nrfutil sniffer not presenting interfaces to Wireshark on Ubuntu Noble

RE: nrfutil sniffer not presenting interfaces to Wireshark on Ubuntu Noble

asabigue — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 10:45:45 GMT

When I connected the nRF USB and saw nothing on the logs, I swapped DKs and it started working. It seems a problem/failure with the DK I was using.

Sorry for not realizing that.

RE: nrfutil sniffer not presenting interfaces to Wireshark on Ubuntu Noble

asabigue — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 14:51:16 GMT

Nothing appears there. Moreover, I lost USB elements (I don't have serial devices available and I no longer see any device with nrfutil device list command. It took me a while as I had to fetch another USB cable, but it is powered through "old" port (using a SIP phone USB port) and the nRF USB port connected to this computer.

RE: nrfutil sniffer not presenting interfaces to Wireshark on Ubuntu Noble

Benjamin — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 18:10:03 GMT

Please try with the nRF USB port. Note that you will still need to power the DK.

RE: nrfutil sniffer not presenting interfaces to Wireshark on Ubuntu Noble

asabigue — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 17:34:46 GMT

Not the nRF USB port, the other one. I don't see a name printed on the board:

RE: nrfutil sniffer not presenting interfaces to Wireshark on Ubuntu Noble

Benjamin — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 14:11:17 GMT

Did you connect it with the nRF USB port or the IMCU USB port?

RE: nrfutil sniffer not presenting interfaces to Wireshark on Ubuntu Noble

asabigue — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 14:05:41 GMT

~/.nrfutil# nrfutil list
Command Version Description
ble-sniffer 0.17.1 Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE) sniffer for Nordic Semiconductor devices.

RE: nrfutil sniffer not presenting interfaces to Wireshark on Ubuntu Noble

Benjamin — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 12:00:25 GMT

Thanks,
What version of the nrfutil-ble-sniffer do you have? The 0.17.1 release fixes an issue similar to what you are experiencing.

Regards,
Benjamin

RE: nrfutil sniffer not presenting interfaces to Wireshark on Ubuntu Noble

asabigue — Tue, 30 Dec 2025 11:17:40 GMT

Thank you for your answer. I believe all that is Ok as I am able to run nrfutil ble-sniffer sniff --port /dev/ttyACM successfully.

The device I am using is anRF52840 DK:

asabigue@devel:~$ nrfutil device list
105*****9
Product J-Link
Board version PCA10056
Ports /dev/ttyACM0, vcom: 0
/dev/ttyACM1, vcom: 1
Traits devkit, jlink, seggerUsb, serialPorts, usb

Supported devices found: 1

and the firmware I am running is:nrfutil-ble-sniffer/firmware/sniffer_nrf52840dk_nrf52840_4.1.1.hex

you may see this output, that seems a proper output of a capture:

nrfutil ble-sniffer sniff --port /dev/ttyACM0 --log-output stdout --json-pretty

{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "nrfutil-ble-sniffer (version = 0.17.1, platform = x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu, classification = nrf-external) invoked with sniff --port /dev/ttyACM0 --log-output stdout --json-pretty ",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.879Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Attempt opening serial port at /dev/ttyACM0",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.880Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Subscribing to event DEVICE_ADDED",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.881Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Sending version request",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.881Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Sending ping request",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.881Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Sending timestamp request",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.881Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Sending advertisement hop sequence request for channels [37, 38, 39]",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.881Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Changing state from IDLE to SCANNING",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.882Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Sending scan packet",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.882Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Sending request to use temporary key [0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0]",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.882Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Device added: {\"address\":{\"address\":\"7f:ce:db:7e:eb:b4\",\"type\":\"Random\"},\"name\":null,\"rssi\":-60,\"is_followed\":false}",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.883Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Device added: {\"address\":{\"address\":\"e0:49:99:a8:49:9e\",\"type\":\"Random\"},\"name\":null,\"rssi\":-55,\"is_followed\":false}",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.883Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Device added: {\"address\":{\"address\":\"2e:98:70:e8:15:f4\",\"type\":\"Random\"},\"name\":null,\"rssi\":-54,\"is_followed\":false}",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.884Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Device added: {\"address\":{\"address\":\"3c:5e:59:88:3b:88\",\"type\":\"Random\"},\"name\":null,\"rssi\":-63,\"is_followed\":false}",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.886Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Device added: {\"address\":{\"address\":\"20:7:d6:0:6f:4c\",\"type\":\"Random\"},\"name\":null,\"rssi\":-67,\"is_followed\":false}",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.887Z"
}
}
{
"type": "log",
"data": {
"level": "INFO",
"message": "Device added: {\"address\":{\"address\":\"31:6f:7f:d2:69:80\",\"type\":\"Random\"},\"name\":null,\"rssi\":-54,\"is_followed\":false}",
"timestamp": "2025-12-30T11:13:23.889Z"
}
}

RE: nrfutil sniffer not presenting interfaces to Wireshark on Ubuntu Noble

Benjamin — Mon, 29 Dec 2025 12:18:34 GMT

Hi Ariel,

Which hardware and firmware are you using? The BLE interface will only appear if the correct firmware is flashed and the board is connected to your computer.

Regards,
Benjamin