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gr-osmosdr

One GNU Radio source block that speaks to nearly every SDR

What it does

Provides a single GNU Radio source and sink pair that talks to RTL-SDR, HackRF, Airspy, bladeRF, SDRplay, USRP, FunCube and several others, all behind one device-string interface. Change the string, not the flow graph.

Why you would want it

Without it, every SDR needs its own source block and every flow graph is tied to the hardware it was drawn for. This is why a flow graph downloaded from someone with a HackRF runs on your RTL-SDR. It is also what gqrx and a good deal of other software use underneath.

Before it will work

GNU Radio, and the driver library for whatever hardware you have -- this is a shim over those libraries, not a replacement for them.

How it installs

  • apt: gr-osmosdr

Known problems

Which devices are actually supported depends on which driver libraries were present when the package was built, and an unsupported device fails to open with a message about the device string rather than about the missing driver. Development upstream has been slow, and SoapySDR is the newer answer to the same problem -- both are carried here because software in the wild uses both.

Keeping it current

  • probe: apt policy
  • strategy: apt_upgrade

Where to get help with the software itself

The Osmocom project.

Source: catalog/packages/gr-osmosdr.yaml