Installing drivers and support for the SDRplay RSP1A, HackRF One and RTL-SDR on a Raspberry Pi

On a newly installed Debian 64 bit Bookworm operating system with LXDE.

There seems to be little Linux support for SDRplay devices outside of the convenient images from SDRplay with preinstalled software. That software was limited and out of date as of this writing. I have spent quite a bit of time getting an up to date system on which to install the latest Linux SDR software. I have added support for the HackRF One. This procedure uses Debian, which has a lower cpu load than Ubuntu. I hope this helps you. These procedures may work for other SDR hardware except for the drivers and device specific items.

The audio issues have been improved.

I suggest turning off power saving features as they will halt your SDR reception. There are several places where this should be done. There are details near the end of this page.

I basically included prerequisites that were not found on my system. However, there may be a few packages listed that are already installed. This is OK.

Note: I have included support for the SDRplay RSP1A, HackRF One and RTL-SDR. You will only need to install support for the device(s) that you have.

Install Debian:

Download the latest tested arm64 Raspberry Pi image of Debian Bookworm here: https://raspi.debian.net/tested-images/
Look in the "Failed tests" column and select an image that looks OK.
I used this procedure with 2023.06.12 12 (Bookworm) 4. This procedure may not be appropriate for the next major version. Most of the packages in Bookworm have been upgraded to newer versions.
Install the image on a 32 GB or larger SD card. Use your favorite image program. I used Balena Etcher on Windows. For more help extracting and flashing the image, look on the image help page. You may try a smaller SD card if everything will fit on that.
Optionally connect to a wired network.
Boot the image in your Raspberry Pi.
Log in using "root", no password.

The WiFi Internet connection will not work automatically. Here is a relatively manual way to get it going. Replace the items in "<>" with your system information.

# Find the network interface for your WiFi.
ip address

# Edit your network configuration. Replace wlan0 with your WiFi interface.
nano /etc/network/interfaces.d/wlan0

# Remove the "#" symbols at the front of these lines in the file
# With the latest version, uncommenting #iface wlan0 inet6 dhcp will cause WiFi to fail.

allow-hotplug wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
    wpa-ssid <Your SSID>
    wpa-psk <Your WiFi password>

Replace <Your SSID> with your WiFi network name (SSID).
Replace <Your WiFi password> with your WiFi password.

^X to exit
Y to save
Enter to select the path to the existing file

reboot
Update the OS with these commands:
You may have to wait a minute for the time to update. If ntp is not installed, you will have to set the time manually.
```
apt update
apt upgrade
```
Install the LXDE desktop. If the monitor blanks with Mode Not Supported displayed, unplug the monitor and plug it back in after a few seconds.
Without rebooting between these commands, type:
```
apt-get install xserver-xorg
apt-get install xinit
apt-get install lxde-core lxappearance
# lightdm will be installed automatically.
```
reboot.
Log in using "root", no password.
It is recommended that you assign a secure password to the root account.
Note: I had trouble with the system recognizing my HDMI monitor. I had to connect it to the second HDMI port. Also, it did not recognize my 1280X1024 resolution monitor.
Let's install firefox so we don't have to type all of these commands. Mousepad will be needed later.
```
apt-get install firefox-esr mousepad
```

Install some packages that we'll need.

apt install sudo dbus-x11 at-spi2-core lxinput lxterminal

We will now set up the user. I chose username "pi".
```
adduser pi
usermod -a -G sudo,plugdev pi
```
reboot
Log in with your new user login.

Set the time zone

# Display your current time zone info
timedatectl 
timedatectl list-timezones # use the space bar to page thru until you find your time zone
# Set your time zone
sudo timedatectl set-timezone <your_time_zone>

Set locale to en_US.UTF-8 as is needed by wsjt-x
- Install locale. This example is for US English.
```
sudo apt install locales
sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
```
- Move the cursor to en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8 and press the space bar to select.
  Tab to <Ok> and press enter.
  Highlight en_US.UTF-8, Tab to <Ok> and press enter.

If you are using the HDMI-1 port, your monitor may have black borders.

