How To Install Gnu Radio

As I mentioned previously on my Frequency Modulation Basics mail service, I would exist taking a practical approach to explain the concept of Frequency Modulation. This tutorial explains how to install the GNU Radio on Ubuntu 18.04 alongside the GNU Radio Companion and the SDR dongle support.

Installing the GNU Radio and GNU Radio Companion

Starting time, we tin can begin by installing the GNU radio package via APT, simply check first if the version in the APT system is up to engagement. As of the writing of this article, GNU Radio on Ubuntu 18.04's APT is on 3.7.11 and the current version is on 3.7.thirteen.four. To simplify matters, I volition use the Ubuntu 18.04'south APT version until I encounter a problems that will merely be fixed on the latest version.

# apt-get install gnuradio

The parcel installation takes a while, after finishing the GNU Radio 3.7.xi-x is finally installed on the estimator. Y'all tin can admission the GNU Radio Companion program via Concluding or via Application Launcher.

$ gnuradio-companion

Now, we can use GNU Radio and the GNU Radio Companion, the next footstep of this tutorial is to install the RTL SDR package to use with GNU Radio. This will allow u.s.a. to receive the IQ data from RTL SDR and use the GNU Radio to process the data equally we need.

Screenshot from 2022-03-20 09-20-40 — Figure ane. GNU Radio Companion Window

Software Defined Radio GNU Radio Module

The Software Defined Radio that nosotros volition be using is the ubiquitous and cheap RTL2832U based DVB-T Dongles turned to Software Defined Radio. We can use the GNU Radio module developed by Osmocom. To build this GNU Radio block module, nosotros need at least GNU Radio v3.7, which is already installed via the Ubuntu APT.

We can install the GNU Radio Osmocom SDR module from the git repository of osmocom or via the github mirror. Before installing the GNU Radio Source, we offset must install the RTL-SDR commuter created by Osmocom for RTL2832U-based Software Divers Radio dongles.

RTL2382U Commuter

Get-go, we take to install whatever dependencies and required packages earlier nosotros can build our GNU Radio Osmocom SDR module. The required packages are cmake and build-essential to make certain we tin compile the source and install the module. We also need the libusb-1.0-0-dev for the SDR.

# apt-get update # apt-get install cmake build-essential libusb-ane.0-0-dev

Then, we have to clone the repository, salve the cloned repository in the desired identify, for example we tin put it on the Downloads folder

$ cd ~/Downloads $ git clone https://github.com/osmocom/rtl-sdr.git

After cloning the repository, we tin begin installing first by creating the build file and compiling the source via CMake. Afterwards compiling, we tin can install the rtl_sdr. Use the following commands on the Terminal:

$ mkdir build $ cd build $ cmake ../ -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=ON -DDETACH_KERNEL_DRIVER=ON $ make # make install # ldconfig

Make sure to have both the build options INSTALL_UDEV_RULES=ON and DETACH_KERNEL_DRIVER=ON. UDEV_RULES is needed to access the dongle as not-root user, and DETACH_KERNEL_DRIVER will detach the default kernel driver for the RTL2832U DVB.

GNU Radio Source

After installing the RTL SDR commuter, we demand to install the GNU Radio Source module that is provided also by Osmocom. We tin too install this automatically via APT-Get since we don't need to alter whatever build configuration, utilize the following command to install the gr-osmosdr package:

# apt-get install gr-osmosdr

Afterward installing, we can admission the RTL SDR source on GNU Radio Companion carte du jour under the Sources category.

Screenshot from 2022-03-20 10-58-43 — Figure 2. RTL-SDR Source on GNU Radio Companion

That's it for today's tutorial, we volition explore more most GNU Radio and RTL SDR when I have finished my Frequency Modulation nuts serial and we will demonstrate the assay of a existent narrow-band and wide-ring FM wave on SDR + GNU Radio Companion.