Gnuradio update in the PPA

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Alexandru Csete

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Sep 2, 2016, 6:36:17 AM9/2/16
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Hi all,

We have done a major upgrade of the GNU radio packages in the Ubuntu ppa, so you will see a lots of new updates, including a new gqrx package - still version 2.5.3 though.

Let me know if you run into troubles.

You can also rerun the volk_profile tool since we have also upgraded the volk package.

I expect gqrx 2.6 to be out soon. After that I will look into various optimisations to make gqrx work on embedded computers like the raspberry pi.

Alex

Larry Dighera

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Sep 2, 2016, 8:43:38 AM9/2/16
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On Fri, 2 Sep 2016 12:36:14 +0200, Alexandru Csete <oz9...@gmail.com> wrote:

>I expect gqrx 2.6 to be out soon. After that I will look into various
>optimisations to make gqrx work on embedded computers like the raspberry pi.

Your hard work for the radio enthusiast community is very much appreciated.
Thank you for your creation of gqrx.

And thank you for your intention to support the RPi. CubicSDR
<https://github.com/cjcliffe/CubicSDR> runs on the RPi3, albeit with a bit of
latency, so it is possible.

Darren Long

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Sep 2, 2016, 10:42:27 AM9/2/16
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Hi Alex,

Having some trouble with the latest updates here.

darren@betty:~$ gqrx
gqrx: symbol lookup error:
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgnuradio-uhd.so.3.7.10: undefined symbol:
_ZN3uhd4usrp10multi_usrp7ALL_LOSE

I thought that upgrading to the libuhd003v5 package, which says it
replaces libuhd003, might fix it, but it then required gqrx-sdr,
gnuradio and friends to be uninstalled.

Running Ubuntu 14.04 here.

Cheers,

Darren, G0HWW
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David Ranch

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Sep 2, 2016, 11:12:02 AM9/2/16
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Hello Alex,

Could you elaborate a bit on this upgrade on GnuRadio if it's still 2.5.3 based?  Is this just a compile-time optimization thing?  Are there things that GnuRadio v3.7.10.1 users are missing from your newest push?

--David
KI6ZHD

David Chatterton

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Sep 2, 2016, 3:00:14 PM9/2/16
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Hello Alex,

I accepted the upgrade to GQRX via the Software Updater (under Ubuntu 16.04). I keep getting a persistent offer to upgrade I/Q Balancing Block which fails due to unmet dependencies. I have attempted to completely remove (purge) gqrx-sdr and re-install but to no avail. I seem to remember this coming up before but I do not recall the solution. Perhaps you can throw some light on this.

David, 2E0FNY

David Chatterton

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Sep 2, 2016, 3:15:15 PM9/2/16
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I seem to have found a solution. I used the Package Manager to identify the broken package and then marked it for removal. This seems to have done the trick as the I/Q Balancing Block is no longer offered as an upgrade and Software Updater now reports that the software is up to date.

David, 2E0FNY

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 2, 2016, 3:40:06 PM9/2/16
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On Fri, Sep 2, 2016 at 4:42 PM, Darren Long <darre...@mac.com> wrote:
> Hi Alex,
>
> Having some trouble with the latest updates here.
>
> darren@betty:~$ gqrx
> gqrx: symbol lookup error:
> /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgnuradio-uhd.so.3.7.10: undefined symbol:
> _ZN3uhd4usrp10multi_usrp7ALL_LOSE

Hi Darren,

Sorry for the troubles. I have to admit that I did not test the UHD
part, since I don't have any USRPs at the moment.

Can you please check that you have libgnunradio-osmosdr0.1.4 package
version 0.1.4.75.ae686c4 installed? It may not get pulled in
automatically...

Alex

> I thought that upgrading to the libuhd003v5 package, which says it
> replaces libuhd003, might fix it, but it then required gqrx-sdr,
> gnuradio and friends to be uninstalled.

The libuhd003v5 package is the one that comes with Ubuntu and is only
at version 3.8, so it will not work.

