Firmware 1.9.1 does not recognize Nitrokey 3 anymore

Nitrokeys
1

Hi,

after updating my Nitrokey 3A NFC from firmware version 1.8.2 to 1.9.1 it is not recognized by Arch Linux anymore. dmesg doesn’t show any output when plugging it in and lsusb doesn’t list it either.

$ nitropy nk3 status
Command line tool to interact with Nitrokey devices 0.13.0
Critical error:
No Nitrokey 3 device found

System info:

  • Distro: Arch Linux
  • Linux 7.2.8-zen1-2-zen #1 ZEN SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu, 01 Oct 2026
    18:14:15 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
  • libnitrokey 3.8-3
  • nitrocli 0.4.1-3
  • nitrokey-app2 2.6.0-1
  • nitrokey-udev-rules 1.1.0-1
  • python-nitrokey 0.4.2-2
  • python-pynitrokey 0.13.0-1

nitropy log output:

353        INFO pynitrokey.cli Timestamp: 2026-10-02 09:44:37.837287
353        INFO pynitrokey.cli OS: uname_result(system='Linux', release='7.2.8-zen1-2-zen', version='#1 ZEN SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu, 01 Oct 2026 18:14:15 +0000', machine='x86_64')
354        INFO pynitrokey.cli Python version: 3.14.7
354        INFO pynitrokey.cli Cli arguments: ['nk3', 'status']
354        INFO pynitrokey.cli pynitrokey version: 0.13.0
354        INFO pynitrokey.cli cryptography version: 50.0.2
355        INFO pynitrokey.cli fido2 version: 2.2.1
355        INFO pynitrokey.cli nethsm version: 3.0.0
355        INFO pynitrokey.cli nitrokey version: 0.4.2
355        INFO pynitrokey.cli pyusb version: 1.3.1
363       DEBUG fido2.hid.linux Failed opening device /dev/hidraw8
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/fido2/hid/linux.py", line 96, in list_descriptors
    devices.append(get_descriptor(hidraw))
                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/fido2/hid/linux.py", line 53, in get_descriptor
    with open(path, "rb") as f:
         ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/dev/hidraw8'
364       DEBUG fido2.hid.linux Failed opening device /dev/hidraw7
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/fido2/hid/linux.py", line 96, in list_descriptors
    devices.append(get_descriptor(hidraw))
                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/fido2/hid/linux.py", line 53, in get_descriptor
    with open(path, "rb") as f:
         ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/dev/hidraw7'
364       DEBUG fido2.hid.linux Failed opening device /dev/hidraw6
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/fido2/hid/linux.py", line 96, in list_descriptors
    devices.append(get_descriptor(hidraw))
                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^
  File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/fido2/hid/linux.py", line 53, in get_descriptor
    with open(path, "rb") as f:
         ~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^
PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/dev/hidraw6'
574       DEBUG       root print: Critical error:
574       DEBUG       root print: No Nitrokey 3 device found
574       DEBUG       root listing all connected devices:
728       DEBUG       root :: 'Nitrokey FIDO2' keys
728       DEBUG       root :: 'Nitrokey Start' keys:
760       DEBUG       root :: 'Nitrokey 3' keys
917       DEBUG       root :: 'Nitrokey Passkey' keys
1076      DEBUG       root print: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1076      DEBUG       root print: Critical error occurred, exiting now

Thanks for your help,
Olli

2

Hi Olli, do you still have the logs from the firmware update? What is the behavior of the device LED when you connect it?

3

You may update:
https://github.com/Nitrokey/pynitrokey/releases/tag/v0.14.0

4

I don’t have the logs anymore as there were no error and everything seemed successful. The LED does not light up when connecting it. Before it always did that but not anymore, unfortunately.

5

You may update:
Release v0.14.0 · Nitrokey/pynitrokey · GitHub

Thanks, @geoW, I will test the new version of pynitrokey.

6

pretty new :grinning_face:

Do other usb-devices work?
Does nk3 work at another comp?

7

Yes, all other USB devices work fine. So it is not an issue of the USB controller. I also tried different USB ports, of course.

Tested that as well on three different machines—though all of them are running Linux. Do you think it would be worth testing on a Windows machine?

8

Did it break directly after the firmware update? Please try to connect it and then wait for 30 seconds while monitoring dmesg and the device LED. Do you see any activity?

9

Hard to say. I updated the firmware yesterday afternoon but don’t remember whether I used it after the update … All I can say that the update itself was reported as successful.

No activity. Does that mean my Nitrokey got fried? Is there anything I can do?

I guess if no one else reports problems with the firmware update, it has to be a problem of my specific device.

10

Yes, I think, it is useful.

11

Unfortunately, based on the symptoms you report, this seems to be a hardware issue not related to the firmware update. Please send a message to support@nitrokey.com with your order number and a link to this discussion and we will check if we can replace the device.

12

Thanks a lot for that offer! The first thing I did was to send an eMail but it was rejected by your server. Probably because of my own domain? Anyway, I can use a different eMail address and see if that works.

Thanks a lot for your quick help!

13

Hmm, strange. When you send another email you can include the rejection response from the first attempt and we can review it.