Failed Install + gr-osmosdr Troubles

GNU Radio
1

Hi all,

I hope this is the right place for this question! I looked through the
archive but didn’t see similar. I’ve been using gnuradio for awhile
but recently decided to upgrade Ubuntu to 13.10 (64-bit) and GNU Radio
to 3.7. I had two problems along the way which are both unresolved:

I first installed GNU Radio 3.7.2.1 from the binary package
(gnuradio_3.7.2.1_Ubuntu-13.10-x86_64.deb). However, when I started
gnuradio-companion, it crashed after a few seconds of processing with
a seg fault.

I then uninstalled 3.7.2.1 and installed 3.7.1.1 from the binary
package (gnuradio_3.7.1.1_Ubuntu-13.10-x86_64.deb). Now gnuradio
itself works, but when I installed the gr-osmosdr package following
instructions on the osmocom website, there was no trace of any of the
blocks in gnuradio-companion.

When trying to import osmosdr directly in a python interpreter: the
first time I issue the import statement, I get “ImportError:
/usr/lib/libgnuradio-blocks-3.7.1.1.so.0.0.0: undefined symbol:
volk_64u_byteswap_u”. As far as I can tell, libvolk is installed on my
machine. The second time I issue the import, the python interpreter
crashes with a seg fault.

I’m not too concerned about the crashing in 3.7.2.1 unless it’s easily
solvable or related to the second issue. The main thing I’m concerned
about is getting gr-osmosdr working. Any guidance on troubleshooting
this? I’m not familiar enough with gnuradio yet to know where to look.

Thanks!

Jacob

2

On Sat, Dec 07, 2013 at 08:39:57PM -0800, Jacob Dickinson wrote:

I then uninstalled 3.7.2.1 and installed 3.7.1.1 from the binary
package (gnuradio_3.7.1.1_Ubuntu-13.10-x86_64.deb). Now gnuradio
itself works, but when I installed the gr-osmosdr package following
instructions on the osmocom website, there was no trace of any of the
blocks in gnuradio-companion.

I’m guessing that the GNU Radio files are in /usr/ and the OsmoSDR files
are in /usr/local. In that case, GRC doesn’t look for the blocks in
/usr/local.

To see if this is the problem, set the environment variable
GRC_BLOCKS_PATH to /usr/local/share/gnuradio/grc/blocks/ (or wherever
your blocks are) and start gnuradio-companion. If this works, then you
can statically set this path in ~/.gnuradio/config.conf (see
http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/GNURadioCompanion).

This behaviour is already documented (Issue #606), but we get very few
people who mix the source and binary builds.

this? I’m not familiar enough with gnuradio yet to know where to look.
Well, if GNU Radio doesn’t work you won’t be able to use gr-osmosdr
either. I can’t think of a solution off the top of my head, though.

Perhaps this is a case where pybombs might be able to help you.
If you want to try this, do the following:

  • Uninstall everything GNU Radio- and OsmoSDR-related
  • Run
    git clone git://github.com/pybombs/pybombs
    cd pybombs
    ./pybombs install gnuradio

and then

./pybombs install gr-osmosdr

http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/pybombs/wiki/QuickStart will guide
you.

MB

–
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Communications Engineering Lab (CEL)

Dipl.-Ing. Martin B.
Research Associate

Kaiserstraße 12
Building 05.01
76131 Karlsruhe

Phone: +49 721 608-43790
Fax: +49 721 608-46071
www.cel.kit.edu

KIT – University of the State of Baden-Württemberg and
National Laboratory of the Helmholtz Association

3

On 12/11/2013 04:49 PM, Jacob Dickinson wrote:

first time I issue the import statement, I get "ImportError:
either. I can’t think of a solution off the top of my head, though.

Linking CXX shared module _blocks_swig4.so
Discuss-gnuradio Info Page

That’s generally due to gpp running out of memory during processing of
the fairly-chunky SWIG files. Add more RAM to your system, or add a
swap/paging file see “mkswap” and “swapon”.

–
Marcus L.
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium

4

On Wed, Dec 11, 2013 at 06:52:30PM -0500, Marcus L. wrote:

of the fairly-chunky SWIG files. Add more RAM to your system, or
add a
swap/paging file see “mkswap” and “swapon”.

Also, I’ve sometimes seen the compiler crash on a SWIG file, but run
fine if I try again. Did you try this multiple times?

MB

–
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
Communications Engineering Lab (CEL)

Dipl.-Ing. Martin B.
Research Associate

Kaiserstraße 12
Building 05.01
76131 Karlsruhe

Phone: +49 721 608-43790
Fax: +49 721 608-46071
www.cel.kit.edu

KIT – University of the State of Baden-Württemberg and
National Laboratory of the Helmholtz Association

5

On Sun, Dec 8, 2013 at 6:38 AM, Martin B. (CEL)
[email protected] wrote:

first time I issue the import statement, I get "ImportError:
Well, if GNU Radio doesn’t work you won’t be able to use gr-osmosdr
and then
Communications Engineering Lab (CEL)
www.cel.kit.edu

KIT – University of the State of Baden-Wrttemberg and
National Laboratory of the Helmholtz Association

Discuss-gnuradio mailing list
[email protected]
Discuss-gnuradio Info Page

Thanks for the info Martin! I set the environment variable and the
osmocom blocks appeared in gnuradio-companion.

When I said “I’m not too concerned about the crashing” I just meant
that I’m willing to use the earlier version (3.7.2.1) if it works
better on my system rather than debugging 3.7.2.2.

Just for fun I uninstalled everything and tried installing with
pybombs. However when it got to the step which builds
filter_swigPYTHON_wrap there was an issue:

[ 78%] Building CXX object
gr-filter/swig/CMakeFiles/_filter_swig.dir/filter_swigPYTHON_wrap.cxx.o

c++: internal compiler error: Killed (program c11plus)
Please submit a full bug report,
with preprocessed source if appropriate.
See <file:///usr/share/doc/gcc-4.8/README.Bugs> for instructions.
make[2]: ***
[gr-blocks/swig/CMakeFiles/_block_swig2.dir/blocks_swig2PYTHON_wrap.cxx.o]
Error 4
make[1]: *** [gr-blocks/swig/CMakeFiles/_blocks_swig2.dir/all] Error 2
make[1]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs…
Linking CXX shared module _filter_swig.so
[ 79%] Built target _filter_swig
Linking CXX shared module _blocks_swig4.so
[ 80%] Built target _blocks_swig4
Linking CXX shared module _blocks_swig5.so
[ 80%] Built target _blocks_swig5
make: *** [all] Error 2
Error:root:PyBOMBS Make step failed for package (gnuradio) please see
bash output above for a reason (hint: look for the word Error)