<![CDATA[must the UPS nut daemon be run as root?]]>I'm trying to have one of my netgate boxes manage my UPS with nut. The idea is to have other machines poll the firewall for automatic shutdown during power loss.

After installing the relevant package, and connecting the UPS via an USB cable, the system registers the addition. However nut is not able to connect to the UPS.

Dec 18 09:42:28 luke kernel: ugen0.2: <DELL Dell UPS Rack 3750W High Efficiency Online HV - 230V> at usbus0
Dec 18 09:42:32 luke kernel: uhid0 on uhub0
Dec 18 09:42:32 luke kernel: uhid0: <DELL Dell UPS Rack 3750W High Efficiency Online HV - 230V, class 0/0, rev 1.10/1.00, addr 5> on usbus0
Dec 18 09:43:37 luke check_reload_status: Syncing firewall
Dec 18 09:43:37 luke php-fpm[78433]: /nut_settings.php: Beginning configuration backup to .https://acb.netgate.com/save
Dec 18 09:43:41 luke php-fpm[78433]: /nut_settings.php: End of configuration backup to https://acb.netgate.com/save (success).
Dec 18 09:43:41 luke php-fpm[78433]: /nut_settings.php: Starting service nut
Dec 18 09:43:41 luke upsmon[26778]: Startup successful
Dec 18 09:43:42 luke upsd[27972]: listening on ::1 port 3493
Dec 18 09:43:42 luke upsd[27972]: listening on 127.0.0.1 port 3493
Dec 18 09:43:42 luke upsd[27972]: Can't connect to UPS [rackdell] (usbhid-ups-rackdell): No such file or directory
Dec 18 09:43:42 luke upsd[28232]: Startup successful

Broadcast Message from root@luke.xxx.xx
        (no tty) at 9:43 CET...

Communications with UPS rackdell lost

Dec 18 09:43:44 luke upsd[28232]: User local-monitor@::1 logged into UPS [rackdell]
Dec 18 09:43:44 luke upsmon[27240]: Poll UPS [rackdell] failed - Driver not connected
Dec 18 09:43:44 luke upsmon[27240]: Communications with UPS rackdell lost
Dec 18 09:43:49 luke upsmon[27240]: Poll UPS [rackdell] failed - Driver not connected
Dec 18 09:43:49 luke upsmon[27240]: UPS rackdell is unavailable

Broadcast Message from root@luke.xxx.xx
        (no tty) at 9:43 CET...

UPS rackdell is unavailable

Dec 18 09:43:54 luke upsmon[27240]: Poll UPS [rackdell] failed - Driver not connected
Dec 18 09:43:59 luke upsmon[27240]: Poll UPS [rackdell] failed - Driver not connected
Dec 18 09:44:04 luke upsmon[27240]: Poll UPS [rackdell] failed - Driver not connected
Dec 18 09:44:09 luke upsmon[27240]: Poll UPS [rackdell] failed - Driver not connected
[...]
Dec 18 10:15:09 luke upsmon[27240]: Poll UPS [rackdell] failed - Driver not connected
Dec 18 10:15:11 luke check_reload_status: Syncing firewall
Dec 18 10:15:11 luke php-fpm[92953]: /nut_settings.php: Beginning configuration backup to .https://acb.netgate.com/save
Dec 18 10:15:14 luke upsmon[27240]: Poll UPS [rackdell] failed - Driver not connected
Dec 18 10:15:15 luke php-fpm[92953]: /nut_settings.php: End of configuration backup to https://acb.netgate.com/save (success).
Dec 18 10:15:15 luke php-fpm[92953]: /nut_settings.php: Stopping service nut
Dec 18 10:15:15 luke upsmon[27240]: Signal 15: exiting
Dec 18 10:15:15 luke upsd[28232]: User local-monitor@::1 logged out from UPS [rackdell]
Dec 18 10:15:15 luke upsd[28232]: mainloop: Interrupted system call
Dec 18 10:15:15 luke upsd[28232]: Signal 15: exiting

After mucking around a bit, I decided to try and start the daemon in debug mode via console.

[2.4.4-RELEASE][admin@luke.xxx.xx]/usr/local/etc/nut: /usr/local/libexec/nut/usbhid-ups -DDD -a rackdell
Network UPS Tools - Generic HID driver 0.41 (2.7.4)
USB communication driver 0.33
   0.000000     debug level is '3'
   0.000480     upsdrv_initups...
   0.000579     No appropriate HID device found
   0.000594     No matching HID UPS found

After a bit more mucking around with scientific thoroughness (read: trying random options to see what happens) I can finally start the thing if I run it as root.

