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Sorry .... SDRPlay & GNURADIO again ......

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 2:07 pm
by hb9rxc
Hi List,

sorry to be confused ..... but I'm trying to build and run GNURadio with SDRPlay 1 & 2 , but seem quite impossible !!

- Ubuntu 14.04
- Ubuntu 16.04
- Ubuntu 18.04

- Manually build from sources
- Building from script downloaded from sbrac web site.
- Building with PyBOMBS

everytime something is wrong or missing, some modules or/and libraries are missing !
After spending hours and hours (sleepless nights....) reading tons of posts and web pages, I'm about to give up !

Someone other in my situation ? Or just please could you indicate a clear and working solution for one of the three operating system described before ... ??

Best Regards, desolated HB9RXC Pietro (South Switzerland JN45LU).

Re: Sorry .... SDRPlay & GNURADIO again ......

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 3:05 pm
by ON5HB

Re: Sorry .... SDRPlay & GNURADIO again ......

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 3:21 pm
by hb9rxc
ON5HB wrote:Have you tried this way?

https://www.sdrplay.com/docs/gr-sdrplay-workflow.pdf

Hi ON5HB, yes ! that was the first choice, but helpless .......

Have you had more luck than me ? Please explain ..... 73'

Re: Sorry .... SDRPlay & GNURADIO again ......

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 4:18 pm
by ON5HB
I gave up on GNU-Radio, never got it working properly.

Not with the RSP1A and not with Dongles.

There is far better software around then that.

However I'm running websdr.org with modified drivers, totally different animal :lol:

Why do you want GNU-Radio? It's the most difficult program I have ever seen.

Re: Sorry .... SDRPlay & GNURADIO again ......

Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 5:30 pm
by hb9rxc
Dear ON5HB,

Usually I do use SDRConsole / HDSDR under Windows, RSP1 and RSP2.

The only reason to use GNURadio is to do some experiment and tests, to better undestand how SDR (modulation and demodulation) do work.
For sure there is no reason to mess up with this beast called GNURadio if the only interest is to listen to some AM / FM broadcast station.

Anyway, thank you about info ...... HB9RXC / Pietro

Re: Sorry .... SDRPlay & GNURADIO again ......

Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2019 3:38 am
by fventuri
Pietro,
one approach that I found especially useful in the past when dealing with a multi-step installation like GNU Radio and SDRplay on Linux is to have a way after each step to validate that step is 100% correct and not to move forward with the next step until I am fairly confident that the current step is good.
This is almost like troubleshooting an electronic circuit that doesn't work - you check with your probe to see if for instance you have 5V at this check point, and so on...

For instance one of the first things you want to check in Linux before you start with the whole installation process is to connect your RSP to one of the USB ports and make sure Linux can see it with the 'lsusb' command:

Code: Select all

lsusb -v -d 1df7:
If the command above doesn't return anything, you may want to check cabling, USB configuration, etc, before even starting with the next steps.

In a similar way after you 'get API appropriate for your system' (the top box here: https://www.sdrplay.com/docs/gr-sdrplay-workflow.pdf), you may want to check that the installation of that API was successful; in Linux you could run a couple of command like these:

Code: Select all

# for the API version 2.X:
find /usr/local/lib* -name libmirsdrapi-rsp\*
ldconfig -p | grep libmirsdrapi-rsp

# for the API version 3.X:
find /usr/local/lib* -name libsdrplay_api\*
ldconfig -p | grep libmirsdrapi-rsp
ls -l /dev/shm
This way you always know exactly where you are and when you have a problem, you know it is probably something related to the last step you worked on.

Hope this helps,
Franco

Re: Sorry .... SDRPlay & GNURADIO again ......

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2019 10:01 pm
by AB9IL
Hi Pietro,

I feel your pain. Often, there are too many critical variables in getting an SDR system to work properly.

Linux is known for large tasks being accomplished by many small software components that "do one thing very well." It is intensely irritating to set up a working system and fail on one problematic module or driver. I've had big battles with both soapysdr and gr-osmosdr, plus individual hardware drivers and a gauntlet of dependencies.

I can offer the suggestion to read the error messages closely, and search the internet for the history of users dealing with the error. When one problem is solved, a new one may come up as a result, so troubleshooting can take a while...

You'll probably have to revert to older api / driver combinations until your system is stable. FTW, you might even have to hack some code and compile working blobs for yourself.

Cheers,
Phil AB9IL

Re: Sorry .... SDRPlay & GNURADIO again ......

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2019 10:05 pm
by JJ_in_TN
I have dabbled with Linux for about 10 years and I am still barely functional in anything but Ubuntu or Mint with little beyond basic command line skills. I too have given up on GNU radio, despite multiple attempts and the lure of being able to "build" almost any type of radio or signal processor in software with it.

I think this is why people avoid Linux. I often feel that expert users WANT it to be crazy hard for us. Hey if you can't troubleshoot an obscure 20 step build with a hundred dependencies you don't DESERVE to have it running.

So someone prove to me that is not true. Package up a virtual machine with all of this running and share it with the world. Or build a ready to go image for a Raspberry Pi 3. Linux seems to me to be a million people all reinventing the same wheel.

Re: Sorry .... SDRPlay & GNURADIO again ......

Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2019 10:46 pm
by Tech_Support
We do provide a "Ready to go image for a Raspberry Pi 3" with GNU Radio pre-installed on it.

Have a look on our downloads page.

Sincerely

Tech_Support

Re: Sorry .... SDRPlay & GNURADIO again ......

Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2019 10:15 pm
by dkwflight
Hi

I run Linux Mint and i am very satisfied with it since I hate windows.
I would like to run sdrplay in mint.
Dennis