Tshark will not capture BTLE packets with nRF sniffer

Question

I am having issues using tshark to capture BTLE advertising packets.

The system works very well with Wireshark. However, when I try to run tshark from the command line, it immediately quits and says "0 packets captured."

Any ideas why it may be working in Wireshark but not in Tshark?

Setup: I am using the nRF51 DK for the sniffer. This works well in Wireshark (version 2.6.1) as I mentioned. I have a peripheral device that is sending advertising packets that Wireshark easily detects (i.e. I know the hardware works and there are advertising packets being sent).

Command used: After navigating to my Wireshark folder on the command line, I type:

tshark -i 6 -a duration:10

My nRF sniffer is interface 6. Everything is run on a Windows 10 machine.

Further Info: Tshark works correctly if I try to capture wifi

tshark -i 1 -a duration:10

where interface 1 is the wifi interface.

Thanks!

That's indeed kinda weird since Wireshark and tshark are supposed to use the same underlying capture technique. Did you try to run wireshark -i 6 to make sure you are indeed capturing from the same interface with Wireshark? — pchaigno
Thanks for the reply. Yes, when I run wireshark -i 6 the interface is the same. Sometimes when I try to run the nRF sniffer from the Wireshark GUI, I've noticed that it crashes the first time or two. But afterwards it works great. — jrx07

jrx07 jrx07 · Accepted Answer · 2018-06-26T17:38:30

Just had confirmation from Nordic that the nRF-sniffer is not currently supported by TShark.

Tshark will not capture BTLE packets with nRF sniffer

1 Answers