Import chipwhisperer as cw takes minutes

Embedded Security ChipWhisperer Software
1

Hi,
Just wondering why running import chipwhisperer as cw takes so long? Somtimes up to five minutes. Any way to speed it up?
Thanks,
Michael

2

Hi Michael,

I’m wondering if this is the version check that’s done on startup. Can you try commenting out

try:
    check_for_updates()
except Exception as e:
    other_logger.warning("Could not check ChipWhisperer version, error {}".format(e))

in chipwhisperer/software/chipwhisperer/__init__.py?

3

Hi Alex,
Yes, thanks, commenting out those lines makes it run instantly.
Michael

4

Good to hear that worked out for you. There’s supposed to be a timeout in pip that only lasts a few seconds, but it doesn’t seem to work properly. A future update should have a better timeout via subprocess, or maybe an async update check instead.

5

Yes that would be useful. There are several of us in the same group at work that are working with this and I’m sure they will be happy to learn this solution.