So, let me start off with I am sorry this post is so long.
I am one of those people who received their LimeSDR Mini from CrowdSupply and cannot make it work on Ubuntu. GQRX seemed to be working in windows 8.1 but no joy on my primary use case – and I have tried like hell.
I started by building everything from source on raspberry pi 3b but i had no luck with that. There were various issues where entirely different driver names would show up as compared to the packages so I have taken a step back. I am now trying to do a vanilla install on Intel using an Asus Ubox.
I have Ubuntu 16.04 LTS installed on a 64 bit celeron cpu. This should be easy to get going right? I have deleted all my builds from /usr/local and I followed the instructions from https://wiki.myriadrf.org/Lime_Suite – At this point, the base software looks good. LimeSDUtil is responsive and says all the right things. LimeSuiteGUI is able to identify the radio, connect to it, pull sensor data, booya. That works.
Next, I installed gqrx basically with these instructions https://launchpad.net/~gqrx/+archive/ubuntu/gqrx-sdr/
and since I dont like to redo the same bits of work I integrated the two sets of instructions into one script that looks like this:
https://launchpad.net/~gqrx/+archive/ubuntu/gqrx-sdr/
I installed it like this:
root@radiohead:/home/jason# cat make-myriadrf-install.sh
#!/bin/bash
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:myriadrf/drivers &&
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:bladerf/bladerf &&
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:myriadrf/drivers &&
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:myriadrf/gnuradio &&
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:gqrx/gqrx-sdr &&
sudo apt-get update && \
sudo apt-get install -y limesuite liblimesuite-dev limesuite-udev limesuite-images &&
sudo apt-get install -y soapysdr soapysdr-module-lms7 && \
echo ==== testing phase ====
echo " == testing limeutil =="
LimeUtil --info
echo " == testing SoapySDRUtil --info =="
SoapySDRUtil --info
echo " == testing SoapySDRUtil with driver=lime =="
SoapySDRUtil --find=“driver=lime” | tee /tmp/outfile
count=grep "LimeSDR Mini" /tmp/outfile |wc -l
if [ $count -ne 2 ]; then
echo SoapySDRUtil --find=“driver=lime” FAILED.
echo not install gqrx-sdr
else
echo === SoapSDRUtil SUCCESS ===
sudo apt-get install gqrx-sdr
fi
A re-run of the installation script output looks like this: https://pastebin.com/HWuiZKK4
Okay, here is where the bad news comes in…
GRQX complains about setting frequencies. I used to have a whole other set frequency related errors and then I followed some post about calibrating the radio. Some of which worked and bits of the instructions threw errors… Frankly, that part was totally over my head. Here is what I have now when starting gqrx
Loading configuration from: “/root/.config/gqrx/default.conf”
Configuration file: “/root/.config/gqrx/default.conf”
gr-osmosdr v0.1.x-xxx-xunknown (0.1.5git) gnuradio 3.7.10
built-in source types: file osmosdr fcd rtl rtl_tcp plutosdr miri hackrf bladerf rfspace airspy airspyhf soapy redpitaya
[INFO] Make connection: ‘LimeSDR Mini [USB 2.0] 1D3AC9CAF1F71E’
[INFO] Device name: LimeSDR-mini
[INFO] Reference: 40 MHz
[INFO] Init LMS7002M(0)
[INFO] Ver=7, Rev=1, Mask=1
[INFO] LMS7002M calibration values caching Disable
CGEN: Freq=80 MHz, VCO=2.56 GHz, INT=63, FRAC=0, DIV_OUTCH_CGEN=15
CGEN: Freq=61.44 MHz, VCO=2.4576 GHz, INT=60, FRAC=461373, DIV_OUTCH_CGEN=19
CGEN: Freq=61.44 MHz, VCO=2.4576 GHz, INT=60, FRAC=461373, DIV_OUTCH_CGEN=19
CGEN: Freq=80 MHz, VCO=2.56 GHz, INT=63, FRAC=0, DIV_OUTCH_CGEN=15
[ERROR] SetFrequencyCGEN(80 MHz) failed:
INT: 63 FRAC: 0 DIV_OUTCH_CGEN: 15
VCO: 2560 MHz RefClk: 40 MHz
TuneVCO(CGEN) - VCO too low
M=156, N=3, Fvco=1040.000 MHz
M=156, N=3, Fvco=1040.000 MHz
MCU programming : 16384/16384
MCU Programming finished, 3126 ms
[ERROR] MCU working too long 4
[ERROR] setBandwidth(Rx, 0, 30 MHz) Failed - SetFrequencyCGEN(80 MHz) failed:
INT: 63 FRAC: 0 DIV_OUTCH_CGEN: 15
VCO: 2560 MHz RefClk: 40 MHz
TuneVCO(CGEN) - VCO too low
FATAL: SetFrequencyCGEN(80 MHz) failed:
INT: 63 FRAC: 0 DIV_OUTCH_CGEN: 15
VCO: 2560 MHz RefClk: 40 MHz
TuneVCO(CGEN) - VCO too low
Trying to fill up 1 missing channel(s) with null source(s).
This is being done to prevent the application from crashing
due to gnuradio bug #528.
So as far as I can tell, GRQX is as deaf as my 92 year old great aunt. When I start the DSP I get an endless stream of “No audio FFT data” sent to stderr
Also, on the input Controls tab, there are no antenna options. I recall there being four or five options when it ran in wintel.
I am pretty sure my installation of the repo packages is solid. Is there some tuning that needs to happen to get the linkage in-line? Any ideas?
