# Installing GNU Radio blocks as a regular user **URL:** \ **Category:** GNU Radio\ **Created:** [April 8, 2015, 11:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gnu-radio-blocks-as-a-regular-user/241468 "2015-04-08T11:54:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![musicdenotation](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/ea666f/32.png) [@musicdenotation](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/musicdenotation)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 11:54am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gnu-radio-blocks-as-a-regular-user/241468/1 "2015-04-08T11:54:28Z")
Hi everyone, We’re trying to implement a GNU Radio course here in Lyon (France) where we take the students step-by-step into coding GR modules. At some point we’d like them to follow the out-of-tree modules tutorial but we’ve stumbled upon an unfortunate limitation: the IT guys of our university wont allow root access on any computer, meaning that we can compile but cannot install the blocks… I come to you guys, to ask for advices on how to implement this. I have some ideas already but I’d like to see if there is any “best practice” ways to do this. Best regards, Leonardo Cardoso ---
**Author:** ![Leonardo\_SSCardoso](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@Leonardo\_SSCardoso](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Leonardo_SSCardoso)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 3:56pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gnu-radio-blocks-as-a-regular-user/241468/2 "2015-04-08T15:56:51Z")
Well, it’s a great way to install popular OOTs 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Leonardo\_SSCardoso](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@Leonardo\_SSCardoso](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Leonardo_SSCardoso)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 12:20pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gnu-radio-blocks-as-a-regular-user/241468/3 "2015-04-08T12:20:10Z")
Hi Leonardo, So this depends on your situation: If you’re allowed to get arbitrary software installed by asking IT, I’d ask them to install a recent version of GNU Radio (at _least_ 3.7.2, the newer, the better). Possibly, only outdated versions are in your IT’s software package repositories, so you might need them to build and install from source; they might refuse. If that’s the case, or you can’t ask for arbitrary software: use pyBombs[1]! It allows installation in a directory prefix of your choice. Choose “src” as only viable method of software installation. After pybombs has finished doing its thing, you get a shell script that you can use to modify the environment variables, so that if you just use that script in your ~/.bashrc, you will have a system that has a working GNU Radio, completely without leaving the boundaries of your non-root user. Downside is that everything that’s not on your system (or in an outdated version) has to be built from source, which will take quite some time and storage. Afterwards, if all these PCs are the same, you can just copy the prefix folder to every user’s home directory. Either way, you’ll (hopefully) have a working GNU Radio installation afterwards. Now, if you used pybombs, you’ll already have a prefix directory in your user’s home where your OS will look for when loading libraries etc. Otherwise, use pybombs now (./pybombs config; ./pybombs env; echo “source $prefix/setup\_env.sh” \>\> ~/.bashrc) to generate the empty directory and generate a path-bending script. When building your student’s OOT’s, you’d go the normal “cd gr-mymodule; mkdir build; cd build; cmake …; make; make install;” route, only that you’d replace “cmake …” with “cmake -DCMAKE\_INSTALL\_PREFIX=/home/userXYZ/prefixdirectory …”; afterwards, “make install” will install the things into prefixdirectory; awesome! Best regards, Marcus [1][http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/pybombs/wiki/QuickStart](http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/pybombs/wiki/QuickStart) ---
**Author:** ![Leonardo\_SSCardoso](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@Leonardo\_SSCardoso](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Leonardo_SSCardoso)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 3:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gnu-radio-blocks-as-a-regular-user/241468/4 "2015-04-08T15:25:00Z")
Hi Marcus, Thanks for the quick reply. The IT dept. can install any version of GNU Radio so no problem there 🙂 The pybombs solution looks a lot like what I was cooking up from my side. It boils down to changing the paths (PYTHONPATH, LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH, PKG\_CONFIG\_PATH, etc…) and installing OOT modules in a prefix in the users’s home. Is there anything else to pybombs that I’m missing? I there any other advantage in using the pybombs framework that I might have missed? Thanks again BR, Leonardo ---
**Author:** ![Leonardo\_SSCardoso](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@Leonardo\_SSCardoso](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Leonardo_SSCardoso)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gnu-radio-blocks-as-a-regular-user/241468/5 "2015-04-08T17:55:19Z")
Pybombs also makes updating to newer versions as they come out easy. ./pybombs update Rich On Wed, Apr 8, 2015 at 6:54 AM, Marcus Müller [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) ---
**Author:** ![Leonardo\_SSCardoso](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/l/858c86/32.png) [@Leonardo\_SSCardoso](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Leonardo_SSCardoso)\ **Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 6:32pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/installing-gnu-radio-blocks-as-a-regular-user/241468/6 "2015-04-08T18:32:38Z")
On 08.04.2015 06:23, Leonardo S. Cardoso wrote: > The pybombs solution looks a lot like what I was cooking up from my > side. It boils down to changing the paths (PYTHONPATH, LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH, > PKG\_CONFIG\_PATH, etc..) and installing OOT modules in a prefix in the > userss home. > > Is there anything else to pybombs that Im missing? I there any other > advantage in using the pybombs framework that I might have missed? Leonardo, you might even want to install even GNU Radio yourself (i.e., your IT department installs nothing except for the build tools; gcc, cmake, boost…). With PyBOMBS, that’s really easy to do. It also allows you to update GNU Radio versions at any time, and, more importantly, on a user-by-user basis. This is nice when one user needs new features from latest GNU Radio, but others don’t want to update in order to not having to change their own stuff. Cheers, Martin