Catch PermissionError and raise with more information

zeus/device/cpu/rapl.py

@@ -147,6 +147,12 @@ def __init__(self, message: str) -> None:
         """Initialize Zeus Exception."""
         super().__init__(message)
 
+class ZeusRAPLPermissionError(ZeusBaseCPUError):
+    """Zeus GPU exception that wraps No Permission to perform GPU operation."""
+
+    def __init__(self, message: str) -> None:
+        """Intialize the exception object."""
+        super().__init__(message)
 
 class RAPLFile:
     """RAPL File class for each RAPL file.
@@ -169,6 +175,10 @@ def __init__(self, path: str) -> None:
                 self.last_energy = float(energy_file.read().strip())
         except FileNotFoundError as err:
             raise ZeusRAPLFileInitError("Error reading package energy") from err
+        except PermissionError as err:
+            raise ZeusRAPLPermissionError(
+                "Can't read file due to permission error"
+            ) from err
         try:
             with open(
                 os.path.join(path, "max_energy_range_uj"), "r"

zeus/monitor/energy.py

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 from dataclasses import dataclass
 from functools import cached_property
 
+from zeus.device.cpu.rapl import ZeusRAPLPermissionError
 from zeus.monitor.power import PowerMonitor
 from zeus.utils.logging import get_logger
 from zeus.utils.framework import sync_execution as sync_execution_fn
@@ -186,6 +187,13 @@ def __init__(
             self.cpus = get_cpus()
         except ZeusCPUInitError:
             self.cpus = EmptyCPUs()
+        except ZeusRAPLPermissionError as err:
+            raise RuntimeError(
+                "SYS_ADMIN capability is required to modify GPU power limits. See "
+                "https://ml.energy/zeus/getting_started/#system-privileges "
+                "for more information or disable CPU measurement by passing cpu_indices=None to "
+                "ZeusMonitor"
+            ) from err
 
         # Resolve GPU indices. If the user did not specify `gpu_indices`, use all available GPUs.
         self.gpu_indices = (