OP25 OP25 setup with WMware

[W4KRR]

Trying to setup OP25 Osmocom on Windows 11 machine under VMWare and Ubuntu, per the instructions in the RR Wiki.

When I try to run it, I get this error:

OSMOSDR Source C creation failure

It's been three years since I have played with this, and I did have it up and running at one point under VirtualBox and Linux Mint. But back then I got this same error, but after three years I can't remember what caused it or what I did to fix it.

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[saioke]

Which version of Ubuntu are you using? I know Ubuntu 25.04 launched back in April and it could be that some required packages for OP25 aren't updated to work on it yet. Could try an older version like 24.04.

Also, make sure the distro is completely updated by running a sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade and then maybe re-run the install.sh script.

Out of curiosity, why are you trying to run OP25 instead of say, DSD+ Fast Lane?

 

[boatbod]

Source creation failure generally means op25 cannot access the RTL device. I'm not overly familiar with VMWare, but this could be due to not having shared the host's USB device with the virtual machine, or not having blacklisted the rtl devices in /etc/modprobe.d.

Usually a good first step for diagnostics is to see if there is anything pertinent showing up in 'dmesg' and also to make sure you can see the rtl device in the output of 'lsusb'

 

[saioke]

Source creation failure generally means op25 cannot access the RTL device. I'm not overly familiar with VMWare, but this could be due to not having shared the host's USB device with the virtual machine, or not having blacklisted the rtl devices in /etc/modprobe.d.

Usually a good first step for diagnostics is to see if there is anything pertinent showing up in 'dmesg' and also to make sure you can see the rtl device in the output of 'lsusb'

This actually reminds me, the last time I used VMWare to test something out with an SDR, I had to unplug and plug the device back in for the VM to recognize it. Worth a try if all else fails.

 

[W4KRR]

I will keep playing around with it. And, I already use DSD+ Fastlane, this is just something else to play around with. The whole Linux thing is what slows me down, as I am not overly familiar with it.

 

[mtindor]

I will keep playing around with it. And, I already use DSD+ Fastlane, this is just something else to play around with. The whole Linux thing is what slows me down, as I am not overly familiar with it.

Are you just trying to broaden your horizons with regard to Linux? If so, great. Carry on and have fun! If not, then you have a lot of Win based options that'll do what OP25 does in one form or another. DSDPlus Fastlane, SDRTrunk, DSD-FME. All of those will run on Windows. And, not to knock OP25, but I'm sure what you will get out of OP25 that you couldn't get using an app in windows unless you are perhaps specifically looking to decrypt data using a key (which obviously DSDPlus and SDRTrunk won't allow, but DSD-FME does allow).

 

[W4KRR]

Are you just trying to broaden your horizons with regard to Linux? If so, great. Carry on and have fun! If not, then you have a lot of Win based options that'll do what OP25 does in one form or another. DSDPlus Fastlane, SDRTrunk, DSD-FME. All of those will run on Windows. And, not to knock OP25, but I'm sure what you will get out of OP25 that you couldn't get using an app in windows unless you are perhaps specifically looking to decrypt data using a key (which obviously DSDPlus and SDRTrunk won't allow, but DSD-FME does allow).

Yes, I already have and use DSD+ Fastlane and SDRTrunk. I have tried DSD+FME, but I can't get it to run well. I have run OP25 before, under VirtualBox and Linux Mint. The audio sounds great, plus I just like to experiment. Linux may be fine, if you know all the commands. If you don't, it's like living in a country where you don't speak the language.

 

[saioke]

Thankfully Linux has come a long way. I've used it on and off over the years since 2007 and believe me, it wasn't as smooth of an experience as it is now. Back in the day you had to rely on the terminal to do practically everything and a lot less hardware was supported. Regardless, It's worth learning, because it seems Windows is moving in a direction that a lot of people won't agree with, and Linux just keeps getting better and better. Today, you really don't need to know a lot of commands, but you'll want to because it's fun. If I weren't so used to using Windows based DAWs for my music, I wouldn't be using Windows at all.

I tried OP25 in the past and couldn't get it to work correctly, but audio decoding and voice quality does seem a lot better compared to DSD+. I personally just find dsd+ Fast Lane easier to use especially when using Rdio-Scanner. I just wish it could save analog/conventional audio recordings so that Rdio-Scanner would import them too.

Anyway, good luck on getting OP25 to work, let us know if you try stuff above and if anything works for you.

Oh and by the way, don't skimp on AI. You could use Twitter/X's ai called Grok to help you understand Linux better. AI isn't perfect but it's honestly a great way to learn commands and functions.

 

[dkcorlfla]

This actually reminds me, the last time I used VMWare to test something out with an SDR, I had to unplug and plug the device back in for the VM to recognize it. Worth a try if all else fails.

I found this to be the case with KVM as well, make sure the VM is active and then plug in the USB device.

sudo dmesg will show if it was found by the Linux OS

While you are learning Linux CLI make sure to try the command "history" it will show all the commands that have been run. I find it very powerful and really helpful when I want to re run a command but can't quite remember the correct syntax.

To us simply type history in a terminal, that will list the commands with a number then simply !number enter

 

[dkcorlfla]

I will keep playing around with it. And, I already use DSD+ Fastlane, this is just something else to play around with. The whole Linux thing is what slows me down, as I am not overly familiar with it.

