RTL-SDR

Hardware Setup

The RTL-SDR is a USB plug device that is quite large. Due to this, we recommend using a USB extension cable when connecting the device to your computer.

Your RTL-SDR may or may not include an antenna depending on where you purchased it. You may want to aquire an antenna once you determine what kind of projects you want to make with your RTL-SDR.

Software Setup

RTL-SDR is not a plug-and-splay device, so we will walk you through the steps to install the appropriate drivers. Installing the drivers will depend on your computer’s operating system.

Linux

In the case that you may have any other type of RTL driver installed on your computer, we recommend purging them from your computer first. You will not need the device connected for this step.

You can purge the pre-existing drivers by entering the following commands one by one in your command terminal:

sudo apt purge ^librtlsdr
sudo rm -rvf /usr/lib/librtlsdr*
sudo rm -rvf /usr/include/rtl-sdr*
sudo rm -rvf /usr/local/lib/librtlsdr*
sudo rm -rvf /usr/local/include/rtl-sdr*
sudo rm -rvf /usr/local/include/rtl_*
sudo rm -rvf /usr/local/bin/rtl_*

Once you have purged any pre-existing drivers, you are now ready to install the drivers.

The installation requires that you have Git installed on your computer. If you do not already have Git, you can install it by following the guide here. You will need to have a free account set up with Git which can be done on their website.

Enter the following commands in your terminal to install the RTL-SDR drivers:

sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev git cmake pkg-config build-essential
git clone https://github.com/rtlsdrblog/rtl-sdr-blog
cd rtl-sdr-blog/
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ../ -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=ON
make
sudo make install
sudo cp ../rtl-sdr.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
sudo ldconfig

With the drivers installed, you need to unload the DVB-T drivers. The DVB-T drivers can be temporarily unloaded.

There is a more permanent way to do this, but for those who wish to do so temporarily, use the following command in the terminal:

sudo rmmod dvb_usb_rtl28xxu

Linux defaults to reuploading the DVB-T drivers every time the device is plugged back into the computer or when the computer restarts, which makes the prior solution temporary. In other words, you will need to re-enter that command every time you plug in the device or restart the computer.

This can be avoided with a more permanent solution, creating a text file called “rtlsdr.conf” to handle the DVB-T drivers issue. To do so, enter the following one-line command in the terminal:

echo 'blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu' | sudo tee --append /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-dvb_usb_rtl28xxu.conf

Finally, you can restart your computer and run this command with the RTL-SDR plugged into the USB port:

rtl_test

If the test command runs, then you have set up the RTL-SDR correctly.