Re: gnuradio permission problems?

[Chris Vine]

On Wed, 18 Jan 2023 13:03:53 +0000
"Beckmann, Niklas" <niklas.beckmann1@rwth-aachen.de> wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> 
> I have somehow a general question, and even after days of trying
> (and also googling), I did not found a solution for my problem. So
> maybe anyone here can help me out. Im on Ubuntu 20.04 and gnuradio
> 3.10, python 3.8.
> 
> I am working with an evaluation kit antenna, which is controlled via
> the python OOT block, that I wrote. In gnuradio, during the antenna
> initialization process, my python block tells me, that the connection
> to the eval-kit failed:
> 
>   Connecting ...
>   MB1 device channel connection failed!
>   Make sure the device cable is connected.
>   Make sure you run the connection script with sudo.
>   Make sure the MB1 has been programmed with the correct descriptor.
>   Device initialization failed!
> 
> On the other hand, when I open sudo python in a terminal, give the same
> commands as in the python block, the initialization process ends
> sucessfully. So my guess was, that it has something to do with the
> permissions of gnuradio (even tho I do not get an Errno13). Am I on
> the right track? And if so, how can I give gnuradio the needed
> permissions to connect with the eval-kit or let it run the scripts with
> higher permissions without using sudo gnuradio?
> 
> Since the question is pretty general, I did not provide anything of
> code. If certain parts of the code or something else is needed, I can
> give it.

If your "evaluation kit antenna" comprises a hardware device which has
a linux driver supplied for it (or uses a generic USB interface for
which the linux kernel already supplies a driver), so that it is
represented by a device file in the /dev directory, this looks more
like a permissions issue concerning the device file rather than with
gnuradio itself.  If that is the case you may need to write a udev rule
for your hardware (http://www.reactivated.net/writing_udev_rules.html).

Having said that, if you have a linux driver for your hardware you
would have expected it to come with an appropriate udev rules file in
the first place.