Packages Soapysdr Tools

soapysdr-tools

Command-line tools for the SoapySDR hardware abstraction layer

• Version recorded: 0.8.1
• Categories: sdr-hardware
• Upstream: https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDR/wiki

What it does

Carries SoapySDRUtil, which enumerates every SDR the system can see through SoapySDR, prints its capabilities -- sample rates, gain stages, antenna ports, tuning ranges -- and runs a rate test against it. SoapySDR itself is the abstraction layer; this is how you interrogate it.

Why you would want it

SoapySDRUtil --find is the first command to run when an SDR is not working, and it answers a question nothing else does cleanly: does the software layer see the device at all. It separates a USB or permissions problem from a driver problem from an application problem, which is three evenings saved.

Before it will work

A per-device SoapySDR module for whatever hardware you have. This catalog carries them separately -- soapysdr-module-rtlsdr, -hackrf, -airspy and the rest -- because a user needs the one matching their device, not all twelve (D-020). Device access usually means a udev rule and the plugdev group.

How it installs

• apt: soapysdr-tools

Known problems

An empty --find with the device plugged in almost always means the matching module is not installed, or that permissions stop the process opening the USB device -- and the output is the same silence in both cases. Check lsusb first, then whether the module package is present, then the permissions.

Keeping it current

• probe: apt policy
• strategy: apt_upgrade

Where to get help with the software itself

The Pothosware project. GitHub issues and the wiki.

Source: catalog/packages/soapysdr-tools.yaml