Installing the nRF Sniffer capture plugin in Wireshark

The nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4 software sends commands to the nRF Sniffer hardware through the serial port and reads the captured frames. The software can be installed as an external capture plugin in Wireshark. You need to install the plugin only if you plan to use the nRF Sniffer as a Wireshark capture interface.

To install the nRF Sniffer capture plugin, complete the following steps:

1. Install the pySerial module:
   1. Open a command window.
   2. Install the pySerial module by typing pip install pyserial (on Windows) or sudo pip install pyserial (on Linux or macOS).
   3. Close the command window.
2. Copy the Sniffer capture plugin into Wireshark's folder for external capture plugins:
   1. Open Wireshark.
   2. Go to Help > About Wireshark (on Windows or Linux) or Wireshark > About Wireshark (on macOS).
      
   3. Select the Folders tab.
   4. Open the plugin folder by double-clicking the location for the Global Extcap path. This folder contains plugins available for all users and is available for Wireshark versions earlier than v3.0. Plugins copied into the Personal Extcap path folder are installed only for one user, and this folder is not available in the older versions of Wireshark.
      
   5. Copy the following files from the Sniffer_Software/nrf802154_sniffer/ folder into this folder:
      • On all operating systems: nrf802154_sniffer.py
      • Additionally on Windows: nrf802154_sniffer.bat

      
3. Make sure that the nRF Sniffer files run correctly:
   1. Open a command window in Wireshark's folder for external capture plugins.
   2. Run the Sniffer tool to list available interfaces.
      On Windows, type nrf802154_sniffer.bat --extcap-interfaces. On macOS or Linux, type nrf802154_sniffer.py --extcap-interfaces.
      You should see a series of strings, similar to what is shown in the following screenshot.

      
   3. If the previous step returned an error, verify that Python 3 is accessible.
      On Windows, enter python --version. On macOS or Linux, enter python3. If the command cannot be found or the version is wrong, make sure that Python v3.7 or later is in your path and that it is the first Python version in the path.
   4. For macOS or Linux: Verify that the nrf802154_sniffer.py file has the x permission.
      If the x permission is missing, add it using chmod +x nrf802154_sniffer.py.
4. Refresh the interfaces in Wireshark by selecting Capture > Refresh Interfaces or pressing F5.
   You should see that nRF Sniffer for 802.15.4 is displayed as one of the interfaces on the start screen.