ERROR: could not insert 'i2c_dev': Operation not permitted

[LegendaryTom]

Hello,

I'm trying raspi-io for the first time and am trying to run the "blink a led" script from the readme.

Here is the script that I'm using:

var raspi = require('raspi-io');
var five = require('johnny-five');
var board = new five.Board({
  io: new raspi()
});

board.on('ready', function() {

  // Create an Led on pin 7 (GPIO4) on P1 and strobe it on/off
  // Optionally set the speed; defaults to 100ms
  (new five.Led('GPIO18')).strobe();

});

When I run the script, I'm seeing the following error:

node j5_test_pi.js 
ERROR: could not insert 'i2c_dev': Operation not permitted
child_process.js:1382
    throw err;
          ^
Error: Command failed: modprobe i2c-dev
ERROR: could not insert 'i2c_dev': Operation not permitted

    at checkExecSyncError (child_process.js:1339:13)
    at execSync (child_process.js:1379:13)
    at new I2C (/home/pi/evcc/node_modules/raspi-io/node_modules/raspi-i2c/lib/index.js:115:5)
    at /home/pi/evcc/node_modules/raspi-io/lib/index.js:150:16
    at new Raspi (/home/pi/evcc/node_modules/raspi-io/lib/index.js:185:7)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/home/pi/evcc/j5_test_pi.js:4:7)
    at Module._compile (module.js:460:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:478:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12)

It looks like the error happens on the line with new raspi().

I then noticed that the output from npm install raspi-io had these lines:

> execSync@1.0.2 install /home/pi/evcc/node_modules/raspi-io/node_modules/raspi-i2c/node_modules/execSync
> node install.js

[execsync v1.0.2] Attempting to compile native extensions.
[execSync v1.0.2]
    Native code compile failed!!

Have I hosed my installation of raspi-io?

My setup is a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B v1.1, with node v0.12.0, johnny-five@0.8.76, and raspi-io@3.2.2 installed. I also tried raspi-io@3.1.1 and got a similar result.

[nebrius]

Are you running the script as root? If not, this is why you're getting the Operation not permitted error. Can you try that and let me know if everything works?

The execSync thing isn't an issue in your case. It's only there as a fallback for node 0.10, which doesn't support it natively.

[LegendaryTom]

That was what I was doing wrong. Thanks for your help!

[nebrius]

Great to hear!