gr-wsl

GNU Radio Setup for WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

This is a collection of installation scripts and instructions to run GNU Radio based applications for Linux inside WSL.

After a successful setup you will be able to use gr-satellites to decode satellite telemetry and contribute to the Satnogs database.

Installation

How to setup gr-satellites to decode telemetry from SatnogsTracker using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

Configure WSL following these instructions https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10
- Basically says to enable the feature from a Powershell Windows as Administrator

Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux

If you want to use graphical based features from GNU radio you need an X Server application running on your Windows PC
- I use X410 (https://token2shell.com/x410/) from the Microsoft Store https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/x410/9nlp712zmn9q?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
- Launch X410 from your Start Menu or type X410 on the Search Box
- Alternatively you can use Xming from https://sourceforge.net/projects/xming/
On Windows 10, go the Microsoft Store and download a Linux distribution
- I am using Ubuntu for this install but it works fine with Debian also https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/ubuntu/9nblggh4msv6?activetab=pivot:overviewtab
Enabling sound: follow these instructions
- https://token2shell.com/howto/x410/enabling-sound-in-wsl-ubuntu-let-it-sing/
- Use this version of pulseaudio http://bosmans.ch/pulseaudio/pulseaudio-1.1.zip
- Make sure you have the pulseaudio daemon running and allowed on the firewall before attempting a connection from WSL
- This will be attempted later using pavucontrol in the WSL
Launch Ubuntu app (or Debian)
- Create your default username and password
  - First step upgrade to latest release (if Ubuntu)
    - Edit /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and change to Prompt=normal
    - Execute do-release-upgrade (this will upgrade to the latest normal release of your distro)
    - Note: I had to skip some repos (like the snap store) that were not available at time of installation.
    - Executing "lsb_release -a" should tell you the Release you are running afterwards :~/gr-wsl$ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 19.04 Release: 19.04 Codename: disco
  - Edit /etc/pulse/client.conf Change the default-server line to: default-server = tcp:localhost

Clone the gr-wsl repo and start the install script

 cd ~
 git clone https://github.com/cpicoto/gr-wsl
 cd gr-wsl
 ./install.sh  
 Launch gnuradio-companion

At this stage the gnuradio-companion should work just fine try opening ~/gr-wsl/apps/ready.grc and play.
Future Work
- Considering publishing a dedicated gr-wsl distro with all this setup already done to the Microsoft Store.

Dependencies

You will need a Windows 10 PC including

Recommended Version 1903 (OS Build 18362.XXX)
PC should have Soundcard and Internet Connection
It will use Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)
X Server application for Windows (there are multiple free versions but X410 from the Windows Store is recommended)
pulseaudio for windows to play back audio comming from wsl
An SDR receiver for decoding realtime transmitions or IQ files.
An SDR Application for Windows that can transmit demodulated audio over UDP
- I use SDR# v1.0.0.1716 with the SDR UDPAudio Plugin
- https://github.com/cpicoto/SDR-UDPAudio

Credits and References

gr-satellites by Dani Estevez available at https://github.com/daniestevez/gr-satellites
Scott Chapman @scott23192 (K4KDR) for his twitter feed and GRC files at https://www.qsl.net/k/k4kdr//grc/
Peter Goodhall @2m0sql for his help validating this process
Microsoft for WSL https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-win10

About the author

Carlos Picoto (cpicoto@hotmail.com) is an Ham Radio enthusiast and Software Engineer
AD7NP and CT1DYE.