Alex

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 2, 2016, 3:41:18 PM9/2/16
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GNU Radio and some other packages got updated and I rebuilt gqrx to
use the new packages. It is still gqrx 2.5.3, which is the latest
release for now.

Alex

grege...@gmail.com

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Sep 2, 2016, 3:41:59 PM9/2/16
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This broke gqrx in Linux Mint.  It would not launch and in a terminal window it displayed an error that it could not find libgnuradio-iqbalance.so.  I purged and reinstalled gqrx and gnuradio-  same problem.  I installed libgnuradio-iqbalance with the synaptic package manager.  This fixed the problem.

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 2, 2016, 3:42:51 PM9/2/16
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Hi David,

Unfortunately, uninstalling the iqbalance package is likely to break
gqrx. I am checking to see if I need to rebuild with explicit runtime
dependencies.

Alex
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Darren Long

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Sep 2, 2016, 4:04:10 PM9/2/16
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Ah, OK on the other libuhd package. Yes, I should have thought of that.

Yes I do have the 0.1.4.75.ae686c4-myriadrf2~trusty version of
libgnuradio-osmosdr0.1.4.

All was working last night before I updated this morning. I was
actually fiddling around with a new Outernet L-Band kit, so haven't had
my USRP connected.

I'll try reinstalling the PPA packages tomorrow. I have the Outernet
software running now and am just waiting for something to come down the
pipe :)

73

Darren, G0HWW

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 2, 2016, 4:10:56 PM9/2/16
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Ok, if I can't figure out what is wrong by looking I will ask Josh to
see if he can find something; he should have USRPs.

Alex
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Alexandru Csete

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Sep 2, 2016, 4:54:02 PM9/2/16
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Hi Larry,

Thanks for the kind feedback :-)

I have actually tried building the whole gnuradio & gqrx on a
raspberry pi3 running standard raspbian, but with a special compiler.
It was working but audio is broken. So I have to add a new audio
backend that I know will work on the RPI. When I have it I will make
some binary packages that people can try.

Alex

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 2, 2016, 5:28:35 PM9/2/16
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Ok, I believe I the libgnuradio-iqbalance problem is now fixed with
the latest update.

Alex
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Larry Dighera

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Sep 3, 2016, 11:01:31 AM9/3/16
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Hello Alex,

The gnuradio package is currently available with apt-get on the RPi running
Jessie, so compiling it on the RPi may no longer be necessary.

Since the release of Rasbian Debian Jessie and the switch to pulseaudio to
support bluetooth, the RPi platform audio performance seems to have suffered.

I ran across this post in another group:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Leif Asbrink <le...@sm5bsz.com>: Sep 02 05:11AM +0200

Hi All,

This video shows that one can run a rtlsdr at 2.4 MHz on a
Raspberry Pi 2B. Maybe interesting for portable use.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGZmD8O4Flk

Regards
Leif
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

In that video, Leif demonstrates the increased performance of linrad through
the use of the X11 MIT-SHM shared-memory extension:
<https://www.x.org/releases/current/doc/xextproto/shm.html>. Perhaps that
technique may be useful in reducing CPU load in gqrx on all X11 platforms.

Thank you again for sharing your creative talent.

Best regards,
Larry

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 3, 2016, 11:44:23 AM9/3/16
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On Sat, Sep 3, 2016 at 5:01 PM, Larry Dighera <LDig...@att.net> wrote:
>
> Hello Alex,
>
> The gnuradio package is currently available with apt-get on the RPi running
> Jessie, so compiling it on the RPi may no longer be necessary.

Hi Larry,

Unfortunately, the compiler used for Raspbian does not take proper
advantage of the low-level optimizations available in GNU Radio.
That's why I think it is necessary that we make out own build for RPI2
and RPI3. But when I have a working build, I can simply distribute it
as a binary package so users will not have to build from source.

Users will still be able to use the GNU Radio included in Raspbian for
other purposes if they wish.

Alex

David Ranch

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Sep 3, 2016, 12:22:43 PM9/3/16
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Hey Alex,

Is it really the compiler or just a lack of ideal build-time options that the Debian people aren't setting?  If it is the compiler itself, what are you using?

