Re: Gnuradio 3.8 on a Raspberry pi 4 B?

[Gwenhael Goavec-Merou]

Hi,
On Fri, 29 May 2020 14:48:48 -0700
Ron Economos <w6rz@comcast.net> wrote:

> There is some middle ground. On my Beagleboard X-15, I use a stripped 
> down console only version of Ubuntu 18.04 and ssh (with X11 forwarding) 
> in from another host. Kernel support is awesome with 4.14, 4.19 and 5.4 
> available along with real-time compiled versions.
> 
> I've been using a Samsung EVO 128 GB microSD card for a year and half 
> now with no problems. For 32-bit testing, I've compiled GNU Radio many 
> many (100's ?) times on that card.
> 
> I was disappointed to see that the Digital Television component was 
> missing on the buildroot version of GNU Radio. The X-15 is (just barely) 
> capable of running the DVB-T2 transmitter at 5 MHz bandwidth, which I 
> consider phenomenal. A RPi4 should do a little better.
>
I have not added gr-dtv more or less because I haven't tested this one. But it
always possible to add this and to contribue by sending to the mailing list.

It's the same for gr-qtgui, I'm working to re-add (this option from buildroot
was dropped in the same time as qt4 before gnuradio 3.8 upgrade).

Gwen

> Ron
> 
> On 5/29/20 08:07, jean-michel.friedt@femto-st.fr wrote:
> > apologies to the list then, I was not aware of the use of RPi as
> > desktop computer, and have always been obsessed with optimization
> > of resources for embedded systems. Most probably for a desktop use,
> > a sub-optimal binary distribution such as Raspbian is best suited indeed,
> > as we find daily on our personal computers.
> >
> > JM
> >
> > --
> > JM Friedt, FEMTO-ST Time & Frequency/SENSeOR, 26 rue de l'Epitaphe,
> > 25000 Besancon, France
> >
> > May 29, 2020 4:56 PM, "Glen Langston" <glen.i.langston@gmail.com> wrote:
> >  
> >> Thanks for your explanation.
> >>
> >> ssh-ing in as root did work fine.
> >>
> >> I find that the rtl_ programs do work, like rtl_fm.
> >>
> >> I also understand your approach to embedded real-time applications.
> >>
> >> This probably works particularly well for the PlutoSDR.
> >>
> >> My goal is for student use, where they are particularly graphical
> >> user interface aware.
> >>
> >> Best regards
> >>
> >> Glen
> >>  
> >>> On May 29, 2020, at 1:57 AM, jean-michel.friedt@femto-st.fr wrote:
> >>>
> >>> It is indeed my belief that there is no point in running a graphical user
> >>> interface on an embedded system, much less a windowing system. If an
> >>> embedded board is supposed to interact with a user, a Qt5 or SDL
> >>> dedicated interface will be much lighter and efficient than a X-Window
> >>> server and a window manager client.
> >>>
> >>> This is the reason for providing the examples at the end of the tutorial
> >>> where a Non GUI flowgraph is generated, the resulting Python script sent
> >>> to the embedded board and running there, possibly streaming the output
> >>> (in my example 0-MQ) to a client. In the case of gr-acars, I just fetch
> >>> periodically the log-file from the RPi4 to the host computer for analysis.
> >>>
> >>> Nevertheless if you want to go in the windowing system direction,
> >>> Buildroot seems to provide Xorg support:
> >>>
> >>> make menuconfig
> >>> Target packages -> Graphic libraries and applications -> X.org X Window
> >>> System
> >>>
> >>> I have never used nor tested, so I have no idea how much space/how long
> >>> it takes to compile.
> >>>
> >>> There is no binary package management system with buildroot: the whole
> >>> point, which makes is different from OpenEmbedded/Yocto, is to generate a
> >>> custom minimal image with only the needed tools and not compile all
> >>> possible binary packages (the disk size difference being about 10-fold,
> >>> with about 8 GB needed for buildroot when my attempt at completing the
> >>> OpenEmbedded system ended at about 80 GB and many unnecessary binary
> >>> packages).
> >>>
> >>> The default network configuration is to fetch the IP address from a DHCP
> >>> server. Otherwise add an etc/network/interfaces entry in the
> >>> output/target directory of buildroot with the static IP configuration, and
> >>> make
> >>> to re-generate sdcard.img including this configuration file. Similarly if
> >>> the usr/share/uhd/images binary files are needed: copy in output/target
> >>> and make.
> >>>
> >>> JM
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> JM Friedt, FEMTO-ST Time & Frequency/SENSeOR, 26 rue de l'Epitaphe,
> >>> 25000 Besancon, France
> >>>
> >>> May 29, 2020 3:33 AM, "Glen Langston" <glen.i.langston@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>  
> >>>> Hi
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks for your help.
> >>>>
> >>>> I’ve written the image to an SDCARD and the PI4 boots to
> >>>> the command line prompt. The password is accepted and
> >>>> I’ve looked around.
> >>>>
> >>>> Gnuradio seems to be installed, but not the xwindow system.
> >>>>
> >>>> How do you use gnuradio-companion etc?
> >>>>
> >>>> I could not find “xstartup” or some such program.
> >>>>
> >>>> Thanks
> >>>>
> >>>> Glen  
> >>> On May 24, 2020, at 3:59 PM, jean-michel.friedt@femto-st.fr wrote:
> >>>
> >>> I have uploaded http://jmfriedt.org/sdcard.img
> >>> my Buildroot image generated for RPi4 that I have been
> >>> using daily for the last 2 months, so pretty sure it is
> >>> working. Actually it is 1.1 GB because of lapack needed
> >>> for gnss-sdr but GNU Radio 3.8/Python3 will only require
> >>> about 500 MB.
> >>> Gwenhael Goavec-Merou ported all GNU Radio related software/libraries
> >>> to Buildroot: the missing parts for gnss-sdr are found at
> >>> https://github.com/oscimp/PlutoSDR in the for_next branch.
> >>>
> >>> root passwd=root, no user account, USRP FPGA images to be added
> >>> in usr/share/uhd/images manually if libuhd is needed. Tested with
> >>> RTL-SDR DVB-T dongle, PlutoSDR (gr-iio) and B210.
> >>>
> >>> JM
> >>>
> >>> --
> >>> JM Friedt, FEMTO-ST Time & Frequency/SENSeOR, 26 rue de l'Epitaphe,
> >>> 25000 Besancon, France
> >>>
> >>> May 24, 2020 9:51 PM, "Glen I Langston" <glen.i.langston@gmail.com> wrote:
> >>>
> >>> Hello
> >>>
> >>> I’ve been a great proponent of gnuradio, but I’m finding in
> >>> increasing difficult to do anything new, as installation of 3.8 is
> >>> essentially impossible for most people.
> >>>
> >>> I’ve written and built my own python modules and C++ blocks.
> >>>
> >>> However, despite months of trying now, I can not get 3.8 to install
> >>> on a raspberry pi.
> >>>
> >>> Has anyone achieved 3.8 on a raspberry pi?
> >>>
> >>> If so can you please save the entire OS, gzip compressed and put it
> >>> online somewhere. It will probably be about 3 GB compressed.
> >>>
> >>> Thanks
> >>>
> >>> Glen
> >>>
> >>> Note that there are many many (too many) different guides on line
> >>>
> >>> 1) apt-get
> >>>
> >>> 2) pybombs
> >>>
> >>> 3) git clone then build
> >>>
> >>> each one fails in a different way.  
>