15.1. DVB-T Stick

NooElec R820T2 SDR & DVB-T NESDR Mini 2

15.1.1. Firmware Installation

Requirements:

$ sudo apt install build-essential cmake git \
&& sudo apt install libusb-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev

Clone rtl-sdr library and build:

sshhttps

$ git clone git@github.com:librtlsdr/librtlsdr.git && \
cd librtlsdr && \
mkdir build && \
cd build && \
cmake ../ -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=ON -DDETACH_KERNEL_DRIVER=ON && \
make && \
sudo make install && \
sudo ldconfig

Install python wrapper from source. Installation via pip does not work from Ubuntu 24.04 on and package is currently not available via apt:

sshhttps

$ cd \
&& git clone git@github.com:pyrtlsdr/pyrtlsdr.git \
&& cd pyrtlsdr \
&& sudo python3 setup.py install

15.1.2. Fix Access Error

If you try to use the DVB-T stick using pyrtlsdr, for example using

$ ros2 launch sdr sdr.launch.py

You might get the following error message:

[sdr_node.py-1]     raise LibUSBError(result, 'Could not open SDR (device index = %d)' % (device_index))
[sdr_node.py-1] rtlsdr.rtlsdr.LibUSBError: <LIBUSB_ERROR_ACCESS (-3): Access denied (insufficient permissions)> "Could not open SDR (device index = 0)"
[ERROR] [sdr_node.py-1]: process has died [pid 59289, exit code 1, cmd '/home/nathalie/ros2/install/sdr/lib/sdr/sdr_node.py --ros-args'].

Blacklisting the dvb_usb_rtl28xxu module fixes this. Add the following to etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf (will need root access)

blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu
blacklist rtl2832
blacklist rtl2830

You will need to reboot.