RTL-SDR.COM V4/V3 Linux drivers

[nd5y]

I have a RTL-SDR.COM V4 and used their instructions, which could be way out of date, to install the Linux drivers on a Debian-based distro. As far as I can tell that installs version 2.0.2.

Debian 13 Trixie has a rtl-sdr 2.0.2-2 package. The changelog says:

rtl-sdr (0.6.0-5) unstable; urgency=medium
* update to 0.6.0-36-g1261fbb
Fix-signal-handler-from-getting-stuck-in-an-endless-loop
add-rtl-sdr-blog-v4-support (Closes: #1050345)
* Update Standards-Version (no changes)
* Disabling zerocopy on arm awaiting better fix for #1041701
-- A. Maitland Bottoms <bottoms@debian.org> Thu, 24 Aug 2023 23:00:44 -0400

There have been four updates since then and the latest version 2.0.2-2 is from 2024.
Do you still need to manually install the drivers from rtl-sdr.com?

 

[lwvmobile]

If you want the latest, you'll have to remove the version that you currently have from repo, and clone and compile the latest version from osmocom. That being said, you'll have to weigh whether or not the few updates are worth getting or not. If you don't feel comfortable with the procedure described in the link below, and/or there is nothing seemingly wrong with what you are using now, then I wouldn't do the update. If you just got to be on the bleeding edge, then you can compile the latest driver for yourself.

Rtl-sdr - rtl-sdr - Open Source Mobile Communications

Redmine

osmocom.org

 

[nd5y]

I don't need the latest version. The Debian stable repo version appears to work. Either that or the driver is in Linux kernel 7.0 now and the others aren't even used. I'm confused by the instructions on rtl-sdr.com not mentioning that you probably don't have to manually build and install the driver now.

 

[nd5y]

I discovered I don't need to install drivers at all for what I am using right now. The only SDR programs I have are the AppImage versions of Gqrx and DSD-neo and they contain the drivers.