Software Defined Radio (SDR)



 

The only solution to run the program in a Linux environment under Wine for now involves solving three major problems:

Problem n°1 :

Old versions ofSDR#, were originally developed for the Windows ™ operating system and Microsoft Net Framework 3.5. To install the software, we have to  download as a small script that, once launched, recovers all components of the software via Internet. But this script did not work under Linux environment.

Last versions of SDR€ available for download on the author Website are now complete but only works with Microsoft Net Framework 4.6 that is still not available for Wine.

Solution :

Using the last version of SDR# running with Microsoft Net Framework version 3.5 available in "Software/Download" area which includes all components of the program including the Doppler effect correction plugin.

Problème n°2 :

SDR# needs the software "Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1" to run. Installing this component on Linux is the most time consuming process because we must first download and install all its previous versions to setup the one needed. However, the automatic recovery of the files systematically fails. The installation is then stopped and the user has to to recover himself the files that must be saved to the right place and each time the setup is interrupted, the whole installation process has to be started again.

Solution :

Problème n°3 :

SDR# don't detect any hardware on Linux.

Solution :

Using a network gateway to solve the problem.

 

 

1) Right Click on the desktop and select "Open in a terminal" in the menu. If you already have installed SDR#for Mono you can jump to the step 11.

2) Now we need to  allow the use of DTT receivers and install the program that will make the bridge between hardware and SDR#. In the terminal window, type the following command and confirm with "Enter":

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/no-rtl.conf

3) Enter the root password when asked and confirm with "Enter".

4) In the editor window, add the following lines :

blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu

blacklist rtl2832

blacklist rtl2830

Then click on the "Save" button and close the window.

5) Next, type the command below and validate with "Enter" :

sudo gedit /etc/sysctl.d/10-ptrace.conf

6) In the next window, locate the line kernel.yama.ptrace_scope = 1   at the bottom of the screen.

7) Change the value 1 to 0 (zero) like this : kernel.yama.ptrace_scope = 0

8) Go to the "File" menu, click on "Save" then close the window.

9) Back to the terminal window, enter the following command line and validate with "Enter" :

sudo apt-get install -y rtl-sdr

10) Once the installation is over, you're ready for the next step...

11) Enter the following lines then press "Enter" :  sudo apt-get install -y winetricks

12) Once winetricks installed, close the terminal window.

13) Launch "PlayOnLinux" then click on the "Configure" button at the top-right on the toolbar.

14) Click on "New" at the bottom-left.

15) Click on "Next".

16) Select "32 bits windows installation" even if your operating system is 64 bits.

17) Then click on "Next".

18) Name the virtual disk "SDR" then click on "Next".

19) Wait while the virtual disk is created.

20) Once the virtual disk created, close the PlayOnLinux window.

21) Go to the "Software/Download" area and get the "winetricks" archive.

22) Save the file to the place of your choice. In this example, it is saved in the "Software" folder on the desktop.

23) Right-Click beside the archive. In the contextual menu, click on "Open in a terminal".

24) In the terminal, enter this command and press "Enter" :

tar xvf winetricks.tar.gz -C $HOME/.cache

25) All the necessary files to install "Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1" are copied to the ".cache" folder used by winetricks for the installation process. This will prevent the program to download files and stop the process in case of failure.

26) To start the setup of Microsoft.NET Framtework 3.5, enter the 3 following commands :

export WINEARCH=win32

export WINEPREFIX=$HOME/.PlayOnLinux/wineprefix/SDR

winetricks -q dotnet35sp1 corefonts

27) Setup is launched. Be patient, this step is very long...

28) Once installation is finished, you can close the terminal window.

29) Download the SDR# for Linux archive.

30) and save the file in the same place you have choosen for winetricks.

31) Right click beside the archive's icons and select "Open in a terminal" in the menu.

32) Enter this command to copy the SDR# directory to the 'SDR' virtual drive that we have created at the beginning of this tutorial :

33) When the SDR# folder is copied to the virtual drive, close the terminal window.

34) Now, open PlayOnLinux and click on the "Configure" icon on the toolbar.

35) When the configuration window is opened, "default" virtual drive is selected. Click on "SDR" in the list.

36) Then, on the right side, click on the "Wine" tab.

37) Next, click to the "Configure Wine" button.

38) In the new window, click on the "Libraries" tab.

39) We are going to install the gdiplus library needed by SDR# to display waterfall.

40) Type "gdiplus" like the picture below then click on "Add" button to the right.

41) Select "gdiplus (native, integrated)" in the list then click on "Modify..." button to the right.

42) Select "native (Windows)" in the list then click on the "OK" button.

43) Click on "OK" at the bottom of the window.

44) Next step, click on the "Main" tab then click on the "Create a new shortcut from this virtual disk" button.

45) Select "SDRSharp.exe" in the list then click on "Next".

46) Click on "Next".

47) Select "I don't want to create another icon" at the top of the list then click on "Next".

48) SDRSharp is now added to the software list.

49) Click on "SDRSharp" then "Configure" on the left.

50) Then click on the "Miscellaneous" tab.

51) In the input area at the bottom of the window, enter the command rtl_tcp & then close the window.

52) Now use the desktop shortcut of SDR# to start the software.

53) Welcome to SDR# !

54) On the left panel, select the "RTL-SDR (TCP)" source.

55) Then, click on the "Configure" icon just on the left of the speaker icon on the toolbar.

56) Check the "Host" address which must be set to 127.0.0.1 and the port to 1234. If it is not the case, adjust the settings. Then select the highest "Sample Rate" (3.2 MSPS in this example). To Finish, close the window.

57) Click on the "Play" icon in the toolbar to start...

58) SDR# is now running under Linux !