Debian: Ubuntu, Pop!_OS

Guides for debDan based distros

Install & Configure SDR receiver

This guide specifically is for the Nooelec NESDR Mini 2+ USB RTL-SDR and ADS-B Receiver Set in a Debian or Ubuntu based environment, but should work for other similar SDR receivers (Especially Realtek ones).

Issues

rtl_test Errors

If you receive a "Failed to open rtlsdr device #0" error when running the rtl_test command, something is already accessing your USB SDR receiver. Close any applications that might be using it and try again. If you're not sure what application is using it, try unplugging your device and plugging it in again.

If you receive any gibberish characters for the device name, this likely means there is a permissions issue. Try again as root and review the instructions for setting up the udev rules/permissions.

SDR++ app not displaying/receiving

For me, SDR++ sometimes does not start receiving properly. Sometimes it does. I've not found a solution for this and I've not had this issue in other applications, so the only solution I currently have is to use a different app.

Mounting Network shares with fstab

Auto Mounting a Network SMB or CIFS Drive

As always, backup your working fstab first:
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.bak

The following is a way to automatically mount a network share without the risk of it blocking you computer from booting. This is useful for non-critical drives such as media or backups. Review the params before saving your fstab file, you may need to adjust some!

In this example we will mount the SMB share photos to the local directory /mnt/photos. Replace with your shared drive and preferred local folder.

  1. Create the directory your drive will mount to. This can be owned by any user: EG. root
    1. sudo mkdir /mnt/photos
  2. Add the mount as a new line to /etc/fstab
    1. //IP_ADDRESS/photos /mnt/photos cifs vers=3.0,nofail,noauto,x-systemd.automount,username=USERNAME,password=PASSWORD,uid=1000,gid=1000,dir_mode=0777,file_mode=0666 0 0
    2. Read the explanation below before continuing to save!
  3. Make sure you didn't make a mistake. Validate your fstab file changes with:
    1. sudo findmnt --verify --verbose
  4. Tell the system to re-load the fstab changes with:
    1. systemctl daemon-reload
    2. Because the example here sets noauto, you cannot mount them with the "mount -a" command
  5. Usually the network shares will mount automatically once you try and access the local directories. Sometimes this takes a few minutes the first time. You can speed this up with the following command:
    1. sudo systemctl restart local-fs.target

Explanation of line #2:

Notes:

You may have a different preference about the noauto param preventing mounting a boot time. If you absolutely need your drive to mount first thing and it should hold up booting until it has mounted, you can remove that option. If you want booting to fail entirely if the drive is not available, you can also remove the nofail param.