Rtlsdr dongle not being seen by GQRX anymore

[Ronneil Camara]

I built a new Ubuntu machine. GQRX worked with rtlsdr dongle. My airspy arrived so I compiled the libraries. It worked with GQRX too. However, GQRX does not list the rtlsdr dongle anymore. I've tried reinstalling GQRX using http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu but it didn't help. I tried compiling and installing GQRX from source, it still didn't list it.

lsusb shows the device

$ lsusb

Bus 002 Device 005: ID 0bda:2838 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2838 DVB-T

Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0430:0100 Sun Microsystems, Inc. 3-button Mouse

Bus 001 Device 003: ID 04f2:0841 Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd HP Multimedia Keyboard

Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub

Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

lsmod doesn't show rtl which means I've properly blacklisted it

$ lsmod |grep rtl

It just went back to the prompt

rtl_fm detects it properly and I am able to listen to fm stations, etc

$ rtl_fm -f 105.5M

Found 1 device(s):

  0:  Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM

Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner

Tuner gain set to automatic.

Tuned to 105752000 Hz.

Oversampling input by: 42x.

Oversampling output by: 1x.

Buffer size: 8.13ms

Exact sample rate is: 1008000.009613 Hz

Sampling at 1008000 S/s.

Output at 24000 Hz.

�$���sǝ�+��6Yͽ.�-x��� �u�������

What could be affecting GQRX not to see it?

[Alexandru Csete]

This is getting ridiculous...

Like it has been said a million times, ff you have a clean Ubuntu
machine, follow the instructions here:
http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu

Don't install anything from source! Why is this so hard to understand???

Alex

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[Ronneil Camara]

I'm sorry but looks like you didn't read my post. You answered right away without checking my sentences. I even included that same link you posted in my post too

[Alexandru Csete]

On Mon, Feb 5, 2018 at 2:36 PM, Ronneil Camara <ronnei...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm sorry but looks like you didn't read my post. You answered right away
> without checking my sentences. I even included that same link you posted in
> my post too

I have read your post three times before answering, but it lacks
significant details and I had to make certain assumptions. Sorry if
these assumptions were wrong.

Good luck

Alex

[Ronneil Camara]

I'll share the solutions if I figure it out. Thanks.

[Jeff Long]

There is a stack of software:

--------------------------
GQRX
--------------------------
gr-osmosdr | Soapy
--------------------------
Device-specific libraries
--------------------------

And GNU Radio is in there too, but people don't seem to have as much
trouble with it getting out of sync as they do with other components.

Here are some debugging steps:

o Make sure the device is works, e.g., follow the steps in the original
post for RTL (rtl_test).

o Make sure the intermediate library is working with the device. For
gr-osmosdr, in this case, try one of the osmocom utilities, like:

osmocom_spectrum_sense -a rtlsdr 90000000 110000000

o If both of those steps work, and GQRX doesn't, then it's likely there
is a library path error, or there are multiple copies of some library.

Keep in mind that anything you've built and installed locally can have
an effect, even after it's removed. Building the whole stack it great,
but be ready to rebuild it later when something goes wrong.

[Ronneil Camara]

Cool! I'll try osmocom_spectrum_sense tool tonight. It's my first time hearing about this tool.

Yes, rtl* tools works without any issues.

I did install Soapy to get Airspy Mini working. I think that was the time when I didn't see my rtlsdr chip from the GQRX dropdown.

Thank you!

[Alexandru Csete]

You do not need SoapySDR to use the Airspy mini with gqrx. SoapySDR is
currently only required for LimeSDR and for SDRPlay (until Jeffs patch
to gr-osmosdr is added).
SoapySDR is actually an extra layer and it should be avoided if possible.

I have attached a simplified dependency diagram. I hope this
illustrates well why I tell people not to build anything from source
unless they know what they are doing.

Anyway, if you get tired of debugging and decide to reinstall your
system from scratch, you can simply use the PPA or the alternative
binary package I provided for v2.9

Both should give you functioning support for rtlsdr and all existing
types of Airspies.

Alex

[Robin Gape]

If you are still having problems, it's almost certainly, as Alex clearly suggested, because there is now a mix of libraries installed from packages and libraries installed from source.

However, in your defence, as it were, the instructions at http://gqrx.dk/supported-hardware#airspyhf baldly state:

Airspy HF+

• Supported since v2.9
• Needs this airspyhf branch from gr-osmosdr-gqrx fork

Those words imply the need to perform a compilation. (That compilation might be required for other distributions.) However, the release announcement for 2.9 stated:

There is a new Gqrx release available, with the following updates:

 - Verified Airspy HF+ support
 - Always save TCP and UDP host settings
 - Fixed application hang when pulseaudio server is not running

Otherwise it has been mostly a packaging exercise.

The local install on Ubuntu, from the PPAs only, of GQRX 2.10 offers to process the following sources:

built-in source types: file osmosdr fcd rtl rtl_tcp uhd plutosdr miri hackrf bladerf rfspace airspy airspyhf soapy redpitaya

That leads one to believe that an Airspy HF+ should be supported out-of-the-box, since the install has also brought in package libairspyhf0, maintained by Alex.

Very sadly, I don't have access to the necessary hardware to check the theory out. You, lucky person, do! The simplest way of testing the theory would be to:

make a clean install of Ubuntu (on a spare partition, perhaps)

add the PPAs & install gqrx-sdr as per http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu

confirm that an RTL-dongle, when plugged in, is supported as expected

confirm that an AirSpy HF+, when plugged in, is supported as expected

Good luck, 73,

Robin, G8DQX

[Ronneil Camara]

Thank you Alex. I used your PPA last night but GQRX still didn't list my rtlsdr dongle. I followed all the steps from the link. I even ran volk_profile which took like 10 mins to complete.

I wasn't aware Soapy was not required to get Airspy working.

I'll try it again tonight.

[Ronneil Camara]

Mine is Airspy Mini Jeff, not HF+.

[Ronneil Camara]

Everything is working now. It's was a quick fix. I went to the git repo of libraries I compiled. I ran make uninstall. Then I checked /usr/local/lib and /usr/local/include to see if there were left libraries. There were. I rm -rf those libraries. I rebooted the machine then I finally redid the http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu 

Fyi, I tried the osmocom tool before I did the above. It didn't find my device.

:) Thank you Alex/Jeff!

[Ronneil Camara]

check this out, I have my airspy and rtlsdr dongle connected. GQRX sees it now. :)

[Simon Kennedy]

I read your post and I would have replied the same as Alex. You appear too have installed from source (you refer to compiling from source) and when that didn't work you installed from the ppa.

It has been said many times on this group that gqrx will not work if installing from the ppa after compiling from source *unless* you completely eradicate all the components and libraries previously installed to compile from source.

Simon.

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