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dump1090-mutability

The older dump1090 fork, kept because two targets still carry it

What it does

Decodes Mode S and ADS-B from an RTL-SDR and serves the results over the network and through a small built-in web map. It is the "mutability" fork of the original dump1090, packaged by Debian and Ubuntu.

Why you would want it

Mostly you want readsb, which this catalog carries and which is the maintained continuation of the same lineage with a better decoder. This entry exists because a great deal of written advice names dump1090-mutability specifically, and because two of our six targets are where it still is.

Before it will work

An RTL-SDR that reaches 1090 MHz and an antenna for that band. It wants exclusive use of the dongle.

How it installs

  • apt: dump1090-mutability
  • Only Ubuntu 26.04 and Linux Mint 22.3 carry this, both at 1.15~20180310. No candidate on Debian 13, Kali or Parrot (measured 2026-08-28). That is worth stating precisely because it inverts the usual advice: on the primary target the package everyone's ADS-B tutorial names does not exist, and readsb is what does. The why, from the Debian tracker (2026-09-04): removed from testing on 2024-08-10 over RC bug #1039187 -- a sysv-init script with no systemd unit -- and it never re-entered, so Debian 13 released without it and Kali and Parrot follow testing. Ubuntu's line kept it. Nothing about that is going to change for a fork whose upstream stopped in 2018.

Known problems

The upstream snapshot is from 2018 and the fork is not developed; the Homepage Debian declares is the mutability repository, which has not moved in years. Absent from Debian 13, Kali and Parrot, so following an instruction to install it there will fail -- use readsb. Its web map binds locally by default; exposing it publishes your receiver's location.

Keeping it current

  • probe: apt policy
  • strategy: apt_upgrade

Where to get help with the software itself

Effectively none upstream. The distribution package is the support route, and readsb is where the development went.

Source: catalog/packages/dump1090-mutability.yaml