Re: Teething problems with new GNU Radio 3.9 installation

[Josh Morman]

Brendan,

If you are able to, I would recommend updating to Ubuntu 20.04 and then using the ppa to install 3.9: https://wiki.gnuradio.org/index.php/InstallingGR (from PPA section)

If you are stuck with 18.04, I would recommend dropping back to v3.8 and follow the same instructions. 

If you must install from source, I have been able to build 3.9 on 18.04 using these prerequisites (and then volk from source):

https://github.com/mormj/gnuradio-docker/blob/maint-3.9/ubuntu/18.04/buildreqs.Dockerfile

Josh

On Wed, Apr 21, 2021 at 2:21 AM Brendan Horsfield <brendan.horsfield@vectalabs.com> wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I have just finished installing GNU Radio 3.9.0.0 on my Ubuntu laptop, and I am having some difficulties getting it to work properly.  It feels like I have missed a step, but I don't know what it could be.

I installed GNU Radio by building it from source as per the instructions in https://wiki.gnuradio.org/index.php/InstallingGR#From_Source and https://wiki.gnuradio.org/index.php/UbuntuInstall#Install_the_Pre-Requisites (see below for details).  The process seemed to go smoothly, with no errors reported.  

However, when I open a bash terminal and type "gnuradio-companion", I get the following warning messages:

<<< Welcome to GNU Radio Companion 3.9.0.0 >>>
Block paths: /usr/local/share/gnuradio/grc/blocks
Loading: "/home/anyone/Documents/Brendan/GNU-Radio/GNR-Radio-3_9_0_0/test.grc"
>>> Done
Warning: restarting the docstring loader (crashed while loading 'qtgui_grbackground')
Warning: restarting the docstring loader (crashed while loading 'qtgui_auto_correlator_sink')
Warning: restarting the docstring loader (crashed while loading 'qtgui_bercurve_sink')
Warning: restarting the docstring loader (crashed while loading 'qtgui_compass')
Warning: restarting the docstring loader (crashed while loading 'qtgui_const_sink_x')
Warning: docstring loader crashed too often

GNU Radio Companion then opens up OK, but it won't run any flowgraphs, even very simple ones.  It simply returns Code-11 each time, with no further information.

Also, if I try to add any Instrumentation blocks (e.g. QT GUI Frequency Sink), the application shuts down immediately, and prints the message "Segmentation fault (core dumped)" to the terminal.

Details of my equipment setup are as follows:

HP Omen laptop

Intel Core i7-8750H CPU @ 2.20GHz × 12

32GB RAM

Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS

Ettus B210 USRP 

UHD driver v4.0.0.0 with Python API enabled

(USRP operation has been verified using Ettus examples and my own Python scripts.)

GNU Radio Installation Process:

1.  Install dependencies as per gnuradio wiki page, including pybind11 v2.6.2 and Volk v2.4.1 (both built from source)

2.  Install GNU Radio as follows:

mkdir workarea-gnuradio
cd workarea-gnuradio
git clone https://github.com/gnuradio/gnuradio.git
cd gnuradio
git checkout v3.9.0.0
mkdir build
cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DPYTHON_EXECUTABLE=/usr/bin/python3 ../
make -j8
make test  (NOTE:  THIS RETURNED A MESSAGE THAT "NO TESTS WERE FOUND")
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig
Updated PYTHONPATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH in $HOME/.bashrc file
sudo ldconfig

volk_profile

Reboot laptop

Open terminal, run "gnuradio-companion", make sad face.

Has anyone encountered this problem before?  Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks & Regards,

Brendan.