[2.4.4-RELEASE][admin@luke.xxx.xx]/usr/local/etc/nut: /usr/local/libexec/nut/usbhid-ups -u root -DDD -a rackdell
Network UPS Tools - Generic HID driver 0.41 (2.7.4)
USB communication driver 0.33
   0.000000     debug level is '3'
   0.000589     upsdrv_initups...
   0.000836     Checking device (047C/FFFF) (/dev/usb//dev/ugen0.2)
   0.641053     - VendorID: 047c
   0.641074     - ProductID: ffff
   0.641078     - Manufacturer: DELL
   0.641082     - Product: Dell UPS Rack 3750W High Efficiency Online HV - 230V
   0.641085     - Serial Number: CN-0H952N-75162-22P-0014-A03
   0.641089     - Bus: /dev/usb
   0.641093     - Device release number: 0100
   0.641097     Trying to match device
   0.641106     Device matches
   0.641118     nut_usb_set_altinterface: skipped usb_set_altinterface(udev, 0)
   0.677340     HID descriptor, method 1: (9 bytes) => 09 21 10 01 21 01 22 97 0            8
   0.677360     HID descriptor length (method 1) 2199
   0.677369     HID descriptor, method 2: (9 bytes) => 09 21 10 01 21 01 22 97 0            8
   0.677373     HID descriptor length (method 2) 2199
   0.677377     HID descriptor length 2199
   4.482150     Report Descriptor size = 2199
   4.482181     Report Descriptor: (2199 bytes) => 05 84 09 04 a1 01 09 10 a1 00             09 12 a1
   4.482195      00 09 13 85 20 75 08 95 01 15 00 26 ff 00 65 00 55 00 b1 03 06             ff ff 09 90
[...]
   4.483669     Using subdriver: MGE HID 1.39
   4.483681     228 HID objects found
   4.516830     Report[get]: (4 bytes) => 20 01 01 01
   4.516846     Path: UPS.BatterySystem.Battery.BatteryID, Type: Feature, Report            ID: 0x20, Offset: 0, Size: 8, Value: 1
   4.544525     Report[get]: (2 bytes) => 21 01
   4.544539     Path: UPS.BatterySystem.Battery.Count, Type: Feature, ReportID:             0x21, Offset: 0, Size: 8, Value: 1
   4.578010     Report[get]: (5 bytes) => 23 e0 c4 00 00
   4.578026     Path: UPS.BatterySystem.Battery.DesignCapacity, Type: Feature, R            eportID: 0x23, Offset: 0, Size: 32, Value: 50400
[...]

The relevant files seem to be owned by uucp (which is the user nut drops to when running I would guess)

[2.4.4-RELEASE][admin@luke.xxx.xx]/usr/local/etc/nut: ls -lah /dev/ugen*
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     9B Nov 24 16:23 /dev/ugen0.1 -> usb/0.1.0
lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     9B Dec 18 10:20 /dev/ugen0.2 -> usb/0.2.0
[2.4.4-RELEASE][admin@luke.xxx.xx]/usr/local/etc/nut: ls -lah /dev/usb
total 1
dr-xr-xr-x   2 root  wheel      512B Nov 24 16:23 .
dr-xr-xr-x  13 root  wheel      512B Nov 24 16:23 ..
crw-------   1 root  operator   0x2c Nov 24 16:23 0.1.0
crw-------   1 root  operator   0x45 Nov 24 16:23 0.1.1
crw-------   1 root  operator   0x73 Dec 18 10:20 0.2.0
crw-------   1 root  operator   0x75 Dec 18 10:20 0.2.1

[2.4.4-RELEASE][admin@luke.xxx.xx]/usr/local/etc/nut: ls -lah /var/db/ | grep nut
drwxr-x---   2 uucp      uucp       512B Dec 18 10:40 nut
[2.4.4-RELEASE][admin@luke.xxx.xx]/usr/local/etc/nut: ls -lah /var/db/nut
total 12
drwxr-x---   2 uucp  uucp    512B Dec 18 10:40 .
drwxr-xr-x  13 root  wheel   1.0K Dec 18 09:24 ..
-rw-r--r--   1 uucp  uucp      6B Dec 18 10:27 upsmon.pid
srw-rw----   1 uucp  uucp      0B Dec 18 10:40 usbhid-ups-rackdell

So far I'm just putting user=root into the "additional configuration lines" into the web interface and it works.

Question is: am I supposed to run this thing as root?
As far as I know there's no way to modify /etc/devfs.conf from the web interface, and I do not want to rely on system modifications that cannot be replicated simply loading the xml configuration file.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/topic/149032/must-the-ups-nut-daemon-be-run-as-rootRSS for NodeSat, 17 Oct 2026 09:39:02 GMTWed, 18 Dec 2019 10:46:02 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to must the UPS nut daemon be run as root? on Mon, 23 Dec 2019 09:12:53 GMT]]>I am still seeing this. No idea if the specific UPS model has anything to do with it, since the driver is usbhid (which I gather is used for a lot of UPS models).

The only log line which seems to me might be relevant is this

0.000836     Checking device (047C/FFFF) (/dev/usb//dev/ugen0.2)

That's not an existing path. And as you can see in the first post, while /dev/ugen0.2 is world readable, the device it points to is not.

And according to its man page usbhid-ups(8) ignores the "port" setting. So I cannot even correct it.

If this was a standard system I would edit devfs.conf(5) and/or devfs.rules(5) to modify the device's permissions and/or ownership... but since afaik it's not possible to do so via web interface I cannot.
Thus I must run the thing as root. It's the only way to make the nut daemon acknowledge the UPS which would survive inside the xml configuration file.

If anyone could give me some general idea where to look, I can still run tests, since the UPS setup is not exactly in production yet.

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/882300https://forum.netgate.com/post/882300Mon, 23 Dec 2019 09:12:53 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to must the UPS nut daemon be run as root? on Sun, 22 Dec 2019 23:45:35 GMT]]>Hmm, curious. Are you still seeing this?
I certainly don't expect that though I've never tried that type of UPS.

I do expect that additional config line to be stored in the config file though if you add it via the web interface.

Steve

]]>https://forum.netgate.com/post/882259https://forum.netgate.com/post/882259Sun, 22 Dec 2019 23:45:35 GMT