Would it be possible to add gr-linuxsdr to driver packaging. It allows GNU Radio to use the Linux kernel’s native Video4Linux SDR support; which reduces the amount of manual module blacklisting etc required to get rtl-sdr to work.
(I have not compiled and tested the driver so this is based on reading documentation only)
gr-linuxsdr is not a driver, so it does not belong in the driver PPA. It’s a simple out of tree module that can be compiled and installed after you have installed GNU Radio from the PPA. It could be added to the GNU Radio PPA but I’m not sure it’s worth the effort.
The linux SDR API has very limited device support. Even supported devices are only partially supported. You are much better off using gr-osmosdr and/or soapysdr.
Blacklisting is no longer an issue since all libusb-based driver libraries can safely detach the kernel drivers.