.10. I found bluepy-helper being installed at /home/spachner/.local/lib/python3.6/site-packages/bluepy/bluepy-helper

regards

spachner

Artiom-M · 2019-03-16T07:21:37Z

Why don't include the setcap call to the install tool?

mivola · 2019-03-19T13:25:19Z

I have the exact same issue on my Raspberry Pi Zero W with Raspbian Stretch lite (4.14). I tried all possible combinations of setcap (also looking into #190), without any success.

pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap 'cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ getcap bluepy-helper
bluepy-helper = cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw+eip

pi@zeropi01:~/projects/bluepy/bluepy $ python3 scanner.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "scanner.py", line 18, in <module>
    scanner.scan(10.0, passive=True)
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 852, in scan
    self.start(passive=passive)
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 790, in start
    self._mgmtCmd("le on")
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 312, in _mgmtCmd
    raise BTLEManagementError("Failed to execute management command '%s'" % (cmd), rsp)
bluepy.btle.BTLEManagementError: Failed to execute management command 'le on' (code: 20, error: Permission Denied)

The strange thing is: after setting the capabilities, I was able to execute 'le on' manually without using sudo:

pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap '' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ ./bluepy-helper 0
# bluepy-helper.c version 1.3.0 built at 12:54:59 on Dec  3 2018
le on
rsp=$mgmtcode=$mgmterrestat=h14emsg='Permission Denied
quit
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap 'cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ ./bluepy-helper 0
# bluepy-helper.c version 1.3.0 built at 12:54:59 on Dec  3 2018
le on
rsp=$mgmtcode=$success
quit

Any ideas what might be going wrong here?

Thanks a lot!
Michael

tylertroy · 2019-12-12T01:56:44Z

Adding a note here since all other solutions suggestions failed in my case.

As per noble/noble#682 (comment)

The setcap command fails if your executable node is in an encrypted directory. I.e. if you chose to encrypt your home directory during install and bluepy-helper was located somewhere in home. Reported in that thread to be a bug in encryptfs. If you move the executable outside of the encrypted directory it is purported to work.

Feel free to follow up with a less-hacky solution if you happen upon one.

alindl · 2020-04-23T14:06:22Z

I have the exact same issue on my Raspberry Pi Zero W with Raspbian Stretch lite (4.14). I tried all possible combinations of setcap (also looking into #190), without any success.

pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap 'cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ getcap bluepy-helper
bluepy-helper = cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw+eip

pi@zeropi01:~/projects/bluepy/bluepy $ python3 scanner.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "scanner.py", line 18, in <module>
    scanner.scan(10.0, passive=True)
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 852, in scan
    self.start(passive=passive)
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 790, in start
    self._mgmtCmd("le on")
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 312, in _mgmtCmd
    raise BTLEManagementError("Failed to execute management command '%s'" % (cmd), rsp)
bluepy.btle.BTLEManagementError: Failed to execute management command 'le on' (code: 20, error: Permission Denied)

The strange thing is: after setting the capabilities, I was able to execute 'le on' manually without using sudo:

pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap '' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ ./bluepy-helper 0
# bluepy-helper.c version 1.3.0 built at 12:54:59 on Dec  3 2018
le on
rsp=$mgmtcode=$mgmterrestat=h14emsg='Permission Denied
quit
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap 'cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ ./bluepy-helper 0
# bluepy-helper.c version 1.3.0 built at 12:54:59 on Dec  3 2018
le on
rsp=$mgmtcode=$success
quit

Any ideas what might be going wrong here?

Thanks a lot!
Michael

Did you find out how to fix this? I'm having exactly the same problem.

nescio007 · 2020-04-23T14:14:48Z

@alindl @mivola From the logs it seems that you have two bluepy installations:

Your system-wide installation at /usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy
A user-local installation at ~/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy

It appears that you added the capabilities to the helper-binary of the system-wide installations, but then tried to use the local one, which has its own helper-binary that was not given additional capabilities.

TL;DR: when using pip install --user or virtualenv, make sure you set the capabilities on the correct helper-binary ;)

alindl · 2020-04-23T14:21:33Z

@alindl @mivola From the logs it seems that you have two bluepy installations:
* Your system-wide installation at `/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy`

* A user-local installation at `~/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy`
It appears that you added the capabilities to the helper-binary of the system-wide installations, but then tried to use the local one (which has it's own helper-binary that was not given additional capabilities).

TL;DR: when using pip install --user or virtualenv, make sure you set the capabilities on the correct helper-binary ;)

I should ask more questions, because I JUST figured it out myself as your message was plopping up here. That's the second time that happened this week 😅 So yeah, that was the problem and it's working now.

awneil · 2021-06-17T14:22:21Z

@alindl @mivola From the logs it seems that you have two bluepy installations:

I also had 2 installations, because it seemed that the command-line would use Python-2, whereas Thonny used Python-3:

/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/bluepy/bluepy-helper
/usr/local/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/bluepy/bluepy-helper

so the

sudo setcap cap_net_raw+e      <PATH>/bluepy-helper
sudo setcap cap_net_admin+eip  <PATH>/bluepy-helper

commands had to be repeated for each installation

qilin02811 · 2023-02-22T00:50:52Z

I have the exact same issue on my Raspberry Pi Zero W with Raspbian Stretch lite (4.14). I tried all possible combinations of setcap (also looking into #190), without any success.

pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap 'cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ getcap bluepy-helper
bluepy-helper = cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw+eip

pi@zeropi01:~/projects/bluepy/bluepy $ python3 scanner.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "scanner.py", line 18, in <module>
    scanner.scan(10.0, passive=True)
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 852, in scan
    self.start(passive=passive)
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 790, in start
    self._mgmtCmd("le on")
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 312, in _mgmtCmd
    raise BTLEManagementError("Failed to execute management command '%s'" % (cmd), rsp)
bluepy.btle.BTLEManagementError: Failed to execute management command 'le on' (code: 20, error: Permission Denied)

The strange thing is: after setting the capabilities, I was able to execute 'le on' manually without using sudo:

pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap '' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ ./bluepy-helper 0
# bluepy-helper.c version 1.3.0 built at 12:54:59 on Dec  3 2018
le on
rsp=$mgmtcode=$mgmterrestat=h14emsg='Permission Denied
quit
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap 'cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ ./bluepy-helper 0
# bluepy-helper.c version 1.3.0 built at 12:54:59 on Dec  3 2018
le on
rsp=$mgmtcode=$success
quit

Any ideas what might be going wrong here?

Thanks a lot! Michael

I meet the same problem ,and after using command above ,i do not need to use sudo run the program and then get the (code:17 ,error : Invalid Index)

qilin02811 · 2023-02-22T02:39:56Z

I have the exact same issue on my Raspberry Pi Zero W with Raspbian Stretch lite (4.14). I tried all possible combinations of setcap (also looking into #190), without any success.

pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap 'cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ getcap bluepy-helper
bluepy-helper = cap_net_admin,cap_net_raw+eip

pi@zeropi01:~/projects/bluepy/bluepy $ python3 scanner.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "scanner.py", line 18, in <module>
    scanner.scan(10.0, passive=True)
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 852, in scan
    self.start(passive=passive)
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 790, in start
    self._mgmtCmd("le on")
  File "/home/pi/.local/lib/python3.5/site-packages/bluepy/btle.py", line 312, in _mgmtCmd
    raise BTLEManagementError("Failed to execute management command '%s'" % (cmd), rsp)
bluepy.btle.BTLEManagementError: Failed to execute management command 'le on' (code: 20, error: Permission Denied)

The strange thing is: after setting the capabilities, I was able to execute 'le on' manually without using sudo:

pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap '' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ ./bluepy-helper 0
# bluepy-helper.c version 1.3.0 built at 12:54:59 on Dec  3 2018
le on
rsp=$mgmtcode=$mgmterrestat=h14emsg='Permission Denied
quit
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ sudo setcap 'cap_net_raw,cap_net_admin+eip' bluepy-helper
pi@zeropi01:/usr/local/lib/python3.5/dist-packages/bluepy $ ./bluepy-helper 0
# bluepy-helper.c version 1.3.0 built at 12:54:59 on Dec  3 2018
le on
rsp=$mgmtcode=$success
quit

Any ideas what might be going wrong here?
Thanks a lot! Michael

I meet the same problem ,and after using command above ,i do not need to use sudo run the program and then get the (code:17 ,error : Invalid Index)

actually ,after tried many times and search for a lot of infomation then I change to use pybluez, and it works, and the process of using pybluez can be exhausted, good luck for the coming questioners.

qilin02811 · 2023-02-22T09:34:21Z

I had said that I change to pybluez after the incredible bug in using bluepy,
maybe you will meet some installation problem with pybluez ,here are some solutions for that:

# of course you need at first update apt

sudo apt update
sudo apt-get install libbluetooth-dev
sudo apt-get install bluetooth

and maybe you will meet problem when installing bluetooth ,then firstly install gattlib

sudo pip3 install gattlib

and if you meet more problem in installing gattlib,then follow with these commands:

pkg-config
libboost-python-dev
libboost-thread-dev
libbluetooth-dev
libglib2.0-dev
python3-dev

then I guess you can successfully install the gattlib and pybluez, and from my perspective, I think gattlib is enough if you just want to have some basic development needs in bluetooth such as scan or pass data.

and here are the github links about gattlib and pybluez:
https://github.com/oscaracena/pygattlib
https://github.com/pybluez/pybluez

spachner closed this as completed Nov 13, 2018

mivola mentioned this issue Mar 19, 2019

demo.py & examples fail with "Failed to obtain all builtin devices" undera/pylgbst#23

Closed

ctrl-shift-esc mentioned this issue Jun 19, 2020

Problems when trying to set capabilities #412

Open

ideris01 mentioned this issue Oct 8, 2021

Switchbot new Integration Aborted Unexpected error message when trying to set it up home-assistant/core#57250

Closed

RenierM26 mentioned this issue Nov 3, 2021

Switchbot Integration Aborted home-assistant/core#58547

Closed

sverrham mentioned this issue Feb 3, 2022

Error starting for first time custom-components/sensor.airthings_wave#73

Closed

klenze mentioned this issue Feb 9, 2022

Give the user a hint the first time they encounter a permision error. #471

Open

davidroid mentioned this issue Apr 14, 2022

Is it possible to receive data as non-root? STMicroelectronics/BlueSTSDK_Python#30

Open

maciej-napora mentioned this issue May 17, 2022

bluepy.btle.BTLEManagementError: Failed to execute management command 'le on' (code: 17, error: Invalid Index) #477

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Cannot use bluepy without sudo #313

Cannot use bluepy without sudo #313

spachner commented Oct 3, 2018

nescio007 commented Oct 9, 2018 •

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qilin02811 commented Feb 22, 2023

Cannot use bluepy without sudo #313

Cannot use bluepy without sudo #313

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spachner commented Oct 3, 2018

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spachner commented Nov 13, 2018

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