--David

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 3, 2016, 1:11:24 PM9/3/16
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The compiler in Debian armhf is good, but Raspbian is not the same as
Debian. Raspbian has it's own repositories to keep compatibility with
the old boards. In most cases this doesn't matter but in SDR we do
millions of floating pint calculations per second and so we need to
use the processor features for these.

The compiler that comes with Raspbian fails to build volk, which
contains the low level optimizations for GNU Radio.

Alex
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Adrian Musceac

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Sep 4, 2016, 9:21:01 AM9/4/16
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Hi Larry,
Qt uses by dwfaukt the mit-shm mechanism, you have to disable it specifically if you have problems with it.

Cheers,
adrian
--
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

Dave Baxter

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Sep 5, 2016, 11:01:58 AM9/5/16
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Hi Alex.

Well, have had gqrx for some time now, but not used it of late.   It would appear that some Mint update (running Mint 17.2 32 bit) has seriously broken things.
First instance was that neither of my FCD's (non +) would work, but a standard RTL stick would.   So, having noted that there were updates about, did the usual, having in the past installed it via the PPA.

Another symptom was that the VOLK_PROFILE tests stalled at some "rotatorpuppet" test, and was still causing the PC to emulate a paint stripper after 15 minutes, so I killed it off.

However...
I can't even get any of the repository add/remove tools to run (command not found) in response to (for example):-
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:myriadrf/drivers  (Scraped from the install help page of the website.)

The error reported is:-
sudo: add-apt-repository: command not found

I have (I think) managed to remove and purge gnuradio and libs, but some part of gqrx remains and can't be found to be removed.

So, how these days to re-install the latest version on a 32 bit system?   (A fast i7 box, that ran the earlier version superbly.)

I don't really wish to build from sources, mainly due to the tool-chain baggage that in the past has itself messed badly with other things.
I'm also finding quite a lot of conflicting instructions re the installation/update of gqrx, so the chances are I've done it bad due to out of date info.

73.

Dave G8KBV.


On Friday, 2 September 2016 11:36:17 UTC+1, Alexandru Csete wrote:

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 5, 2016, 5:35:46 PM9/5/16
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Hi Dave,

The recommended way to install the latest version of gqrx is as
written on our website:
http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu

If there is info on the web that conflicts with that page, then it is
either out of date or intended for a target audience that can figure
things out for themselves.

The add-apt-repository script is included in the
software-properties-common package, at least in ubuntu and xubuntu.

You have to try to remember what you did in the past. If you have
installed gqrx and/or gnuradio from source, it has to be removed
before installing binary packages.

Today, there is really no reason whatsoever why end users should
bother installing from source on Ubuntu-like systems. It only makes
sense if you want to debug something and/or know what you are doing.

Alex
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David Chatterton

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Sep 6, 2016, 2:36:00 AM9/6/16
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Thanks Alex,

It all seems to work just fine. I did a purge and re-install just to prove it and it went ahead without errors.

David, 2E0FNY

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Dave Baxter

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Sep 6, 2016, 5:44:55 AM9/6/16
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Hi Alex.

Thanks for the reply.

Sadly, on Mint 17.2(32 bit) at least, add-apt does not exist, and has no option to install from the default repo's.

$ sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:myriadrf/gnuradio

sudo: add-apt-repository: command not found


Even though Mint is Ubuntu based.   (Guess 17.3 might have it, but 17.2(32 bit) does not.  And I'm not ready to move to .3, or 64 bit yet.)

As it is possible to add links to PPA's in Synaptic (Settings Repositories) I guess I can add them there.   If so, what ones do I *Need*  I don't have any hardware from Etus Research (if only) or any BladeRF kit, just basic RTL like dongles, and a few SoftRock's.

However, in there these related PPA's are already listed and enabled (presumably from the previous install.)

http://ppa.launchpad.net/gqrx/gqrx-sdr/ubuntu/
http://ppa.launchpad.net/ki7mt/kvasd-installer/ubuntu/
http://ppa.launchpad.net/myriadrf/drivers/ubuntu/
http://ppa.launchpad.net/myriadrf/gnuradio/ubuntu/
http://ppa.launchpad.net/n-muench/programs-ppa2/ubuntu/


This mayhem started when one of the recent GnuRadio or Gqrx updates was pushed through the a few days ago...

