It was a faff, but I have my LimeSDR mini working fine on macOS 10.13.4, with GNUradio and gqrx. I notice there are a few people asking how to do it.
This is how I did it.
You’ll need MacPorts, so install if if you haven’t already: https://www.macports.org/install.php
Install GNUradio and gqrx:
sudo port install gnuradio
sudo port install gqrx
Install homebrew (if you haven’t already):
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
Add tap and install limesuite:
brew tap pothosware/homebrew-pothos
brew update
brew install limesuite
Now then… your install will by default use the SoapySDRUtil installed by macports as part of the GNUradio installation. It’s the same version as used in brew, so the easiest thing to do is symlink the modules from the brew install to the port install, thus:
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/SoapySDR /opt/local/lib
Now, with your LimeSDR Mini plugged in, run:
SoapySDRUtil --find
And you should see your LimeSDR listed.
Now you can run gqrx. Change the antenna to LNAW, then set the Device to Other… and the device string to driver=lime,soapy=0. Set the input rate to 1000000 and the bandwidth to 1 MHz to start with. Hit play and hopefully it works!
gnuradio-companion should also work. Use the osmocom Source block, thus:
I’ve spent a while trying to correlate the ‘gain’ values to the gain/attenuation blocks available in the LimeSDR Mini, but I can make no sense of it, so I suggest you do what I did and assign each gain block to a slider and fiddle with them randomly until they work.
Have fun!