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I'm trying to use the johnny-five Node.js framework with raspi-io to do a hello world example based on this tutorial. Here's my code:

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

board.on("ready", function() {
  console.log( "Board ready." );
});

When I run it, I get the following error:

Error: Command failed: modprobe i2c-dev
/bin/sh: 1: modprobe: not found

  at checkExecSyncError (child_process.js:1339:13)
  at execSync (child_process.js:1379:13)
  at new I2C (/home/pi/sandbox/node_modules/raspi-io/node_modules/raspi-i2c/lib/index.js:122:5)
  at /home/pi/sandbox/node_modules/raspi-io/lib/index.js:154:16
  at new Raspi (/home/pi/sandbox/node_modules/raspi-io/lib/index.js:189:7)
  at Object.<anonymous> (/home/pi/sandbox/button.js:4:7)
  ...

I've enabled SPI and I2C in raspi-config, although I'm not sure if that is related. Running modprobe i2c-dev confirms that modprobe does not exist. Am I missing something? I've also tried reinstalling module-init-tools, as suggested in this non-raspi thread: modprobe not found at all.

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2
  • Which version of the Pi did the tutorial use and which version are you using?
    – Steve Robillard
    Commented Aug 23, 2015 at 22:15
  • The tutorial doesn't specify but the illustration shows a Model 2 v1.1 – I'm using a Model A+ V1.1.
    – Don McCurdy
    Commented Aug 23, 2015 at 23:11

1 Answer 1

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3

modprobe is not in a standard user's path as it is not runnable as a standard user. It requires superuser privileges to run.

If you use the command sudo modprobe the command will be found. sudo which modprobe will show its location, normally /sbin/modprobe.

Try launching the script using sudo, i.e. precede the command you use to launch the script with sudo.

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  • Thank you! sudo node example.js works correctly. Is this common for raspberry pi scripting? I usually avoid executing with sudo (in the web development world) for security reasons.
    – Don McCurdy
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 17:36
  • It's unavoidable if the script uses commands which require superuser privileges to run (such as modprobe). In this instance a safer alternative would be to add i2c-dev to /etc/modules so that it will be loaded at boot.
    – joan
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 17:48
  • That makes sense, my scripts don't usually interface with hardware so it's just new to me. Thanks again.
    – Don McCurdy
    Commented Aug 22, 2015 at 17:53

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