Remove black borders from your monitor

mousepad /etc/default/raspi-firmware-custom

# Insert the following into the file:

disable_overscan=1

# Save the file then run:

sudo update-initramfs -u -k all

reboot

Scroll bar configuration
Sometimes scroll bar behavior is different between applicatons and from what you may prefer. This procedure will make your scroll bar work more like most other operating systems.
Edit or create these files. You may change the values to your preference.

mkdir ~/.config/gtk-3.0
mousepad ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini

# Insert the following into the file:

[Settings]
gtk-primary-button-warps-slider = false

# Save the file.

# Note that Raspberry Pi OS has been deleting gtk.css.

mousepad ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

# Insert the following into the file:

.scrollbar {
    -GtkScrollbar-has-backward-stepper: true;
    -GtkScrollbar-has-forward-stepper: true;
    min-width: 18px;
    min-height: 18px;
}

scrollbar slider {
    /* Size of the slider */
    min-width: 14px;
    min-height: 14px;
    border-radius: 5px;

    /* Padding around the slider */
    border: 2px solid transparent;
}

# Save the file.

Install software:

Install some basics

sudo apt install python3.11-dbg python3.11-dev pyqt5-dev python3-sip python3-pyqt5.sip python3-pyqt5 python3-venv python3-pip
sudo apt install man git g++ build-essential ntfs-3g apt-utils libudev-dev at-spi2-core usbutils xarchiver
# Optional
sudo apt install muon

cmake
- To install the packager version: sudo apt-get install cmake
- For the latest version of cmake, Instructions are here, but the packager version will work. This is a long procedure.

Before installing any compiled software, set these compiler optimization flags. This must be repeated after a reboot or if you use a different terminal window. Note that with this optimization, this image may not boot on other Raspberry Pi hardware.

# For a 64-bit operating system on a Raspberry Pi 4:
export CXXFLAGS='-O3 -mtune=cortex-a72'
export CFLAGS='-O3 -mtune=cortex-a72'

# For other operating systems:
export CXXFLAGS='-O3 -march=native -mtune=native'
export CFLAGS='-O3 -march=native -mtune=native'

Qt5 5.15.2 should already be installed from the LXDE installation.

Install additional Qt5 packages

sudo apt install qt5-qmake qtbase5-dev qtmultimedia5-dev libqt5multimediawidgets5 libqt5multimedia5-plugins qtgstreamer-plugins-qt5 qtcreator libqt5svg5-dev libqt5serialport5-dev qttools5-dev libqwt-qt5-6 libqwt-qt5-dev
sudo apt install libqt5websockets5-dev libqt5charts5-dev qml-module-qtlocation qml-module-qtpositioning qml-module-qtquick-dialogs qml-module-qtquick-controls qml-module-qtquick-controls2 qtdeclarative5-dev qtpositioning5-dev qtlocation5-dev libqt5texttospeech5-dev

SDRplay API Installation
If you upgrade to API 3.15 from an earlier version, it will break your system.
- Prerequisites
```
sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev usbutils libfftw3-dev file
sudo service udev restart
```
- Download API 3.15.2 or later for Linux (64 bit) (3.15) from https://www.sdrplay.com/downloads/.
```
cd ~/Downloads # or wherever you downloaded the file
chmod 755 SDRplay_RSP_API-Linux-3.15.2.run
sudo ./SDRplay_RSP_API-Linux-3.15.2.run
sudo ldconfig
```
- To stop and start the API service, use the following commands...
```
sudo systemctl stop sdrplay
sudo systemctl start sdrplay
```
- Type lsusb. Bus 001 Device 003: ID 1df7:3000 or similar should be displayed.
- If you have SDRplay driver crashes, try this: msi2500 driver conflicts
HackRF One installation
- Prerequisites
  If you did not install these for SDRplay:
```
sudo apt install libusb-1.0-0-dev usbutils libfftw3-dev
```
- Install
```
cd ~/
git clone https://github.com/greatscottgadgets/hackrf
cd hackrf/host
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j 4
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
```
- Reboot
- You need to update the HackRF firmware if it does not match the version of the driver. As of this writing, the latest firmware/driver version was 2024.02.1
  Many HackRF devices have firmware version 2018.01.1 or earlier. Use hackrf_info to see if the firmware version matches the driver that you installed.
```
hackrf_info
```
  If you see "Firmware Version: 2024.02.1 (API:1.08)", then it is up to date and you do not need to do the firmware update shown below.
```
# Transfer rate test:
hackrf_transfer -r /dev/null -s 20000000

# Connect an antenna and test sending data:
hackrf_transfer -t /dev/zero
```
- Firmware updating instructions are based on this:
  https://hackrf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/updating_firmware.html#updating-the-spi-flash-firmware
  Note that the zip and tar.xz archives have the firmware files. The git clone procedure does not.
  
  Download hackrf-2024.02.1.zip
  Extract only the firmware-bin directory into the ~/hackrf directory
```
cd ~/hackrf/firmware-bin

# To update the firmware on a working HackRF One, use the hackrf_spiflash program:
hackrf_spiflash -w hackrf_one_usb.bin

# Press the reset button on the HackRF.
hackrf_info

# The new firmware version should now displayed.
# Perform the hackrf_transfer tests above.
```
Install the rtl-sdr driver
Based on a NESDR SMArt SDR. Others should be similar.
- Connect your rtl-sdr to your Raspbery Pi computer. In a terminal window, type lsusb. If it is working, you should see something similar to: Bus 001 Device 008: ID 0bda:2838 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2838 DVB-T
- We need to "blacklist" the default drivers. This is done by editing blacklist-dvb.conf:
```
sudo mousepad /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-dvb.conf
```
- Add this line to the file:
  blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu
  Save and close the file.
- ```
sudo apt-get install rtl-sdr librtlsdr-dev
```
- reboot
- Connect an antenna. In a terminal window, type rtl_test.
  This tool will continuously read from the device, and report if samples get lost. If you observe no further output, everything is fine.
  Press CTRL-C to stop the test.

GNU Radio 3.10
This will install GNU Radio from packages supplied with Debian. It saves a few hours of installation time over compiling it
Alternately, you can Click Here to install and compile UHD and GNU Radio from source or install a different package version, then skip past this section.

Prerequisites

Install these packages. (some may already be installed).

sudo apt install g++ libcodec2-dev libvolk2-bin libvolk2-dev libvolk2.5 build-essential libgtk-3-dev

sudo apt install libboost-all-dev libgmp-dev swig python3-requests python3-ruamel.yaml python3-setuptools python3-numpy python3-mako python3-sphinx python3-lxml doxygen libsdl1.2-dev libgsl-dev libzmq3-dev cppzmq-dev python3-yaml python3-click python3-click-plugins python3-zmq python3-scipy python3-docutils liborc-0.4-0 liborc-0.4-dev python3-gi-cairo python3-waitress liblog4cpp5-dev liblog4cpp5v5
sudo apt install libsndfile1-dev osspd osspd-pulseaudio sudo osspd-alsa libcppunit-dev libqt5opengl5-dev libpthread-stubs0-dev libudev-dev
sudo apt install pybind11-dev python3-pybind11 pybind11-json-dev libspdlog-dev libspdlog1.10 python3-pygccxml

Install recommended packages

sudo apt install python3-matplotlib python3-networkx python3-pyqt5.qwt libeigen3-dev python3-json-pointer python3-rfc3987 python3-uritemplate python3-webcolors python3-pyqt5.qtopengl

Install UHD and GNU Radio 3.10

Installing them separately will prevent them from installing unwanted packages.

