xow crashing when started with systemctl

[avdz]

Hi,

I've an issue with xow:
I can't seem to start xow with systemctl. It exits after receiving a permission denied error.
I can start it without issue manually.

pi@SteamLink:~ $ sudo journalctl -u xow -b -f
-- Logs begin at Fri 2020-04-17 18:42:59 CEST. --
Apr 17 18:56:21 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:21 DEBUG - Opening device...
Apr 17 18:56:21 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:21 INFO - Dongle plugged in
Apr 17 18:56:21 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:21 DEBUG - Firmware already loaded, resetting...
Apr 17 18:56:21 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:21 DEBUG - Firmware loaded
Apr 17 18:56:21 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:21 DEBUG - Invalid MAC address, correcting...
Apr 17 18:56:21 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:21 DEBUG - ASIC version: 7632
Apr 17 18:56:21 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:21 DEBUG - MAC version: 7662
Apr 17 18:56:21 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:21 DEBUG - Chip id: 7613
Apr 17 18:56:21 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:21 INFO - Wireless address: 62:45:bd:02:25:4e
Apr 17 18:56:21 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:21 INFO - Dongle initialized
Apr 17 18:56:34 SteamLink xow[1395]: 2020-04-17 18:56:34 DEBUG - Client associating: 7e:ed:82:4d:8e:67
Apr 17 18:56:34 SteamLink xow[1395]: terminate called after throwing an instance of 'InputException'
Apr 17 18:56:34 SteamLink xow[1395]: what(): Error opening device: Permission denied
Apr 17 18:56:34 SteamLink systemd[1]: xow.service: Main process exited, code=killed, status=6/ABRT
Apr 17 18:56:34 SteamLink systemd[1]: xow.service: Failed with result 'signal'.

It seems that it is similar to #23
I've tried following commands to trigger the udev rules again but it does not change the permission of the /dev/uinput file

sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger

Why could this be?

[medusalix]

Have you done a restart after installing xow? As far as I know the udev rules only trigger when /dev/uinput is created at boot time.

[avdz]

Yes I did.
Is it possible that this steamlink rule is alse changing the /dev/uinput permission?

sudo cat /lib/udev/rules.d/55-steamlink.rules
# USB devices
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", GROUP="plugdev"

# HID devices
KERNEL=="hidraw*", GROUP="input", MODE:="0660"

[medusalix]

Is it possible that this steamlink rule is alse changing the /dev/uinput permission?

Probably not, as these rules only affect USB and HID devices.
Please try replacing the last line in /lib/udev/rules.d/99-xow.rules with the following (and reboot):

KERNEL=="uinput", SUBSYSTEM=="misc", MODE="0666", OPTIONS+="static_node=uinput"

[avdz]

Nope still

pi@SteamLink:~ $ ls -la /dev/uinput
crw-rw----+ 1 root input 10, 223 Apr 20 17:16 /dev/uinput

Edit:
Found the culprit. I noticed the following rule:
pi@SteamLink:/lib/udev/rules.d $ sudo !!
sudo cat 56-steamlink.rules
# USB devices
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", GROUP="plugdev"

# HID devices
KERNEL=="hidraw*", GROUP="input", MODE:="0660"

# Creating virtual devices
KERNEL=="uinput", GROUP="input", MODE:="0660"

I changed the last MODE to 0666 and the uinput permissions are ok now.
Thanks for the support. I learned a bit about udev rules and uinput now :-)

[musse]

I had the same issue and changing the MODE to 0666 on the lib/udev/rules.d/56-steamlink.rules also did the trick. I'm using xow and steamlink on a Raspberry Pi 4.

Relevant thread in the Steam Link RPi forums: https://steamcommunity.com/app/353380/discussions/6/2260187517782948889/