I seem to have managed to purge this PC of GnuRadio and Gqrx, but the current instructions to install the latest version(s) on your webpage do not work on Mint 17.2 at this time.  :-(

I can follow instructions (generally, subject to painted on eyes and finger trouble) and do some limited debugging, but that's about the limit of my 'nix skill's so far.   I.e.  I'm a user, not a developer.

Any help/hints appreciated.

73.

Dave G8KBV (or G0WBX, both valid.)




On Monday, 5 September 2016 22:35:46 UTC+1, Alexandru Csete wrote:
Hi Dave,

The recommended way to install the latest version of gqrx is as
written on our website:
http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu

If there is info on the web that conflicts with that page, then it is
either out of date or intended for a target audience that can figure
things out for themselves.

The add-apt-repository script is included in the
software-properties-common package, at least in ubuntu and xubuntu.

You have to try to remember what you did in the past. If you have
installed gqrx and/or gnuradio from source, it has to be removed
before installing binary packages.

Today, there is really no reason whatsoever why end users should
bother installing from source on Ubuntu-like systems. It only makes
sense if you want to debug something and/or know what you are doing.

Alex



On Mon, Sep 5, 2016 at 5:01 PM, 'Dave Baxter' via Gqrx SDR
<gq...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
> Hi Alex.
>
> Well, have had gqrx for some time now, but not used it of late.   It would
> appear that some Mint update (running Mint 17.2 32 bit) has seriously broken
> things.

<Snipped>

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 6, 2016, 11:06:57 AM9/6/16
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On Sat, Sep 3, 2016 at 8:22 PM, <jmly...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I installed the second update last night. The app is still broken on my
> Ubuntu 14.04LTS system.

Can you be a little more specific? As far as I can see this is your
first post in this thread, so I'm not sure how to interpret "still
broken". If packages were broken for a long time before we upgraded to
GNU Radio 3.7.10, then they will not get fixed by these updates.


Alex

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 6, 2016, 11:53:10 AM9/6/16
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On Tue, Sep 6, 2016 at 11:44 AM, 'Dave Baxter' via Gqrx SDR
<gq...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
> Hi Alex.
>
> Thanks for the reply.
>
> Sadly, on Mint 17.2(32 bit) at least, add-apt does not exist, and has no
> option to install from the default repo's.
>
> $ sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:myriadrf/gnuradio
> sudo: add-apt-repository: command not found

Did you try installing the software-properties-common package?

sudo apt-get install software-properties-common

Installing this package should make the add-apt-repository command available.


> As it is possible to add links to PPA's in Synaptic (Settings Repositories)
> I guess I can add them there. If so, what ones do I *Need* I don't have
> any hardware from Etus Research (if only) or any BladeRF kit, just basic RTL
> like dongles, and a few SoftRock's.

You need all of the PPAs listed because the drivers are linked to the
application at build time and there is no "plugin" framework in gqrx
at the moment.


>
> However, in there these related PPA's are already listed and enabled
> (presumably from the previous install.)
>
> http://ppa.launchpad.net/gqrx/gqrx-sdr/ubuntu/
> http://ppa.launchpad.net/ki7mt/kvasd-installer/ubuntu/
> http://ppa.launchpad.net/myriadrf/drivers/ubuntu/
> http://ppa.launchpad.net/myriadrf/gnuradio/ubuntu/
> http://ppa.launchpad.net/n-muench/programs-ppa2/ubuntu/
>
> This mayhem started when one of the recent GnuRadio or Gqrx updates was
> pushed through the a few days ago...

Sorry about that, however, I am very, very puzzled that you had gqrx
installed from the PPA before without having the bladerf and ettus/uhd
repositories added. Please add all repositories listed on the website
and try again.

Alex

Dave Baxter

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Sep 13, 2016, 8:41:51 AM9/13/16
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OK.

