nxt-python error: usb.core.NoBackendError

Question

I have Python 2 and Python 3 installed on my system.

I run the following script:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import nxt.locator
from nxt.motor import *

def spin_around(b):
    m_left = Motor(b, PORT_B)
    m_left.turn(100, 360)
    m_right = Motor(b, PORT_C)
    m_right.turn(-100, 360)

b = nxt.locator.find_one_brick()
spin_around(b)

with the command: python spin.py which uses Python 2, as expected.

However, when I run this command I get the following error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "spin.py", line 12, in <module>
    b = nxt.locator.find_one_brick()
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/nxt/locator.py", line 112, in find_one_brick
    for s in find_bricks(host, name, silent, method):
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/nxt/locator.py", line 43, in find_bricks
    for s in socks:
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/nxt/usbsock.py", line 84, in find_bricks
    for bus in usb.busses():
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/usb/legacy.py", line 353, in busses
    sorted(core.find(find_all=True), key=lambda d: d.bus),
  File "/Library/Python/2.7/site-packages/usb/core.py", line 1263, in find
    raise NoBackendError('No backend available')
usb.core.NoBackendError: No backend available

When I run this script my NXT is plugged into my computer by USB and my NXT is on. Additionally, I have installed pyUSB (correctly, I think).

Why could this error be occurring?

Answer 1

The solution was to install libUSB. It seems the pyUSB library relies on libUSB in the background.

I installed libUSB with brew install libusb

Afterwards, that particular error was fixed.