Can only see usb as root

[abpea]

Hello,

I've been searching the web and forums for a couple days and have found several people who have had similar problems but not posted a solution. So I thought I'd ask...

I have an Airspy HF+ sdr radio connected to my Mac Mini using Freebsd 15. Everything is working great except the sdr radio app I'm using (SDR++) can't see or recognize the sdr radio connected via USB.

--> Here's the problem:

When I type airspyhf_info as a normal user, I get this:

bruce@Server-Of-Stuff:~ $ airspyhf_info
AirSpy HF library version: 1.6.8
No devices attached.


But when I switch to root and type airspyhf_info, I get this:

root@Server-Of-Stuff:/home/bruce # airspyhf_info
AirSpy HF library version: 1.6.8

S/N: 0xC852BDAAF64C3486
Part ID: 0x00000001
Firmware Version: R4.0.0-BB
Available sample rates: 912 kS/s 768 kS/s 456 kS/s 384 kS/s 228 kS/s 192 kS/s

So I can see the device as root, but I can't see it as a regular user. I'm pretty sure this is a permission problem but I'm not sure where to begin to fix it.

Any help or suggestions are all greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Bruce

 

[Hiroo Ono]

It is because device files under /dev/usb is only readable by root. if you do ls -l /dev/usb, it will show entries like this:

crw------- 1 root operator 0x3c Jan 2 00:24 0.1.0

What you can do is:

1. Add the user who need access to USB to the operator group
2. Modify /etc/devfs.conf to change the permission of USB entries group readable and writable

Appended /etc/devfs.conf entry will be like this:

perm usb/* 0660

Then invoking service devfs restart will bring /dev/usb/* devices group readable.