Great Scott Gadgets HackRF - Getting Started with HackRF and GNU Radio; Try Your HackRF with Pentoo Linux

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CHAPTER

ONE

GETTING STARTED WITH HACKRF AND GNU RADIO

We recommend getting started by watching the Software Deﬁned Radio with HackRF video series. This series will

introduce you to HackRF One, software including GNU Radio, and teach you the fundamentals of Digital Signal

Processing (DSP) needed to take full advantage of the power of Software Deﬁned Radio (SDR). Additional helpful

information follows.

1.1 Try Your HackRF with Pentoo Linux

The easiest way to get started with your HackRF and ensure that it works is to use Pentoo, a Linux distribution with

full support for HackRF and GNU Radio. Download the latest Pentoo .iso image from one of the mirrors listed at

http://pentoo.ch/downloads/. Then burn the .iso to a DVD or use UNetbootin to install the .iso on a USB ﬂash drive.

Boot your computer using the DVD or USB ﬂash drive to run Pentoo. Do this natively, not in a virtual machine.

(Unfortunately high speed USB operation invariably fails when people try to run HackRF from a virtual machine.)

Once Pentoo is running, you can immediately use it to update ﬁrmware on your HackRF or use other HackRF command

line tools. For a walkthrough, watch SDR with HackRF, Lesson 5: HackRF One.

To verify that your HackRF is detected, type hackrf_info at the command line. It should produce a few lines of

output including “Found HackRF board.” The 3V3, 1V8, RF, and USB LEDs should all be illuminated and are various

colors.

You can type startx at the command line to launch a desktop environment. Accept the “default conﬁg” in the ﬁrst

dialog box. The desktop environment is useful for GNU Radio Companion and other graphical applications but is not

required for basic operations such as ﬁrmware updates.

Now you can use programs such as gnuradio-companion or gqrx to start experimenting with your HackRF. Try the

Examples below. If you are new to GNU Radio, an excellent place to start is with the SDR with HackRF video series

or with the GNU Radio guided tutorials.

Alternative: GNU Radio Live SDR Environment

The GNU Radio Live SDR Environment is another nice bootable Linux .iso with support for HackRF and, of course,

GNU Radio.