Setup process for B210 with GNURadio -- device detection issue

Greetings to the group

This is another connection issue for the B210, however I think it
somewhat unique having tried the solutions provided for other users,
although I am a newbie so it could be something very obvious or I
misunderstood previous instructions. I am using –

Ubuntu 14.04 (VM VirtualBox)
GNURadio 3.7.3
UHD 003.007.001
(which I understand are the latest versions, from the repository and
have tried both stable and unstable versions).

From a clean snapshot (without any GNU radio, python or UHD) and
following advice from the forums I performed the following installation
sequence –

sudo apt-get install python python-wxgtk2.8 pyqt4-dev-tools
python-qwt5-qt4 python-numpy libboost-all-dev libusb-1.0.0-dev
sudo bash -c 'echo "deb
http://files.ettus.com/binaries/uhd_stable/repo/uhd/ubuntu/`lsb_release
-cs lsb_release -cs main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ettus.list' sudo bash -c 'echo "deb http://files.ettus.com/binaries/uhd_stable/repo/gnuradio/ubuntu/lsb_release
-cs lsb_release -csmain" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ettus.list' sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -tlsb_release -cs` uhd gnuradio
sudo apt-get install python-cheetah

I get the report in gnuradio that the device cannot be found (I have
tried running both as sudo or as a normal user in case of permissions –
a bit new to linux). When setup with just a UHD source and a FFT sink
GNURadio returns:
RuntimeError: LookupError: KeyError: No devices found for ----->
Empty Device Address

Seeing the solution provided in this mailing list I have tried to modify
udev rules as follows:
sudo gedit /lib/udev/rules.d/40-uhd-host.rules
SUBSYSTEMS==“usb”, ATTRS{idVendor}==“2500”, ATTRS{idProduct}==“0020”,
GROUP:=“usrp”, MODE:="0660"I have also tried with the stable equivalent,
again from a fresh snapshot.

When I run lsusb I can see the device 2500:0020 (sometimes) although it
frequently disappears.
Bus 001 Device 032: ID 2500:0020
Bus 001 Device 007: ID 80ee:0021 VirtualBox USB Tablet
Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0bda:0129 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTS5129
Card Reader Controller
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0a5c:21d7 Broadcom Corp. BCM43142 Bluetooth 4.0
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub

Using sudo uhd_find_devices I get the following, which appears like it
has identified something as it tries to load image (unlike it not
connected) but then fails:
linux; GNU C++ version 4.8.2; Boost_105400; UHD_003.007.001-20-unstable
– Loading firmware image: /usr/share/uhd/images/usrp_b200_fw.hex…
done
No UHD Devices Found

I am not sure why it is trying to load b200 when it is a b210 (4 ch)? I
read that using uhd_usrp_probe with an address might work but unsure how
to do this without an IP address.

I have tried both powering through the USB only or providing 6V in case
it is a supply issue, noting in the second case a change in current draw
once I start trying to interact from 40 mA to 120 mA.

Many thanks for any pointers –

Steve

Hi Steve,

two things before I go into detail:

  • this is the GNU Radio mailing list; your problem is USRP-centric.
    Please consider using [email protected] for followups [1] where
    more experience with USRPs is concentrated
  • Doing high performance signal processing in a VM is problematic, and
    USB3 support of virtualizers is patchy to say the least. Also,
    considerable computational overhead might be added when virtualizing USB
    devices, but that really depends on how VirtualBox works internally
    (which I don’t know).

This has happened to me, too. However, I was able to get things running
by simply executing the b2xx_fx3_utils tool, which is probably installed
somewhere like /usr/lib/uhd/utils on your system.

Please do report back (to usrp-users) if you were able to fix the issue,
and which USB3 controller (if you’re using one at all) you’re using;
there are a lot of chipsets with faulty USB3 implementations, which is
not something the B2x0 can fix…

Greetings,
Marcus

[1] http://lists.ettus.com/mailman/listinfo/usrp-users_lists.ettus.com