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Building SDR++ from source code on a Raspberry PI 4 4GB

SDR++, The bloat-free SDR software


Here is the link to my video for this https://youtu.be/DJfWr0Wvxq8

This assumes that you have already installed your SDR drivers, for the RTL-SDR I use the Osmocom ones from https://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-quick-start-guide/

Having found how good SDR++ is on Windows 11, I wanted it on my Raspberry PI 4 too. I did find a YouTube article from 2021 by Kevin Loughin https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNhh9eueYZg&t=2s who used Alexandre Rouma's install script and source code https://github.com/AlexandreRouma/SDRPlusPlus/

Kevin was using an older version of Raspberry Pi OS and also discovered that the installation script had been written blind (untested) and had a couple of issues, he referred to cloning direct from GitHub which is common practice, but that command was simply missing. No matter, I managed to change the commands script as below and started to compile it myself discovering that the Volk software v1.0 was no longer available. A helpful bash message informed me that v2 was available and I changed the script for that.  I also had to include sudo and a mkdir for the CMake folder and set those permissions for it to work. After a very long wait and a few edits as I am running the current version of Raspberry PI OS 32 bit Buster. I compiled it for an RTL-SDR, but you can change one command and compiling for other versions should be really straightforward.

My script for the RTL-SDR is below, I will put this on my GitHub too. 
https://github.com/TekMaker/SDRplus

#!/bin/sh
set -e

[ $(id -u) = 0 ] && echo "Please do not run this script as root" && exit 100

echo "Installing dependencies"
sudo apt update

sudo apt install -y build-essential cmake git libfftw3-dev libglfw3-dev libglew-dev libvolk2-dev libsoapysdr-dev libairspyhf-dev libairspy-dev \
libiio-dev libad9361-dev librtaudio-dev libhackrf-dev librtlsdr-dev libbladerf-dev liblimesuite-dev p7zip-full wget

git clone https://github.com/AlexandreRouma/SDRPlusPlus

cd SDRPlusPlus

echo "Preparing build"
sudo mkdir -p build

cd build
sudo mkdir -p CMakeFiles

cmake .. -DOPT_BUILD_RTL_SDR_SOURCE=ON

echo "Building"
make

echo "Installing"
sudo make install

echo "Done!"


Save this file as rpi_install.sh

then chmod +x rpi-install.sh

./rpi_install.sh

If it doesn't go smoothly try entering the commands one line at a time into the terminal, you can skip the echo commands. I have built this on two installs so far with no problems.

If you want to compile for other radios either edit or add extra lines like this one "cmake .. -DOPT_BUILD_RTL_SDR_SOURCE=ON", for more information about this go to the Module List, and look for the Sources list on the github page https://github.com/AlexandreRouma/SDRPlusPlus/blob/master/readme.md.


Let me know how you get on with this!

Comments

  1. bemiBobTuesday, 16 May, 2023

    I couldn't get the script to run without error. Running line by line it failed on sudo cmake .. -DOPT_BUILD_RTL_SDR_SOURCE=ON
    -- The C compiler identification is GNU 9.4.0
    -- The CXX compiler identification is GNU 9.4.0
    -- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc
    -- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/cc -- works
    -- Detecting C compiler ABI info
    -- Detecting C compiler ABI info - done
    -- Detecting C compile features
    -- Detecting C compile features - done
    -- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++
    -- Check for working CXX compiler: /usr/bin/c++ -- works
    -- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info
    -- Detecting CXX compiler ABI info - done
    -- Detecting CXX compile features
    -- Detecting CXX compile features - done
    -- Performing Test COMPILER_SUPPORTS_WPEDANTIC
    -- Performing Test COMPILER_SUPPORTS_WPEDANTIC - Success
    -- Looking for dotprod in FEC
    -- Looking for dotprod in FEC - not found
    -- Performing Test HAVE_SSE
    -- Performing Test HAVE_SSE - Failed
    -- Found PkgConfig: /usr/bin/pkg-config (found version "0.29.1")
    -- Checking for module 'glfw3'
    -- Found glfw3, version 3.3.2
    -- Found OpenGL: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libOpenGL.so
    -- Checking for module 'fftw3f'
    -- Found fftw3f, version 3.3.8
    -- Checking for module 'volk'
    -- Found volk, version 2.2
    -- Checking for module 'libzstd'
    -- No package 'libzstd' found
    CMake Error at /usr/share/cmake-3.16/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cmake:463 (message):
    A required package was not found
    Call Stack (most recent call first):
    /usr/share/cmake-3.16/Modules/FindPkgConfig.cmake:643 (_pkg_check_modules_internal)
    core/CMakeLists.txt:127 (pkg_check_modules)


    -- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
    See also "/home/bob/SDRPlusPlus/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
    See also "/home/bob/SDRPlusPlus/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log".

    ReplyDelete

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