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How do I make visible the TI Radio Packet Info menu to see BLE RSSI from a Texas Instruments sniffer?

asked 2021-03-29 22:09:54 +0000

mccarthink gravatar image

updated 2021-03-30 00:35:59 +0000

Guy Harris gravatar image

Hello,

I am using a Texas Instruments evaluation board as a Bluetooth sniffer. The process is documented here: https://software-dl.ti.com/lprf/packe...

I am seeing packets in Wireshark, but I am unable to see the RSSI. I submitted a case to Texas Instruments including my saved .pcap file. Texas Instruments support opened the file and successfully saw the RSSI in the saved file. He is using Wireshark version 3.0.14. I am using the latest version and I do not see the TI Radio Packet Info menu, which contains the RSSI information.

Do you know what I have to do to be able to see RSSI on a BLE packet?

Thanks, Stephen

Link to the Texas Instruments case: https://e2e.ti.com/support/wireless-c...

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Wireshark Dissector Setup
Have you verified that the TI plugin is installed?

Chuckc gravatar imageChuckc ( 2021-03-29 22:16:21 +0000 )edit

Thanks, Chuckc,

It appears that the TI plugin installation failed during the Packet Sniffer 2 tool installation, so the plugins are not installed. I have asked this question of Texas Instruments, too, but do you know if the method for installing these plugins is documented anywhere?

Thanks, Stephen

mccarthink gravatar imagemccarthink ( 2021-03-29 23:00:34 +0000 )edit

The "Getting Started Guide" for Texas Instruments Packet Sniffer 2 has information about the manual installation of the plugins:

Copy the plugin files manually from SmartRF Packet Sniffer 2 install location (<install_dir>\wireshark\plugins\3.0.x) to Wireshark plugins folder (<wireshark_install_dir>\plugins\3.0\epan). Use the x86 version of plugins if you have a 32 bits installation of Wireshark or the x64 if you have a 64 bits version of Wireshark installed.

Unfortunately, it looks like the plugins are only for Wireshark 3.0, which I couldn't find to download in the Wireshark download archives. I only found versions as far back as 3.2.

mccarthink gravatar imagemccarthink ( 2021-03-29 23:19:18 +0000 )edit

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answered 2021-03-29 23:38:27 +0000

Chuckc gravatar image

image description

They're pretty set on it being Wireshark 3.0.x for the plugin to work. Tried with 3.4.3 - no luck.
That would explain TI support using 3.0.14 - that's the last release of 3.0.x.
Past releases links: 64-bit 32-bit

Once Wireshark 3.0.x is installed, either re-install the TI tools or follow their steps in Dissector Setup notes to manually copy the DLL files over to the Wireshark.

I was able to open the capture you submitted to TI support and see the RSSI data: image description

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They're pretty set on it being Wireshark 3.0.x for the plugin to work.

Perhaps somebody should ask TI to submit the source code for their Wireshark plugins to be incorporated into the Wireshark source code, so that users not running Wireshark on Windows, or users running newer versions of Wireshark on Windows, can dissect the captures.

Guy Harris gravatar imageGuy Harris ( 2021-03-30 02:45:13 +0000 )edit

The installer includes source for the plugins which include AUTHORS files with email addresses.

Chuckc gravatar imageChuckc ( 2021-03-30 03:24:31 +0000 )edit

The installer includes source for the plugins which include AUTHORS files with email addresses.

Cool. Given the GPL, the plugin must be GPLed, and any recipient of the plugin is free to 1) provide the binary to anybody they want to, 2) get the source, and 3) provide the source to anybody they want to; if you have it, you could open a pull request to incorporate it into Wireshark or could send it to somebody to have them incorporate it into Wireshark. (And then I can contact the authors and suggest that they get one or more LINKTYPE_ values and provide an extcap, which might make the process of doing captures simpler.)

Guy Harris gravatar imageGuy Harris ( 2021-03-30 03:41:09 +0000 )edit
Chuckc gravatar imageChuckc ( 2021-03-30 19:32:49 +0000 )edit

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Asked: 2021-03-29 22:09:54 +0000

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Last updated: Mar 30 '21