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Wireshark 2.4.3 cannot detect PCA10031 COM port interface

-Dear Nordic Devteam

Thanks for your endeavor for the nRF Sniffer 2. Although it is a beta version, this is sincerely anticipating.

To set up the Sniffer you will need one of the following kits:

nRF51 Development Kit (PCA10028) v1.0 or later and a micro USB cable

nRF51 Dongle (PCA10031)

nRF52 Development Kit (PCA10040) and a micro USB cable

I'm testing this with

  • nrf_sniffer_2.0.0-beta-1_51296aa

  • 64-bit Windows 10 PC

  • J-Link v6.22c

  • 64-bit Wireshark 2.4.3

  • PCA10031(v1.1.0, 2016.22, nRF51422 based dongle)

In my screenshot, due to the Korean language pack, you will see the WON sign instead of the backslash. That symbol doesn't affect anything and that currency sign is equivalent to the backslash character.

I followed the User Guide v2.0 and I used the sniffer_pca10031_51296aa.hex file for flashing.

The jlink.exe showed the O.K. message.

The Install firmware with SEGGER J-Link. step is done. My PC10031 dongle turns on the purple looking LED.

Open Wireshark. You should see “nRF Sniffer on xxxxx” as one of the interfaces.

Unfortunately, I do not see that.

Troubleshooting - The nRF sniffer is not listed in the Wireshark interface.

Check

See if the hardware has been enumerated on USB and the drivers are loaded

My dongle was connected; the Device Manager showsCOM6 port and that's my nRF dongle.

I connected only my dongle while doing this.

Check that the HEX file for the hardware has been flashed.

HexCheck

Although the jlink.exe showed the O.K. message, I didn't observe the SoftDevice for Region 0 using the nRFgo Studio. Looks like this doesn't use the SoftDevice.

When I use the nRFgo Studio, my PC10031 dongle turns on the purple looking LED as well.

So this step is passed.

For Windows: Run nrf_sniffer.bat --extcap-interfaces to list the interface

For OS X and Linux: Run nrf_sniffer.py --extcap-interfaces to list the interface.

I tried both methods. When executing nrf_sniffer.bat, I executed the bat file as a normal user and the admin, just in case.

PyCheck

The pyserial was installed so no errors were observed from the terminal.

However, I cannot see my nRF dongle interface from Wireshark.

///////////////////////////////////////////////

0.Compared to the manual,

View

I couldn't find the Interface Toolbars. Would this be the problem?

It would be a great help if you can elaborate why I don't have that Interface Toolbars menu.

  1. I placed the nRF Sniffer 2 file location correctly, didn't I?

JLinkDir

I placed all the files in the C:\Program Files\Wireshark\extcap directory.

2.What might have I missed to make that interface appear?

Or is the PCA10031's purple LED indicating some kind of error?

Hope to sniff packets with the new Sniffer in the future.

-Warm Regards (and Merry Christmas to everyone who reads this), MANGO

////////////// Added in 1/10/2018

Before

I compared my Wireshark Plugin paths referring Petter Myhre's picture.

Find and copy the nrf_sniffer__ ZIP file to the folder associated with “Extcap path”.

Unzip the ZIP's extcap content to the Wireshark Extcap path found in "About Wireshark” (shown here as C:\Program Files\Wireshark\extcap).

I followed the nRF Sniffer User Guide v2.0 and I comprehended that I have to unzip nrf_sniffer_2.0.0-beta-1_51296aa in C:\Program Files\Wireshark\extcap.

So the file directory was C:\Program Files\Wireshark\extcap\nrf_sniffer_2.0.0-beta-1_51296aa\extcap\nrf_sniffer.bat .

Whereas Petter's configured path was C:\Program Files\Wireshark\extcap\nrf_sniffer.bat.

Step

So I moved all the files, just like the above picture shows.

After moving files and executing the nrf_sniffer.bat, now I was able to see the Wireshark - View - Interface Toolbars - nRF Sniffer menu.

Click View>Interface Toolbars>nRF Sniffer to enable the Sniffer interface.

While reading the user guide, I felt like I was able to see that View - Interface Toolbars as a default option regardless of executing the nrf_sniffer.bat.

Since the guide didn't mention something like "After executing nrf_sniffer.bat or nrf_sniffer.py, the Interface Toolbars has to appear`", this made me confusing.

After

After changing files path, I can observe nrf_sniffer.bat in the Plugins menu.

NoPacket

Although I'm having this INFO: Packet read timed out. problem, I wish to discuss this in another thread later on.

The point is, where should the user unzip the nrf_sniffer_2.0.0-beta-1_51296aa.zip?

Let's clear things out and help other users.

    1. You need to use jlink 6.16c as listed in the required software section in the nRF Sniffer v2 user guide.
    2. You need to verify all the steps in the user guide v2 in sections 1, 2, 3. Verify that you have the correct python version.
    3. In addition since you are using a later version of segger jlink, you need to downgrade the jlink emulator firmware on the Nordicsemi DK board to 6.16c. Use the troubleshooting section in the user guide to do the downgrade of the jlink emulator firmware.
  • Thanks, David Edwin. Do I have to downgrade the Python version, too?

    The manual says

    C:>python --version
    
    Python 2.7.x
    

    As you see my first screenshot, I have installed Python 2.7.14 on my Windows 10 desktop.

    Also, I have uploaded the screenshots after executing

    python nrf_sniffer.py --extcap-interfaces

    and

    nrf_sniffer.bat --extcap-interfaces

    Check the 3rd picture for the python execution and the first one for nrf_sniffer.bat output.

    Are those messages show any problems?

    I tried to downgrade the J-Link firmware, but I was postponing that due to personal reasons.

    I will downgrade it now. In the meantime can you check the output messages? Are these messages expected ones?

    -Best Regards

  • Hi, David. I just downgraded the J-Link version to 6.16c. However, the result was same that nRF5 Sniffer COMx interface doesn't show up on my Wireshark 2.

    As mentioned in my first question 0,

    I couldn't find the Interface Toolbars. Would this be the problem? It would be a great help if you can elaborate why I don't have that Interface Toolbars menu.

    In Wireshark 2.4.3 (Windows version), in contrast to the Troubleshooting guide, I cannot

    “nRF Sniffer on xxxxx” doesn’t show up as one of the interfaces when I open Wireshark.

    1. Click View in the Wireshark toolbar. 2. Select Interface Toolbars then click nRF Sniffer.

    Also, looks like another user had the same problem, described here.

    Can you help me with this interface toolbars? This doesn't show up when I Google it.

    -Regards

  • I just tested with PCA10031 and Wireshark 2.4.3, seems to be working fine. I just programmed the sniffer hex with nrfjprog, you can try that. I noticed that you were using NRF51422_XXAA while the user guide says you should use NRF51422_XXAC (I'm not sure if that should matter though).

    Is nrf_sniffer.bat listed in Wireshark->Help->About Wireshark->Plugins ?

  • Couple of notes to improve the user guide 2.0:

    · It would be better to specify better which files are required to be copied to extcap

    · It could not find where it is explained how to install the pyserial.

    stackoverflow.com/.../installing-and-using-pyserial-in-python-3-4-windows-8-1

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