op25 Setup

op25.md

op25, ubuntu 16.04, sdrplay, soapysdr remote desktop

AFAIK you only need to do the wx 2.8 fixes if you're using hardware gr-osmosdr already supports, the rest is to get SDRPlay going.

1. Ubuntu 16.04 LTS AMD64 install as usual

2. Get op25 installed since it will cover the pre-reqs for building soapysdr and gr-osmosdr

   http://op25.osmocom.org/trac/wiki.png/wiki/InstallInstructionsPage

   Switch to the max branch in git before doing the cmake/make

3. Get wx 2.8 installed in parallel with 3.o

   GNURadio 3.7 and op25 need wx2.8 instead of 3.o, its not worth fixing it for 3.0 since WX is being dropped for QT in 3.8 or 3.9. You can have multiple versions of wx installed, and by default 3.o will be picked up so other apps won't break.

   The easiest way to get 2.8 cleanly installed from dpkgs is the answer here:

   http://askubuntu.com/questions/789302/install-python-wxgtk2-8-on-ubuntu-16-04

4. Get the latest SDRPlay install script to get the special mirics drivers installed, and blacklist the msi2500 module from Ubuntu. May as well blacklist the rtl-sdr module too since you likely will have one at some point.

   http://www.sdrplay.com/linux.html

   /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-sdr.conf

   blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu

   blacklist msi2500

5. Get SoapySDR installed so you can build the SDRPlay driver

   Get SoapySDR installed from PPA: https://github.com/pothosware/pothos/wiki/Ubuntu

   Get the extra dev support so you can build SDRPlay: https://github.com/pothosware/pothos/wiki/BuildGuide#ubuntu

   Build SDRPlay: https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDRPlay/wiki#id3

6. Get gr-osmosdr and build in native SDRPlay support and SoapySDR support. So far Soapy worked better for me, I believe the SDRPlay dev is maintaining it.

   https://osmocom.org/projects/sdr/wiki/GrOsmoSDR

   Use -DENABLE_NONFREE=TRUE during cmake, and check the output of cmake to ensure soapy support and sdrplay support will be included.

7. Update op25 scope.py to use wx 2.8 using wxversion, just insert these two lines just before the "import wx"

   import wxversion

   wxversion.select('2.8')

8. Setup op25 tsv/commands

   Example scope.py for SDRPlay using a full 8mhz. You adjust the SDPplay gain using the IFGR below, use the SoapySDRUtil --probe to see whatever default settings your SDRPlay currently has, and check the LNA threshold so you can adjust gain accordingly:

   ./scope.py --args 'soapy=0,driver=sdrplay' -f 774.78125e6 -v 100 -V -S 8000000 -T njics_center.tsv -N "IFGR:30" -O "pulse" -2

   Can use osmocom_fft to experiment with settings quickly. At some point if you keep restarting scope or anything using the SDR you will likely get errors from SDRPlay saying init failed reaosn 6 or 7, or can't read errors. Either plug/replug the USB or restart the machine to clear them.

9. Setup remote access with sound, remove unity gui.

   Install gnome fallback session Setup chrome and google remote desktop ppa or just use dkpgs Follow Linux install for https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/1649523?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

   .chrome-remote-desktop-session exec /usr/lib/gnome-flashback/gnome-flashback-metacity

   Open chrome, login, wait for apps to sync, then launch remote desktop and do setup

Known issues

1. Have to click the c4FM tab or decode never starts. This happened in 14.04 as well.
2. Phase2/TDMA isn't decoding voice, getting a timeout error every time scope shows a TDMA slot. This happened in 14.04 as well.