sdr-enthusiasts/docker-readsb-protobuf

Issue Re-Serializing RTL2832U (but not an RTL2838)

seidior opened this issue · 4 comments

seidior commented

Hello everyone!

I just got started following along the handy helpful guide a few weeks ago to get my setup running, and while I was able to achieve an adequate setup, I would love some help making things... a little less fiddly.

I have two RTL-SDR USB sticks:

By plugging each in one at a time, I was able to reserialize the SMArTee v2 to a serial number of 1080 but I wasn't able to re-serialize the SMArt v4 (sporting that RTL2832U). So now what I have to do each time I restart the box is find which exact USB device/bus combo corresponds to which SDR so I can pass each individually to their corresponding Docker containers.

Is it something I did wrong, is it an issue with this particular repo, or is it an upstream issue? Here's the output from the two relevant commands:

$ lsusb -vs 001:004

Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0bda:2832 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. RTL2832U DVB-T
Couldn't open device, some information will be missing
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               2.00
  bDeviceClass            0 
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0        64
  idVendor           0x0bda Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
  idProduct          0x2832 RTL2832U DVB-T
  bcdDevice            1.00
  iManufacturer           1 Generic
  iProduct                2 RTL2832U
  iSerial                 3 [serial redacted]
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength       0x0019
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          4 
    bmAttributes         0xa0
      (Bus Powered)
      Remote Wakeup
    MaxPower              500mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           1
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass    255 Vendor Specific Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol    255 Vendor Specific Protocol
      iInterface              5 
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0200  1x 512 bytes
        bInterval               0

$ sudo docker run --rm -it --device /dev/bus/usb/001/004 --entrypoint rtl_eeprom mikenye/readsb-protobuf -s 978

Found 2 device(s):
  0:  Generic RTL2832U
  1:  Generic RTL2832U OEM

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner

Current configuration:
Error: invalid RTL2832 EEPROM header!
Error: invalid string descriptor!
Error: invalid string descriptor!
Error: invalid string descriptor!
__________________________________________
Vendor ID:		0xffff
Product ID:		0xffff
Manufacturer:		???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Product:		????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Serial number:		??????????????????????????????????
Serial number enabled:	no
IR endpoint enabled:	yes
Remote wakeup enabled:	yes
__________________________________________

New configuration:
Error: string too long, truncated!

Again, the serialization worked fine for the SMArTee v2, just not for this SMArt v4. Has anyone run into this issue before?

mikenye commented

Hi @seidior,

This may be a bit tricky to troubleshoot on github. It might be better if you could jump onto our discord so that we can help you “live”.

https://discord.gg/sTf9uYF

If you paste the URL to this issue into the #adsb-containers channel, myself or one of our other member will be able to help you.

Thanks!

mikenye commented

Could you try changing your --device argument to /dev/bus/usb?

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kx1t commented

Also -- please try this with 1 dongle connected at a time. The container output appears to indicate you have them both connected?

Found 2 device(s):
  0:  Generic RTL2832U
  1:  Generic RTL2832U OEM

So -- only put the 978 dongle in the Raspberry Pi, and then do

sudo docker run --rm -it --device /dev/bus/usb --entrypoint rtl_eeprom mikenye/readsb-protobuf -s 978

Once that is successful, unplug the dongle and then replug both dongles.
Do this to check it worked:

sudo docker run --rm -it --device /dev/bus/usb --entrypoint rtl_test mikenye/readsb-protobuf

You can ignore any usb_claim_interface error -6 with that last command.

seidior commented

Hello future people that find this issue! Thanks to @mikenye, @kx1t, and @wiedehopf, the consensus is that if you can't re-serialize your RTL-SDR stick, try using the serial number as output by¹:

lsusb -v -d 0x0bda: 2>/dev/null | grep "iSerial" | awk '{print $3}'

assuming that the rtl_test application also shows the correct serial number:

sudo docker run --rm -it --device /dev/bus/usb --entrypoint rtl_test mikenye/readsb-protobuf

or

sudo docker run --rm -it --device /dev/bus/usb --entrypoint rtl_test mikenye/dump978

By passing the default serial number of the device as an environment variable (in my case, for dump978) like the following, it should work and the correct container should pick up the correct device.

    environment:
      - DUMP978_RTLSDR_DEVICE=[device serial]

¹ (0x0bda corresponds to the vendor ID for Realtek Semiconductor Corp.)

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