Zigbee2mqtt - won't start, doesn't detect Sonoff dongle

Guys,
With ZHA removed and no zigbee devices, zigbee2mqtt won’t detect my Sonoff Zigbee coordinator, and won’t start. Frontend doesn’t start. ZHA had no trouble detecting the dongle before I removed it. From the log:

[2025-10-20 08:20:47] info: z2m: Logging to console, file (filename: log.log) [2025-10-20 08:20:47] info: z2m: Starting Zigbee2MQTT version 2.6.2 (commit #unknown) [2025-10-20 08:20:47] info: z2m: Starting zigbee-herdsman (6.1.5) [2025-10-20 08:20:48] info: zh:zstack:znp: Opening SerialPort with {"path":"/dev/serial/by-id/usb-Itead_Sonoff_Zigbee_3.0_USB_Dongle_Plus_V2_5ab4103f4b1fef11a0f04ed0639e525b-if00-port0","baudRate":115200,"rtscts":false,"autoOpen":false} [2025-10-20 08:20:48] info: zh:zstack:znp: Serialport opened [2025-10-20 08:20:48] info: zh:zstack:znp: Writing CC2530/CC2531 skip bootloader payload [2025-10-20 08:20:49] info: zh:zstack:znp: Skip bootloader for CC2652/CC1352 [2025-10-20 08:21:08] error: z2m: Error while starting zigbee-herdsman [2025-10-20 08:21:08] error: z2m: Failed to start zigbee-herdsman [2025-10-20 08:21:08] error: z2m: Check https://www.zigbee2mqtt.io/guide/installation/20_zigbee2mqtt-fails-to-start_crashes-runtime.html for possible solutions [2025-10-20 08:21:08] error: z2m: Exiting... [2025-10-20 08:21:08] error: z2m: Error: Failed to connect to the adapter (Error: SRSP - SYS - ping after 6000ms) at ZStackAdapter.start (/app/node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/zigbee-herdsman/src/adapter/z-stack/adapter/zStackAdapter.ts:115:27) at Controller.start (/app/node_modules/.pnpm/[email protected]/node_modules/zigbee-herdsman/src/controller/controller.ts:133:29) at Zigbee.start (/app/lib/zigbee.ts:67:27) at Controller.start (/app/lib/controller.ts:101:13) at start (/app/index.js:149:5)

Your help would be much appreciated.

Did you…

If you still have issues then share your z2m config.

Sonoff dongle with V2 in the name normally is a ‘Dongle E’

This shows Zigbee2MQTT thinks it is a ‘Dongle P’

So you should tell Zigbee2MQTT to use either ember or znsp as the stack instead of zstack.
Ember if your ‘Dongle E’ has firmware 7.4 or higher (best is 8.0.2)