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HackRF OSX Install

This will walk you through getting HackRF to work on OSX. It is really just an adaptation of the awesome collection of Homebrew recipes from Titanous and jjeising for getting GNU Radio running on OSX.

Note: homebrew-core now includes the gnuradio, librtlsdr, and hackrf formulas. This repository only includes gqrx, gr-baz, and gr-osmosdr.

Installation

These steps have been tested on El Capitan 10.11.5 with Xcode 7.3.1. It is probably a good idea to make sure all OSX updates have been applied and Xcode is up to date. Also, probably good to install the Xcode command line apps as explained over at Stackoverflow.

• Install Homebrew if you haven't already

  /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
  

  or if you already have it installed, update and upgrade everything:

  brew update
  brew upgrade
  

• After that is done run the following to make sure you have no issues with your setup, cleanup anything it catches

  brew doctor
  

• Add this line to your profile (ie ~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile or ~/.zshenv) and reload your profile (source ~/.profile or exec $SHELL)

  export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH
  

• Install the prerequisite python package (TODO: move to homebrew dependency)

  pip install Cheetah
  

• Install gnuradio

  brew install gnuradio
  

• Install HackRF and RTL-SDR libraries

  brew install hackrf
  brew install librtlsdr
  

• Create the ~/.gnuradio/config.conf config file for custom block support and add this into it

  [grc]
  local_blocks_path=/usr/local/share/gnuradio/grc/blocks
  

• Install HackRF & RTL-SDR related blocks

  brew tap rxseger/homebrew-hackrf
  brew install gr-osmosdr gr-baz --HEAD
  

Congratulations!!

Everything should now be working. It is time to give it a try! Below are some of the programs you can try

gnuradio-companion
osmocom_fft -a hackrf

gqrx

• If you want a graphic interface to play with your HackRF, GQRX is great To install it:

  brew install --HEAD gqrx
  

  To run:

  gqrx
  

  And then configure it to use the HackRF. Probably best to start the sample rate at 10e6 until you know how much your system can handle.

kalibrate

To measure the HackRF's offset from a GSM reference signal, use kalibrate:

brew install --HEAD kalibrate-hackrf
kal -h

• Uninstall Homebrew If you think you have some cruftiness with Homebrew, this Gist will completely uninstall Homebrew and any libraries it may have installed. Of course if you are using Homebrew for other things you could make a mess of your life.

  This Gist is from the Homebrew FAQ

  Then finish the clean-up with these steps

  rm -rf /usr/local/Cellar /usr/local/.git && brew cleanup
  rm -rf /Library/Caches/Homebrew
  rm -rf /usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages