# RuntimeError: Root permission needed by the library

**URL:** <https://discuss.pynq.io/t/runtimeerror-root-permission-needed-by-the-library/2272>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [January 23, 2021, 7:27am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/runtimeerror-root-permission-needed-by-the-library/2272 "2021-01-23T07:27:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cg4002](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@cg4002](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/cg4002)\
**Post date:** [January 23, 2021, 7:27am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/runtimeerror-root-permission-needed-by-the-library/2272/1 "2021-01-23T07:27:21Z")

</div>

Hi all,

I am trying to download the finn examples here. [GitHub - Xilinx/finn-examples: Dataflow QNN inference accelerator examples on FPGAs](https://github.com/Xilinx/finn-examples)  
However, I get stuck at this particular step:  
`pynq get-notebooks --from-package finn-examples -p .`  
And got this error message:

```
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/bin/pynq-get-notebooks", line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(main())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/pynq/_cli/get_notebooks.py", line 154, in main
    device = _detect_devices(active_only=True)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/pynq/utils.py", line 162, in _detect_devices
    devices = Device.devices
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/pynq/pl_server/device.py", line 79, in devices
    cls._devices.extend(DeviceMeta._subclasses[key]._probe_())
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/pynq/pl_server/device.py", line 677, in _probe_
    return [XlnkDevice()]
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/pynq/pl_server/device.py", line 686, in __init__
    self.default_memory = Xlnk()
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/pynq/xlnk.py", line 137, in __init__
    raise RuntimeError("Root permission needed by the library.")
RuntimeError: Root permission needed by the library.
Exception ignored in: <bound method Xlnk. __del__ of <pynq.xlnk.Xlnk object at 0x7faae99f28>>
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib/python3.6/dist-packages/pynq/xlnk.py", line 154, in __del__
    for key in self.bufmap.keys():
AttributeError: 'Xlnk' object has no attribute 'bufmap'

```

I have tried adding sudo which I can load the notebook successfully. But it doesnt work when I try to run the jupyter notebook itself (tried adding --allow-root) and it gives me the same error. I am login to the board as xilinx and not allowed to use root.

PYNQ version 2.6.0  
Git Id: 56d3c1ba60d24160a946551f0b82711660ac71ca  
Board: Ultra96-v2  
Architecture: aarch64  
Byte Order: Little Endian  
CPU(s): 4  
On-line CPU(s) list: 0-3  
Thread(s) per core: 1  
Core(s) per socket: 4  
Socket(s): 1  
Vendor ID: ARM  
Model: 4  
Model name: Cortex-A53  
Stepping: r0p4  
CPU max MHz: 1199.9990  
CPU min MHz: 299.9990  
BogoMIPS: 199.99  
Flags: fp asimd evtstrm aes pmull sha1 sha2 crc32 cpuid

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rock](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex019/user_avatar/discuss.pynq.io/rock/32/32_2.png) [@rock](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/rock)\
**Post date:** [January 28, 2021, 6:21pm UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/runtimeerror-root-permission-needed-by-the-library/2272/2 "2021-01-28T18:21:55Z")

</div>

Some libraries like memory map require root permission. So please follow the instructions and use sudo for now. It may be an improvement to allow non-sudo behavior but that is not on our priority list now.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cg4002](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@cg4002](https://discuss.pynq.io/u/cg4002)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2021, 4:18am UTC](https://discuss.pynq.io/t/runtimeerror-root-permission-needed-by-the-library/2272/3 "2021-01-29T04:18:14Z")

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sudo didn’t work  
Jupyter notebook itself blocks sudo usage