Another way to learn the Linux CLI it to get a Raspberry pi and use Putty on your Windows computer to ssh into it. The Raspberry's are a hoot to play around with and depending on the model can do a lot.

 

[wgbecks]

Trying to setup OP25 Osmocom on Windows 11 machine under VMWare and Ubuntu, .....

OSMOSDR Source C creation failure

If you've succeeded with getting VMWare to virtualize your SDR, then you need to execute ~/op25/scripts/udev_rules.sh followed
by a reboot of your VM. A good independent test to make in determining if hardware virtualization of the SDR is working would be
to install and run GQRX.

 

[W4KRR]

If you've succeeded with getting VMWare to virtualize your SDR, then you need to execute ~/op25/scripts/udev_rules.sh followed
by a reboot of your VM. A good independent test to make in determining if hardware virtualization of the SDR is working would be
to install and run GQRX.

I did set up GQRX and got it running with a USB dongle. However an Airspy didn't work.

And when I tried to run ~/op25/scripts/udev_rules.sh I get either "no such file" or "command not found". This is likely due to my lack of Linux proficiency.

 

[saioke]

I did set up GQRX and got it running with a USB dongle. However an Airspy didn't work.

And when I tried to run ~/op25/scripts/udev_rules.sh I get either "no such file" or "command not found". This is likely due to my lack of Linux proficiency.

Make sure that there's an op25 folder in your home directory. Could be possible that it's on the desktop or something? I would just cd into that directory and then run ./udev_rules.sh.

 

[W4KRR]

I was able to get the Osmocom version up and running. Seems to work okay. This is on a Windows 11 machine using VMware Workstation running Ubuntu.

When starting up the Virtual machine, I see a message "cannot connect to the virtual device sata0:1 it will start disconnected". Hasn't seemed to affect anything.

Also trying to install the Boatbod version in a separate virtual machine. It won't install, I get "Installing for GNURadio 3.8 is not supported by this version of OP25. Please use git branch "gr38" for GNURadio -3.8 or eariler". How can I fix this? I couldn't find git branch "gr38" anywhere.

 

[dkcorlfla]

Make sure that there's an op25 folder in your home directory. Could be possible that it's on the desktop or something? I would just cd into that directory and then run ./udev_rules.sh.

I would add run ls -l to list all the files in the long view the .sh file should green (executable). Use cd to move up or cd .. to go down. Good chance the op25 folder ended up in Downloads cd Dow* will get you there fast from the home dir

 

[W4KRR]

I would add run ls -l to list all the files in the long view the .sh file should green (executable). Use cd to move up or cd .. to go down. Good chance the op25 folder ended up in Downloads cd Dow* will get you there fast from the home dir

I did find the file "udev_rules.sh" and I ran it as suggested by wgbecks in post 11.

 

[dkcorlfla]

I was able to get the Osmocom version up and running. Seems to work okay. This is on a Windows 11 machine using VMware Workstation running Ubuntu.

When starting up the Virtual machine, I see a message "cannot connect to the virtual device sata0:1 it will start disconnected". Hasn't seemed to affect anything.

Also trying to install the Boatbod version in a separate virtual machine. It won't install, I get "Installing for GNURadio 3.8 is not supported by this version of OP25. Please use git branch "gr38" for GNURadio -3.8 or eariler". How can I fix this? I couldn't find git branch "gr38" anywhere.

Looks like GNUradio 3.10 is the current version. The is a lot of info on the GNUradio web site I think it was gnuradio.org

 

[wgbecks]

I did set up GQRX and got it running with a USB dongle. However an Airspy didn't work.

OK, good. You found and ran the udev_rules.sh script. Don't forget to reboot the VM before attempting to run op25.
As far as the Airspy goes, VMWare doesn't like virtualizing these devices, a long-standing problem that requires setting
USB quirks.

 

[boatbod]

Also trying to install the Boatbod version in a separate virtual machine. It won't install, I get "Installing for GNURadio 3.8 is not supported by this version of OP25. Please use git branch "gr38" for GNURadio -3.8 or eariler". How can I fix this? I couldn't find git branch "gr38" anywhere.

Do this:

cd ~/op25
git pull
git checkout gr38
./install.sh

 

[W4KRR]

OK, good. You found and ran the udev_rules.sh script. Don't forget to reboot the VM before attempting to run op25.
As far as the Airspy goes, VMWare doesn't like virtualizing these devices, a long-standing problem that requires setting
USB quirks.

I got both the Osmocom and Boatbod versions running successfully on separate virtual machines. But only with an rtl-sdr dongle.

There is a setup guide in the RR Wiki which helped me getting everything running. In this wiki, it says that to use an Airspy, you have to edit the .vmx file with this line added to the bottom:

usb.quirks.device0 = "0x1d50:0x60a1 skip-reset, skip-refresh, skip-setconfig"

I did this, and the virtual machine wouldn't run, instead I got an error that the .vmx file was corrupted. I removed the line and then everything launched normally.

I know the guy who wrote this guide is here on this group, can't remember who he is, but is there a fix? Maybe the issue is that the guide is a couple of years old and the line may not work with newer versions of VMWare.