Good (eventually) news.   It's re-installed and working, with a RTL dongle at least.

It took two days of head scratching, and a lot of coffee.

First "add-apt-" does not exist by default in Mint 17.2, not sure about later versions, it is included I find in Linux Lite 3 (for other needs!)  So had to be installed itself, but that also was a task and a half, after spending an hour trawling various Mint and Ubuntu support forums.  Here in the UK with the default Mint repo's, it was difficult to find.  Once that was in, I could successfully re-add the various PPA's as needed.  Attempting that manually in Synaptic, was, shall we say "less than successful", some missing knowledge no doubt on my part was the cause.

Once that was done, I went hunting for and scouring the system for lib's etc installed after the original install of gqrx, as a result finding one mentioned in a few other support forums, and removed it.  (I forget the name, but it's something to do with audio streaming) that was not an original Mint/Ubuntu/gnuradio dependency, but once that was removed, "$ sudo apt install gqrx" worked.   All other soundcard related stuff seems to be working fine, so ???

I just need to check that it all works OK with one of the original FCDPro dongles (not the + version.)

Notes:-

The Volk_Profile tests took an age to complete.   Over an hour and a half on this 2GHz i7 machine!  "Watching it" with htop, it seemed to be running each and every test on every core in sequence.   Odd.   But, eventually it did complete.   The temperature of the CPU cooler exhaust was impressive during that however, as was the fan noise.   (No, it's not blocked with cat hair!)

The CPU usage is indeed greatly reduced from the earlier version.   FM Stereo decoding, with RDS running too, though all 8 cores are "busy", the overall load is "only" about 70%.   Fldigi (for example) can also run decoding Olivia 8:500 from an external soundcard and HF radio without issue, still leaving plenty of CPU for other things.   Nice!

The the Audio Gain control, is very "jumpy", not scrolling smoothly with the mouse wheel at all.  Same as the previous version.

Overall, we're a happy bunny again here.

Thanks for the pointers as to what to look for, but perhaps a link to obtaining "add-apt" tool on the install "how to" page, when that is found to be missing would be good.  If I find my scribbled notes about the library I found that was borking things, I'll also drop a note here.

73 and thanks again.

Dave Baxter (G0WBX/G8KBV)

Adrian Musceac

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Sep 13, 2016, 10:14:54 AM9/13/16
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Hi,
The FM stereo and/or fldigi stuff are very lightweight on demod and processing compared to, for example, LTE or 802.11b/g.
Instead it's mainly a question of sample rates (how much data you pump into the cpu), FFT size, and how sharp the filters are (number of taps).
Also some blocks like the feedforward agc are very computationally expensive despite being quite simple.

Cheers,
Adrian

Alexandru Csete

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Sep 13, 2016, 4:41:05 PM9/13/16
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Hi Dave,

Thanks for the update. I'm glad you got it working.

I have a few clarifying comments and questions below in order to
better understand if there is anything that needs fixing...


> The Volk_Profile tests took an age to complete. Over an hour and a half on
> this 2GHz i7 machine! "Watching it" with htop, it seemed to be running each
> and every test on every core in sequence. Odd. But, eventually it did
> complete.

It runs a single thread (so one core) at 100% CPU, but I am surprised
that it took so long.

>
> The CPU usage is indeed greatly reduced from the earlier version. FM
> Stereo decoding, with RDS running too, though all 8 cores are "busy", the
> overall load is "only" about 70%.

70% out of 100% or 800% (due to the 8 cores)?

> The the Audio Gain control, is very "jumpy", not scrolling smoothly with the
> mouse wheel at all. Same as the previous version.

Do you mean the audio level is jumpy or just the widget in the gui? I
have noticed that the handle jumps when the number of digits changes
and I am trying to figure out how to fix while still keeping a dynamic
size.


> Overall, we're a happy bunny again here.
>
> Thanks for the pointers as to what to look for, but perhaps a link to
> obtaining "add-apt" tool on the install "how to" page, when that is found to
> be missing would be good.

Ok, but how did you end up installing it? Did you install the
software-properties-common package or something else?

Alex
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