Screenshot GQRX on VirtualBox / Linux Mint CPU Usage

[del1964]

1.3GB RAM memory being used here and 4 CPU's running at a high rate. Choppy audio. Bytes being dropped all over the desk. Need to fix this before I can try OP25 and other decoding apps. Dongle works great on Windows 7 using SDR Console V2 and SDR# and couple others. So any ideas about what could be happening here with not reading data from RTL without losing gobs of bytes? Tried all kinds of sample rates from very low to very high.....still loses bytes like crazy.

 

[del1964]

Bump for any ideas. Gqrx.....isn't running right. Choppy audio:Losing bytes according to rtl_test program being ran also using Linux Mint in Virtual box with 4 processors and like 16 Gb of RAM Gnuradio Companion works great with GSM sniffing/decoding. Just something not right with gqrx. Any way to "clean" it or check for duplicate files running or something like that. Reason I ask about multiple copies of support files is I found 3 versions of this one dll file I believe it was and gqrx wouldn't even load and configure. So got the hint from error log that pointed to this file. There were three versions it was trying to access and at least one had improper settings. I deleted 2 of the 3 and then gqrx loaded right up.

 

[RonnieUSA]

1.3GB RAM memory being used here and 4 CPU's running at a high rate. Choppy audio. Bytes being dropped all over the desk. Need to fix this before I can try OP25 and other decoding apps. Dongle works great on Windows 7 using SDR Console V2 and SDR# and couple others. So any ideas about what could be happening here with not reading data from RTL without losing gobs of bytes? Tried all kinds of sample rates from very low to very high.....still loses bytes like crazy.

The toolbar is a Windows 7 toolbar, so what are You doing, running it in a VM?
That could be part of your problem.

 

[del1964]

That's a screengrab of Virtual Box at full window size inside Windows 7 screen. From what I understand, you have to run Linux based programs inside of a Virtual Box or VMWare. Correct me if I'm wrong. I'd love to run it on windows if possible....gnuradio, gnuradio-companion, gqrx, gr-gsm, etc etc

 

[muchomorek]

Check if virtualization support in bios is enabled.

 

[del1964]

Check if virtualization support in bios is enabled.

Where is that option located in Virtual Box? Or is it in Windows 7?

 

[RonnieUSA]

Where is that option located in Virtual Box? Or is it in Windows 7?

It's in the BIOS.

 

[del1964]

deljr@deljr-VirtualBox ~/pybombs $ rtl_test -s 1024000
Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6
Sampling at 1024000 S/s.

Info: This tool will continuously read from the device, and report if
samples get lost. If you observe no further output, everything is fine.

Reading samples in async mode...
lost at least 112 bytes
lost at least 96 bytes
lost at least 12 bytes
lost at least 32 bytes
lost at least 24 bytes
lost at least 52 bytes
lost at least 52 bytes
lost at least 20 bytes
lost at least 16 bytes
lost at least 64 bytes
lost at least 4 bytes
lost at least 8 bytes
lost at least 72 bytes
lost at least 192 bytes
lost at least 64 bytes
lost at least 168 bytes
lost at least 40 bytes
lost at least 60 bytes
lost at least 152 bytes
lost at least 236 bytes
lost at least 40 bytes
lost at least 60 bytes
lost at least 28 bytes
lost at least 52 bytes
lost at least 72 bytes
lost at least 104 bytes
lost at least 156 bytes
lost at least 68 bytes
lost at least 44 bytes
^CSignal caught, exiting!



What could be wrong? Uninstalled everything and started over Still get these errors

 

[flat6]

I believe your problem is with virtualbox's ability (or lack thereof) to continuously stream through a virtualized USB connection. It looks like you are trying to do a 1.024MB stream and dropping packets all over the place which is typical of virtualbox's performance. I have heard that VMware is better at this sort of thing but I doubt that it would be perfect. My solution to this was to get a copy of the GNURadio Live DVD and create a bootable flash drive using UNetbootin. You also could do the same with your LinuxMint distro but GNURadio installs with a lot of SDR and GNURadio tools already installed and pre-configured.

 

[flat6]

I think your problem is with Virtualbox's virtual USB port streaming capability. It looks like you're trying to do a continuous sample rate of 1.024MS/s which is beyond it's capabilities. In fact I don't think Virtualbox is capable of a continuous USB stream of any magnitude. I have heard that VMWare is better at this but never tried it myself. I have worked around this problem by getting the latest copy of GNURadioCompanion Live DVD and flashing it to a USB stick using UNetbootin and then booting off of that. You could also stick with LinuxMint but GNURadioCompanion comes with all kinds of SDR tools pre-installed and ready to go, including GQRX.

 

[del1964]

I had everything going on VMware at one point and no problem with audio streaming. But something else caused some issue that I don't even remember now but someone recommended Linux Mint in Virtual box and now the streaming issue with lost bytes. I bet I've tried 6-10 different combinations of virtual OS and Linux distro's out the ying yang. Currently trying Linux Mint again in Virtual box but with a different install approach. If I continue to get crappy audio out of GQRX, I'll try something like you suggest. I have several different SDR radio windows apps that are all cool but I love the challenge of trying to get this whole GNURadio thing going.

 

[del1964]

I think your problem is with Virtualbox's virtual USB port streaming capability. It looks like you're trying to do a continuous sample rate of 1.024MS/s which is beyond it's capabilities. In fact I don't think Virtualbox is capable of a continuous USB stream of any magnitude. I have heard that VMWare is better at this but never tried it myself. I have worked around this problem by getting the latest copy of GNURadioCompanion Live DVD and flashing it to a USB stick using UNetbootin and then booting off of that. You could also stick with LinuxMint but GNURadioCompanion comes with all kinds of SDR tools pre-installed and ready to go, including GQRX.

HaHa I tried exactly what you described here. Bootable USB method. Everything went great on the download.....everything looked great when I booted it up. Gnuradio-Companion worked/looked great. I finally found GQRX under /usr/local/bin$ and ran it (./gqrx) and it ran and when I tuned it to a WFM station and was listening, I thought, cool, ok.....I'll just "save" this and exit and get back to work. Then bammm it crashed. Re-started and it wasn't receiving anything on that exact same frequency.....just flatlined with static.......Any ideas? Did I locate the proper program? Why wasn't the gqrx executable under the gqrx directory?