Running RTL-SDR and GQRX receiver on Linux

June

2025

УКВ, FM, Linux

5 June 2025 13:38

To watch APRS broadcasts, I launched a software receiver (SDR - software defined radio) in Linux, and used a "DVB-T / FM / DAB" TV tuner based on the RTL2832U OEM processor and the FC0013 tuner.

Receiver RTL2832U

The appearance of the receiver is shown in the photograph.

Antenna

For more details, see the article.Indoor antenna for receiving MF and UHF "Zolan FB-618".

Installing the rtl-sdr package on Linux

sudo apt update
sudo apt install rtl-sdr

Determining the device identifier in lsusb

To find out the VEN and DEV identifiers, you need to run the command

lsusb

Result:
Bus 004 Device 004: ID 0bda:2838 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2838 DVB-T


Manufacturer code (VEN): 0bda

Device code (DEV): 2838
Assigning udev permissions
If you do not assign udev rights, then at the first start rtl_test -t there will be an error (no rights).

Running in the superuser context is undesirable, so we will give rights to connect the device using udev.
You need to create a file rtl-sdr.rules with the full name 60-librtlsdr0.rules
 su -
 cd /etc/udev/rules.d/
 nano 60-librtlsdr0.rules
Added text from the file to the file /etc/udev/rules.d/60-librtlsdr0.rules https://github.com/osmocom/rtl-sdr/blob/master/rtl-sdr.rules, for the corresponding ID of my RTL-SDR device.
Paste the contents of the clipboard
Ctrl+V
SUBSYSTEMS=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0bda", ATTRS{idProduct}=="2838", ENV{ID_SOFTWARE_RADIO}="1", MODE="0660", GROUP="plugdev"
Ctrl+O, Enter

Ctrl+X
Archive with a list of udev.txt rules in the archive udev.txt.zip. It is possible by analogy in 60-librtlsdr0.rules add to the line containing ENV{ID_SOFTWARE_RADIO}="1" to any device of the RTL-SDR type, with any VEN_ID and DEV_ID.
Reboot PC
sudo systemctl --no-wait reboot
Check
On the command line of a regular user run the command
rtl_test -t
The result should be something like this:


  
 
Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL ****  ******SN:

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found ****  ******tuner
...
Installing gqrx
The gqrx program for receiving SDR can be installed from the gqrx-sdr package
sudo apt update
sudo apt install gqrx-sdr
Running gqrx
From the command line:
gqrx
Or in the Start menu - "Audio and video" - gqrx
On first launch, select devices

input device - Generic RTL2832U
output device - your own sound card, for example, Built-In Audio Analog Stereo (built-in) or USB Audio Analog Stereo (external).

In my case, I had to change the audio output device in the system tray and right-click on the volume control icon.


  
 
When running gqrx, the sound of decoding the WFM frequency of a broadcast radio station is heard in the headphones.


  
 
If you are using an antenna without an amplifier, you can increase the sensitivity of the radio receiver by selecting the hardware gain control "Hardware AGC" in the "Input Controls" setting.


  
 
                      
                                            
                                              


                        
                         Related publications
     
                                     
                
                 
                                            
                                                Working with Flatpak or APT through a proxy server
                    
                
            
                                             
                
                 
                                            
                                            Fixing Linux Mint boot problem with integrated Intel graphics card
                    
                
            
                                             
                
                 
                                            
                                                Batch convert HEVC video files to AVC
                    
                
            
                                             
                
                 
                                            
                                                Stop and disable TimeShift to save disk space
                    
                
            
                                             
                
                 
                                            
                                            Troubleshooting L2TP/IPsec connection errors "Could not add IPsec connection" and "no acceptable traffic selectors found"