LimeSDR setup with GnuRadio

Projects LimeSDR
23

Hi Marty,

Yes, it’s weird, because for me it really just worked without breaking a sweat. I think you have several versions of several things installed that gets mixed up - that’s the best I can guess based on “that error message about shared Libs”

Does SDoapySDRUtil see the LimeSDR?

I am going to describe what I have done one last time so you can see everything in one post.

  1. Fresh Xubuntu 14.04 – no gnuradio or any related packages installed

  2. Install cmake 3 from their PPA: https://launchpad.net/~george-edison55/+archive/ubuntu/cmake-3.x

  3. Install Gqrx following the instructions here: http://gqrx.dk/download/install-ubuntu – This should give you a working gqrx, so please test it with rtl-sdr, airspy or whatever you have available (not the limesdr though)

  4. Install gnuradio-dev, gr-osmosdr, libsoapysdr-dev and soapysdr packages (also from PPA). These are needed to build SoapyLMS7.

  5. Install limesuite from source

.

cd /home/marty/sdr/limesdr/
git clone https://github.com/myriadrf/LimeSuite.git limesuite.git
cd limesuite.git
git submodule update --init --recursive
cd src
mkdir build
cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=release -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/home/marty/sdr/limesdr/runtime -DENABLE_EVB7COM=OFF -DENABLE_LIBRARY=ON -DENABLE_NOVENARF7=OFF
make
make install

If you go into the runtime directory and run tree you should see:

.
├── bin
│   └── LimeSuiteCalibrate
├── include
│   └── lime
│       ├── ADCUnits.h
│       ├── ADF4002.h
│       ├── CalibrationCache.h
│       ├── ConnectionHandle.h
│       ├── ConnectionRegistry.h
│       ├── dataTypes.h
│       ├── ErrorReporting.h
│       ├── fifo.h
│       ├── FPGA_common.h
│       ├── IConnection.h
│       ├── INI.h
│       ├── LimeSuiteConfig.h
│       ├── LMS64CCommands.h
│       ├── LMS64CProtocol.h
│       ├── LMS7002M.h
│       ├── LMS7002M_parameters.h
│       ├── LMS7002M_RegistersMap.h
│       ├── LMSBoards.h
│       ├── LMS_StreamBoard_FIFO.h
│       ├── LMS_StreamBoard.h
│       ├── MCU_BD.h
│       ├── MCU_File.h
│       ├── Si5351C.h
│       ├── StreamerLTE.h
│       ├── StreamerNovena.h
│       └── version.h
└── lib
    ├── libLimeSuite.a
    └── SoapySDR
        └── modules
            └── libLMS7Support.so

Now you have to copy the udev-rules and set up the path for SoapySDR:

sudo cp limesuite.git/udev-rules/64-limesuite.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
export SOAPY_SDR_PLUGIN_PATH=/home/marty/sdr/limesdr/runtime/lib/SoapySDR/modules

Plugin the device and check that SoapySDRUtil can find it:

$ SoapySDRUtil --find
######################################################
## Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library
######################################################

Found device 0
  addr = 241:1204
  driver = lime
  media = USB
  module = STREAM
  name = USB 2.0 (LimeSDR-USB)

If this works then gqrx should also work. Note that you have to do the “export SOAPY_SDR_PLUGIN_PATH…” in the same terminal from where you launch gqrx.

Clearly, this is not the only way, but if you make any deviations from the above, please document it thoroughly so we can understand what is going on. Also, at some point somebody was talking about virtual machines. Please don’t use them!

Alex