ContextQMD
Back to Rtl 433

Building rtl_433

docs/BUILDING.md

25.128.2 KB
Original Source

Building rtl_433

rtl_433 currently supports these input types:

  • RTL-SDR (optional, recommended)
  • SoapySDR (optional)
  • files: CU8, CS16, CF32 I/Q data, U16 AM data (built-in)
  • rtl_tcp remote data servers (built-in)

Building rtl_433 with RTL-SDR or SoapySDR support is optional but using RTL-SDR is highly recommended. The libraries and header files for RTL-SDR and/or SoapySDR should be installed beforehand.

Nightly builds

Some distributions offer nightly builds.

openSUSE

openSUSE users of at least Leap 42.3 or Tumbleweed can add the repository with daily builds:

$ sudo zypper addrepo -f obs://home:mnhauke:rtl_433:nightly/rtl_433
rtl_433-nightly
$ sudo zypper install rtl_433

The usual update mechanism will now keep the rtl_433 version current.

Fedora

Fedora users (38, 39 and Rawhide) can add the following copr repository to get nightly builds:

$ sudo dnf copr enable tvass/rtl_433
$ sudo dnf install rtl_433

The usual update mechanism will now keep the rtl_433 version current.

Linux / Mac OS X

Depending on your system, you may need to install the following libraries.

Debian:

sudo apt-get install libtool libusb-1.0-0-dev librtlsdr-dev rtl-sdr build-essential cmake pkg-config
  • If you require TLS connections, also install libssl-dev (sudo apt-get install libssl-dev).

Centos/Fedora/RHEL with EPEL repo using cmake:

  • If dnf doesn't exist, use yum.
  • If you require TLS connections, install openssl-devel.
sudo dnf install libtool libusb1-devel rtl-sdr-devel rtl-sdr cmake

Mac OS X with MacPorts:

  • If you require TLS connections, install openssl from either MacPorts or Homebrew.
sudo port install rtl-sdr cmake

Mac OS X with Homebrew:

brew install rtl-sdr cmake pkg-config

CMake

Get the rtl_433 git repository if needed:

git clone https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433.git

Installation using CMake and Make (commonly available):

cd rtl_433/
cmake -B build
cmake --build build --target install

Installation using CMake and Ninja (newer and faster):

cd rtl_433/
cmake -DFORCE_COLORED_BUILD:BOOL=ON -GNinja -B build
cmake --build build -j 4
cmake --build build --target install

If installing to a global prefix (e.g. the default /usr/local) then instead run make install with privileges, .i.e.

sudo cmake --build build --target install

Use CMake with -DENABLE_SOAPYSDR=ON (default: AUTO) to require SoapySDR (e.g. with Debian needs the package libsoapysdr-dev), use -DENABLE_RTLSDR=OFF (default: ON) to disable RTL-SDR if needed. E.g. use:

cmake -DENABLE_SOAPYSDR=ON ..

:::tip If you use CMake older than 3.13 (check cmake --version), you need to build using e.g. mkdir build ; cd build ; cmake .. && cmake --build . :::

:::tip In CMake 3.6 or older the OpenSSL search seems broken, you need to use cmake -DENABLE_OPENSSL=NO .. :::

:::warning If you experience trouble with SoapySDR when compiling or running: you likely mixed version 0.7 and version 0.8 headers and libs. Purge all SoapySDR packages and source installation from /usr/local. Then install only from packages (version 0.7) or only from source (version 0.8). :::

Package maintainers

To properly configure builds without relying on automatic feature detection you should set all options explicitly, e.g.

cmake -DENABLE_RTLSDR=ON -DENABLE_SOAPYSDR=ON -DENABLE_OPENSSL=ON -DBUILD_DOCUMENTATION=OFF -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -GNinja -B build
cmake --build build -j 10
DESTDIR=/tmp/destdir cmake --build build --target install

Windows

Visual Studio 2017

You need PothosSDR installed to get RTL-SDR and SoapySDR libraries. Any recent version should work, e.g. 2021.07.25-vc16.

When installing PothosSDR choose "Add PothosSDR to the system PATH for the current user".

For TLS support (mqtts and influxs) you need OpenSSL installed. E.g. install Chocolatey then open a Command Prompt and

choco install openssl

Clone the project, e.g. open Visual Studio, change to "Team Explorer" > "Projects" > "Manage Connections" > "Clone" and enter https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433.git

If you want to change options, in the menu select "CMake" > "Change CMake Settings" > "rtl433", select e.g. "x64-Release", change e.g.

"buildRoot": "${workspaceRoot}\\build",
"installRoot": "${workspaceRoot}\\install",

To start a build use in the menu e.g. "CMake" > "Build all"

Or build at the Command Prompt without opening Visual Studio. Clone rtl_433 sources, then

cd rtl_433
cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64" -B build
cmake --build build

MinGW-w64

You'll probably want librtlsdr and libusb.

libusb has prebuilt binaries for windows, librtlsdr needs to be built (or extracted from the PothosSDR installer)

librtlsdr

taken and adapted from here: https://www.onetransistor.eu/2017/03/compile-librtlsdr-windows-mingw.html

  • install MinGW-w64 and CMake
    • it's easiest if you select the option to include CMake in your path, otherwise you'll need to do this manually
  • download the libusb binaries from https://sourceforge.net/projects/libusb/files/libusb-1.0/ or from https://libusb.info/
    • take the latest release and then download the .7z file, the other file contains the sources (or 'windows binaries' on the .info website)
  • extract the archive and open the extracted folder
  • copy the contents of the include folder to <mingw_installation_folder>/include
  • copy the mingw64/dll/libusb-1.0.dll.a file to `<mingw_installation_folder>/lib
  • copy the mingw64/dll/libusb-1.0.dll file to <mingw_installation_folder>/bin
  • download the source code of librtlsdr https://github.com/steve-m/librtlsdr
  • go into the librtlsdr folder
  • open CMakeLists.txt with an editor that knows unix line endings
  • go to # Find build dependencies (around line 65) and comment/remove the line with find_package(Threads)
  • add the following lines instead:
SET(CMAKE_THREAD_LIBS_INIT "-lpthread")
SET(CMAKE_HAVE_THREADS_LIBRARY 1)
SET(Threads_FOUND TRUE)
  • go into the cmake/modules folder and open FindLibUSB.cmake with a text editor
  • find the lines with the following text in them
/usr/include/libusb-1.0
/usr/include
/usr/local/include
  • add some extra lines to point to the MinGW include folder where you extracted libusb-1.0, making it look like this
    • take note of the "" around the folder names, these are needed when there are spaces in the folder name
    • you'll need to find out the exact paths for your system
/usr/include/libusb-1.0
/usr/include
/usr/local/include
"C:/Program Files/mingw-w64/x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0/mingw64/include"
"C:/Program Files/mingw-w64/x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0/mingw64/include/libusb-1.0"
  • open a MinGW terminal in the librtlsdr folder
  • generate makefiles for MinGW: cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" -B build
  • build the librtlsdr library: cmake --build build

rtl_433

  • clone the rtl_433 repository and cd into it
  • run cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" -B build in the build directory
  • run cmake-gui (this is easiest)
  • set the source (the rtl_433 source code directory) and the build directory (one might create a build directory in the source directory)
  • click configure
  • select the grouped and advanced tickboxes
  • go into the librtlsdr config group
  • point the LIBRTLSDR_INCLUDE_DIRS to the include folder of the librtlsdr source
  • point the LIBRTLSDR_LIBRARIES to the librtlsdr.dll.a file in the <librtlsdr_source>/build/src folder
    • that's the one you've built earlier
  • start a MinGW terminal and run cmake --build build to build
    • when something in the tests folder doesn't build, you can disable it by commenting out add_subdirectory(tests) in the CMakeLists.txt file in the source folder of rtl_433
  • rtl_433.exe should be built now
  • you need to place it in the same folder as librtlsdr.dll and libusb-1.0.dll (you should have seen both of them by now)
  • good luck!

If your system is missing or you find these steps are outdated please PR an update or open an issue.