Problem with getting Gqrx to capture signals with RTL-SDR on Pine64 Ubuntu 16.04

[John K Helbling]

I installed Gqrx using the PPA, it apppeared to install fine but I am getting silence and no signals. I am new to both linux and SDR so I may have made a simple mistake, obvious to others but not to me.  I know that the RTL-SDR is not dead.  See below:

ubuntu@pine64:~$ rtl_test
Found 1 device(s):
  0:  Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6
[R82XX] PLL not locked!
Sampling at 2048000 S/s.

Info: This tool will continuously read from the device, and report if
samples get lost. If you observe no further output, everything is fine.

Reading samples in async mode...
cb transfer status: 1, canceling...

Library error -5, exiting...

I also started it up from the terminal screen and got this:

ubuntu@pine64:~$ gqrx
linux; GNU C++ version 5.3.1 20151219; Boost_105800; UHD_003.009.002-0-unknown

Controlport disabled
No user supplied config file. Using "default.conf"
gr-osmosdr 0.1.4 (0.1.4) gnuradio 3.7.9
built-in source types: file osmosdr fcd rtl rtl_tcp uhd miri hackrf bladerf rfspace airspy redpitaya
Using Volk machine: generic_orc
FM demod gain: 1.52789
IQ DCR alpha: 1.04166e-05
Using audio backend: auto
New filter offset: 0 Hz
BookmarksFile is /home/ubuntu/.config/gqrx/bookmarks.csv
Loading configuration from: "default.conf"
Configuration file: "/home/ubuntu/.config/gqrx/default.conf"
Crash guard triggered!

Launching I/O device editor
firstTimeConfig
CIoConfig : Available input devices:
    0 : "Realtek RTL2838UHIDIR SN: 00000001"
    1 : "RFSPACE SDR-IQ Receiver"
    2 : "RFSPACE SDR-IP Receiver"
    3 : "RFSPACE NetSDR Receiver"
    4 : "RFSPACE Cloud-IQ Receiver"
    5 : "RTL-SDR Spectrum Server"
    6 : "Red Pitaya Transceiver Server"
    7 : "Complex Sampled (IQ) File"
CIoConfig : Available output devices:
    0 : "sndhdmi Analog Stereo"
saveConfig
Loading configuration from: "/home/ubuntu/.config/gqrx/default.conf"
Configuration file: "/home/ubuntu/.config/gqrx/default.conf"
gr-osmosdr 0.1.4 (0.1.4) gnuradio 3.7.9
built-in source types: file osmosdr fcd rtl rtl_tcp uhd miri hackrf bladerf rfspace airspy redpitaya
Using device #0 Realtek RTL2838UHIDIR SN: 00000001
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
[R82XX] PLL not locked!
New antenna selected: "RX"
********************
Gain name: "LNA"
      min: 0
      max: 49.6
     step: 0.5
********************
No change in output device:
  old:
  new:
[R82XX] PLL not locked!
IQ DCR samp_rate: 1.8e+06
IQ DCR alpha: 5.55555e-07
Changing NB_RX quad rate: 96000 -> 1.8e+06
Requested sample rate: 1800000
Actual sample rate   : "1800000.000000"
New FFT rate: 25 Hz
Requested bandwidth: 0 Hz
Actual bandwidth   : 0 Hz
setFreqCorr : 0 ppm
New LNB LO: 0 Hz
New mode index: 0
Filter preset for mode 0 LO: 0 HI: 0
New filter offset: -2000 Hz
setFftRate to "25 fps"
New FFT rate: 25 Hz
New FFT rate: 25 Hz
setFftSize to "8192"
New FFT rate: 25 Hz

As you caqn see it enabled the crash guard because it found an error in the config file...but I am not bright enough to figure out what.

Any pointers for this noobe??

Thanks

[Alexandru Csete]

Hi John,

As the website says clearly, the PPA is only for "Ubuntu 14.04 – 16.10
on i386 and amd64 architectures". The Pine64 is an ARM architecture,
so you are still stuck with the very old packages from the Ubuntu
repositories. I recommend redoing the install without the PPAs added
to avoid conflicting libraries.

Try running gqrx with the -r option to reset the configuration. If it
crashes please look in the terminal if any errors are printed.

Alex

[John K Helbling]

Thanks Alex...thought I had read all of the disclaimers.  Obviously not.  I tried starting it with -r option and it did not chrash just did not work...the terminal kept reporting no FFT audio.

Will rebuild from scratch and not use the PPA.  Appreciate the quick response!!

John

[Alexandru Csete]

I'm noit quite sure whether your rtl_test worked? _It reports:

Reading samples in async mode...
cb transfer status: 1, canceling...

Library error -5, exiting...

It should not report any error.

Alex

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[John K Helbling]

Avery  belated response, but the rtf-sdr did and does work.  I plugged it into my MacBook Pro w Gqrx and it works fine. Have not had time to see if I can get it to work with a different build on the Pine64.

thanks

[Xenek Stoehr]

I have a stock standard, updated pine 64 running Ubuntu 16.04 and I used the PPA method to install stock standard GQRX. It worked first go.

If you are keen and still struggling let me know and I'll do a wipe & reinstall, with documents / logs, to help identify cause.

Cheers

X

[John K Helbling]

Thank you for the offer, I will try again and if I do not succeed I will take up your offer.  At least now I know that I do not have to recompile it.

[John K Helbling]

Xenek

Is your offer still available to provide documents and logs?  Maybe easier for you to provide links to the Ubuntu 16.04 image you used and the links to the PPA for standard GQRK, as well as any additional libraries you used instead of you doing a wipe and reinstall.

I tried a clean reinstall but it gave me the same result.

Thanks for your consideration

John

On Sunday, April 23, 2017 at 5:53:33 AM UTC-4, Xenek Stoehr wrote: