Setup:RTLSDR Linux - UQ-Communication-Systems/public GitHub Wiki

In most Linux distributions, the recommended way to install RTLSDR is to use your system packages. For examples

• Fedora: sudo dnf install rtl-sdr
• Ubuntu: sudo apt-get -y install rtl-sdr
• Others: check the rtlsdr page, or install from source.

This installs quite a few utilities including:

/usr/bin/rtl_adsb
/usr/bin/rtl_biast
/usr/bin/rtl_eeprom
/usr/bin/rtl_fm
/usr/bin/rtl_power
/usr/bin/rtl_sdr
/usr/bin/rtl_tcp
/usr/bin/rtl_test

You might also want to install Gnuradio at the same time as RTL-SDR: Install Gnuradio Guide.

There are also VMs which configure all of this - and can be found here.

1. Open Terminal, and type rtl_test -t
2. Output should be as follows

  Found 1 device(s):
    0:  ezcap USB 2.0 DVB-T/DAB/FM dongle
  
  Using device 0: ezcap USB 2.0 DVB-T/DAB/FM dongle
  Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
  Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6
  No E4000 tuner found, aborting.

3. Capture some samples: rtl_sdr -s 2e6 -f 110.9e6 -n 2e6 dump.bin
4. The capture samples example will capture 2 million samples (-n = number), at a sample rate of 2 megasamples/second (-s) and with a centre frequency of 110.9 MHz (-f). The samples will be stored in dump.bin.

You can also use GQRX to listen to tune into certain stations, there are two ways to do this. If GQRX just bounces around, it has hanged, and it needs to be forced quit.

To install GQRX under Linux, follow the GQRX Download Page. For Ubuntu there is a PPA that lets you install it easily. For others, you probably will need to compile from source.

Please let us know if there are any problems.