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends libuhd4.3.0 libuhd-dev
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends gnuradio gnuradio-dev

# Show version
gnuradio-config-info -v

# With LightDM, put PYTHONPATH in ~/.xsessionrc instead of ~/.profile
mousepad ~/.xsessionrc
#add this  export command to the end of the file or to any existing PYTHONPATH line. Save changes to make the variables permanent.
export PYTHONPATH=/usr/lib/python3.11/dist-packages:/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages:/usr/local/lib/python3.11/dist-packages:$PYTHONPATH

Create a file named /etc/ld.so.conf.d/gnuradio.conf containing: /usr/lib

sudo mousepad /etc/ld.so.conf.d/gnuradio.conf
# insert the line: /usr/lib
# Save the file

sudo ldconfig

Run VOLK profiler for optimal performance
```
volk_profile
```
reboot

Install SoapySDR
SoapySDR is installed with GNU Radio. We need to add a few packages.
```
sudo apt install libsoapysdr-dev soapysdr-tools
```

Install the Soapy SDR module for SDRPlay

cd ~/
git clone https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDRPlay3.git
cd SoapySDRPlay3
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j4
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

# Type these commands. If your SDR is listed, the hardest work is done!
SoapySDRUtil --info
SoapySDRUtil --probe="driver=sdrplay"

Install the Soapy SDR module for HackRF

cd ~/
git clone https://github.com/pothosware/SoapyHackRF.git
cd SoapyHackRF
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j4
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

# Type this command. Check that your SDR is listed and the details are correct.
SoapySDRUtil --probe="driver=hackrf"

Soapy SDR plugin for RTL-SDR

cd ~/
git clone https://github.com/pothosware/SoapyRTLSDR.git
cd SoapyRTLSDR
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j4
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

# Type this command. Check that your SDR is listed and the details are correct.
SoapySDRUtil --probe="driver=rtlsdr"

Alternate gr-osmosdr module for SDRplay API 3.x - supports RSPduo (all modes) and RSPdx
Please note that this code is still experimental. The installer does find SDRplay, Soapy and HackRF. OsmoSDR does appear in GNU Radio Companion, no reference to SDRplay or Soapy.
```
cd ~/
git clone https://github.com/fventuri/gr-osmosdr.git
cd gr-osmosdr/
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DENABLE_NONFREE=TRUE
```
Under Gnuradio enabled components in the terminal text, check that SDRplay RSP (NONFREE), SoapySDR, HackRF and Osmocom RTLSDR support are listed.
```
make -j4
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
```

gr-sdrplay3
GNU Radio OOT module for SDRplay RSP devices (SDRplay API V3.x)

cd ~/
git clone https://github.com/fventuri/gr-sdrplay3.git
cd gr-sdrplay3
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make -j4
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

Run GNU Radio Companion and check that OsmoSDR and SDRplay3 are present with all of the SDRplay devices under SDRplay3 in the tree on the right side of the window.
Install the Pulse Audio Volume Control
If you don't hear any audio, output may be on the incorrect audio device.
```
sudo apt-get install pavucontrol paprefs
```
Disable the screen savers
It is a challenge to turn off all of the screen savers in Debian. Good luck!
- Go to Preferences > XScreenSaver Settings
  In the Display Modes tab, select Disable Screen Saver.
  On the Advanced tab, ensure that Power Management Enabled in unchecked.
- Go to Preferences > Default applications for LXsession
  Click Autostart.
  Under Known Applications, uncheck Screen Locker.
- After all of this, it may still activate a screen saver and go onto power saving mode!
  - To disable the X screen saver and power management, place these commands in ~/.xsessionrc:
```
mousepad ~/.xsessionrc
```
  - Add these lines to the end of the file and save.
```
xset s 0 0
xset -dpms
```
If you find that the operating system only has mono audio:
```
sudo mousepad /usr/share/pulseaudio/alsa-mixer/profile-sets/default.conf
```
- Comment out each line in the [Mapping analog-mono] section with a ";" at the beginning of the line.
- Save the file and reboot.

Settings that may help with audio problems
So far, audio support on development builds of bullseye is poor.

Create the file /etc/asound.conf

sudo mousepad /etc/asound.conf
# Add these lines to the file
defaults.pcm.card 1
defaults.ctl.card 1

Save the file and close.

Edit /etc/pulse/daemon.conf. Copy it in case there are problems.

sudo mousepad /etc/pulse/daemon.conf

# Uncomment the line: enable-remixing = yes

# Find the following lines and change them as shown:
avoid-resampling = yes
default-sample-rate = 48000
default-fragments = 4
default-fragment-size-msec = 10

reboot

Back to the index