Missing the big picture

[Paul47]

I was previously using an RTLSDR with gnuradio and gqrx on Lubuntu 15.10.

I went through the SDRplay "start here" process, somewhat mindlessly copying the commands without really knowing what was going on. Looking at my console it appears I have installed an API, SoapySDRPlay and SoapySDR. Not sure what those are, what else I need, whether gnuradio and gqrx are available, whether linrad is possible, etc. Is there a page somewhere that explains what packages are available for this dongle, what they do, and so forth?

[sdrplay]

Linux information can be found on our Linux page (http://www.sdrplay.com/linux.html)

Gnu Radio and GQRX can access the RSP via the standard gr-osmosdr/SoapySDR interface. That is why we install the SoapySDR library with the API

CubicSDR (http://cubicsdr.com) also uses the SoapySDR interface and runs on Linux, Mac and Windows.

Best regards,

SDRplay Support

[Paul47]

I installed on the same machine I run my RTLSDR dongle on. When I invoked gqrx the first time I got a warning (don't recall exactly) that suggested I choose the device. I went to the "configure I/O devices", and the only selection that looked plausible was the Mirics MSI2500 which I chose. But the console says "failed to open mirisdr device".

"lsmod" yields "msi2500" and "msi001", and some others that use those.

[sdrplay]

mirisdr is an unofficial library that was created some time ago and isn't supported for the RSP.

If you can run the following in a terminal window without errors you should be able to place a SoapySDR device in Gnu Radio...

SoapySDRUtil --probe=sdrplay

If there are errors (I think it's libusb -6) then you will probably have to blacklist the unofficial module.

For further information on SoapySDR use in Gnu Radio and GQRX, see: https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDR/wiki

CubicSDR is a good starting point to make sure everything is working correctly.

Best regards,

SDRplay Support

[Paul47]

"SoapySDRUtil --probe=sdrplay"

Running that, the message I got was a missing library, libSoapySDR.so.0.4-2 is not found. Strangely when I ran that installation script, it reported no problems and said "Installing SoapySDRPlay... Installing SoapySDR... Finished." I guess it was lying. I did a "sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:myriadrf/drivers" and did an update+upgrade and that took care of the missing library. I guess that ppa command is missing from the "start here" instructions, or maybe it is there and I just missed it.

Anyway I got to the other error you mentioned, libusb_claim_interface. I'd be happy to blacklist something if you can tell me what. I did find this thread which discussed blacklisting but there was no clue there:
viewtopic.php?t=521

Another thread said blacklist msi2500 and msi001, so I did try that (or rmmod at any rate). This now made the probe pass successfully. However I'm still not having much luck with gqrx. It seems not to get any data from the msi2500 device, and none of the other devices look right either.

[sdrplay]

GQRX (GnuRadio) need to communicate to the SoapySDR interface (not MSixxx). Information on this is here: https://github.com/pothosware/gr-sdr/wiki

Best regards,

SDRplay Support

[Paul47]

OK, I went here https://github.com/pothosware/pothos/wiki/Ubuntu
...and followed that recipe, including installing that big mass of pothosware stuff. And I blacklisted the msi drivers. At the end when when I invoke gqrx the devices still do not show any new kind of device (what is it supposed to show, anyway?)

[Paul47]

GQRX (GnuRadio) need to communicate to the SoapySDR interface (not MSixxx).

I don't see much information on that link you supplied, nothing that I can do. It just seems to be announcing the start of an unnamed project. I guess from the point of view of a user with limited programming abilities, the thing to do is to give up on gqrx. I suppose I will look at cubicsdr...

[Paul47]

Since the SoapySDRUtil probe does find my device, I guessed there might be something wrong with my version of gqrx, so I used the instructions on this page to remove my old copy and install from there:
http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu

Now however when I invoke gqrx I get a complaint about a missing libgnuradio-osmosdr.so.0.1.5. Synaptic lists only libgnuradio-osmosdr.so.0.1.4 as available. Apparently there is no way I'm getting gqrx to run without doing some sort of build, rather than just installing a package? Unfortunately I'm not up to that...

I found this discussion on gqrx support for SDRplay:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!searc ... Eq1uhduqoJ
It would be nice if the support included an actual package somewhere...

[Paul47]

I tried to build CubicSDR. Got half done and then I started getting many undefined references on the link steps. Not sure what is missing; the error messages are too obscure for me.

I guess I will throw my SDRplay device in a box and hope somebody builds a package for it some day. That, or see if the vendor will take it back.