nvme require sudo and breaks the application if not

[blekinge]

Freon failed to run/install for me.

The log in journalctl showed journalctl _UID=1000 -e -l

Aug 31 12:15:57 abr-pc.sb.statsbiblioteket.dk gnome-shell[61064]: JS ERROR: Extension freon@UshakovVasilii_Github.yahoo.com: SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected character at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data @ /home/abr/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/freon@UshakovVasilii_Github.yahoo.com/nvmecliUtil.js:7

I found the relevant code in nvmecliUtils.js

function getNvmeData (argv){
    const nvme = GLib.find_program_in_path('nvme')
    return JSON.parse(GLib.spawn_command_line_sync(`${nvme} ${argv} -o json`)[1].toString())
}

Running the same command from the command line produced

:) 12:19:30 abr@abr-pc:~$ nvme list -o json
12:20:44 'nvme list -o json'
Failed to open /dev/nvme0
{
  "Devices" : [
    {
      "NameSpace" : 0,
      "DevicePath" : "/dev/nvme0n1",
      "Firmware" : "        ",
      "Index" : 0,
      "ModelNumber" : "                                        ",
      "ProductName" : "Unknown device",
      "SerialNumber" : "                    ",
      "UsedBytes" : 0,
      "MaximumLBA" : 0,
      "PhysicalSize" : 0,
      "SectorSize" : 1
    }
  ]
}:) 12:20:44 abr@abr-pc:~$ 

So it will obviously try to parse "Failed to open /dev/nvme0" as JSON and die and take the entire Freon app down with it.

Now, I run with passwordless sudo (which is a mistake, but well...), so I tried to run

  12:22:51 abr@abr-pc:~$ sudo nvme list -o json
12:22:52 'sudo nvme list -o json'
{
  "Devices" : [
    {
      "NameSpace" : 1,
      "DevicePath" : "/dev/nvme0n1",
      "Firmware" : "EXA71HAQ",
      "Index" : 0,
      "ModelNumber" : "SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0HALR-000H2",
      "ProductName" : "Unknown device",
      "SerialNumber" : "S497NA0MC04922",
      "UsedBytes" : 742922313728,
      "MaximumLBA" : 2000409264,
      "PhysicalSize" : 1024209543168,
      "SectorSize" : 512
    }
  ]
}:) 12:22:52 abr@abr-pc:~$ 

and changed to code to

function getNvmeData (argv){
    const nvme = GLib.find_program_in_path('nvme')
    return JSON.parse(GLib.spawn_command_line_sync(`sudo ${nvme} ${argv} -o json`)[1].toString())
}

to get nvme working and Freon working. And now it works.

But perhaps include a warning or something for anyone else trying to use nvme without being root

[ptomato]

I found you can work around this by choosing a different value for "HDD/SSD temperature utility" that isn't "nvme-cli", then removing and reinstalling Freon.

[dansleboby]

[FREON] Unable to find nvme devices: SyntaxError: JSON.parse: unexpected end of data at line 1 column 1 of the JSON data

dansleboby@pop-os:~$ nvme list -o json Failed to open /dev/nvme0n1: Permission denied

root@pop-os:~# nvme list -o json

{
  "Devices" : [
    {
      "NameSpace" : 1,
      "DevicePath" : "/dev/nvme0n1",
      "Firmware" : "15301229",
      "Index" : 0,
      "ModelNumber" : "PM981a NVMe SAMSUNG 2048GB",
      "ProductName" : "Unknown device",
      "SerialNumber" : "      S4UFNF0N508905",
      "UsedBytes" : 90264449024,
      "MaximumLBA" : 4000797360,
      "PhysicalSize" : 2048408248320,
      "SectorSize" : 512
    }
  ]
}

[LAKostis]

But you can always create a shell wrapper for nvme-cli which actually calls it via sudo:

$ cat ./nvme 
#!/bin/bash -efu
sudo /usr/sbin/nvme $*

or use shell alias instead.

[barneydesmond]

I have the same issue and don't know of an easy and clean way around it. Freon needs access to that information which is only available through the nvme utility. I used the shell wrapper that @LAKostis mentioned above and it works perfectly.

For anyone looking to replicate that:

• Install the nvme-cli tool for your distro
• Create the wrapper script and put it at /usr/local/bin/nvme, make sure to set it executable chmod +x /usr/local/bin/nvme
• Edit sudoers using visudo and give yourself access to run it without needing a password yourUsername ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/nvme
• Open a new shell and test the command, you should be able to see the serial and model of your NVMe drives without needing to enter a password nvme list

Now Freon should be able to read your NVMe drive status info, once you select it in the Freon settings.

NB: if you're paranoid about the security of using sudo like this, you can lock it down further to just the command-line options that Freon will need to use. Use these two sudo rules instead of the one mentioned above:

# This assumes that your devices are at /dev/nvme*, like all the ones I've used so far
yourUsername ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/nvme list -o json
yourUsername ALL=(root) NOPASSWD: /usr/sbin/nvme smart-log /dev/nvme* -o json

[bhavyagosai]

So I tried all of these methods by editing the sudoers and nvmecliUtils.js. But still to no avail. I can definitely get the SSD temperature through TLP and stuff but not able to display it on the freon along with my HDD. Can see only HDD. Can anyone help ;(

[illwieckz]

This could be ported to use the pkexec mechanisms… once this pkexec mechanism is fixed (#274), it means someone has to write a policy file to ship and write the plumbing to make the extension asks the user to install the policy file if needed.