SoapySDR expected location for Mac

[elgambitero]

Hello everybody

First, congratulations for such an incredible SDR software. I use it regularly with my Hermes Lite and it's really a blast.

I got a LibreSDR and I have been wrestling for a bit with it, I managed to connect to it with GQRX, but I'd really be nice to use SparkSDR.

I see there is an expected location for the SoapySDR driver for windows, but I cannot find which one is the expected location in Mac. Same applies for linux.

It's not stated on the manual. If anyone can direct me to any post where that's discussed, that'd be a ton of help.

Thank you all!

EA4IAU

[elgambitero]

OK I enabled extended logging and I caught an entry saying this:
```
[2026-01-24 22:15:59.935] [sc] [info] sdrplay dll not found /usr/local/lib/libsdrplay_api.so.3.0
[2026-01-24 22:15:59.935] [sc] [info] soapy discover
[2026-01-24 22:15:59.936] [sc] [info] soapy failed to load dll libSoapySDR.so.0.6
```

I imagined that perhaps it was looking for the drivers in /usr/local/lib/, Despite the name mismatch (so vs dylib) I just created symlinks of the SoapySDR library I have installed from macports (it's the 0.8.1 but maybe it would work?).

But I got pretty much the same logs.

Has anyone gotten a SoapySDR rig to work on Mac?

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi  EA4IAU,

I really can't remember if I tested soapy on mac but the code does try a number of dll names including libSoapySDR.dylib so it might be worth checking that that exists or a symlink with that name.   libSoapySDR.so.0.6 is just the last one it tries.

73 Alan M0NNB

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi,

I now remember I did get soapy running on the mac and don't remember doing anything special. One thought is If you are running the apple silicon version of spark then soapy also needs to be an apple silicon version and the same for intel versions.

73 Alan M0NNB

[elgambitero]

OK! I'll try the regular libSoapySDR.dylib one and I'll report back 

[elgambitero]

It did not work. Is /usr/local/lib the right folder?

Another thing i have that can raise some eyebrows is that my SoapySDR driver version is 0.8, and Spark is explicitly looking for 0.6. Everything is arm64.

Would trying and compiling the 0.6 version of the driver make a difference?

Thank you for your quick response

[elgambitero]

OK I tried and compiled the 0.6.0 version of SoapySDR, and installed it on that folder.

I still get this on corelog:

[2026-01-25 12:16:03.837] [sc] [info] soapy discover
[2026-01-25 12:16:03.874] [sc] [info] soapy failed to load dll libSoapySDR.so.0.6

I also tried to put the library inside the SparkSDR.app bundle within the other bunch of dylibs, it did not work.

Can you tell me which steps you followed when you got soapy working on mac? did you install any particualr version, or used any particular location?

Thank you for your help

[ahop...@googlemail.com]

Hi,

sorry I can't remember exactly what I did. It will work with 0.8, 0.7 or 0.6 , 0.6 is just the last one it tries.  Does anything else work with soapy on your mac, it maybe that the soapy dylib has other dependences.

73 Alan M0NNB