[amsat-bb] GNURadio/gr-satellites preliminary install guide on Ubuntu

[Hans BX2ABT]

Spent the most part of today trying to install GNU Radio and 
gr-satellites, using a clean install of Kubuntu 19.04 (=Ubuntu with KDE 
instead of Gnome), which is the latest release.

I kind of succeeded. GNU Radio Companion is running and gr-satellites is 
installed. Most flow graphs don't have missing blocks and compile 
correctly. The only part that is missing is that when I execute a 
gr-satellite flow graph there is no Xterm popping up. I added the 
following lines to .gnuradio/grc.conf, but that didn't make any 
difference....

[grc]
xterm_executable = /usr/bin/xterm

Here are the install instructions. I hope they are useful as a reference 
to someone.

================================================

Steps to install GNURadio and gr-satellites on (K)Ubuntu 19.04

$sudo apt-get install gnuradio --> will install version 3.7.13.4-4build1 
plus dependencies

$sudo apt-get install gr-osmosdr --> will install the block to access a 
RTL-SDR stick for testing

$sudo apt-get install xterm --> used by GNURadio

After installing the things above you should be able to start GNU Radio 
Companion from menu or command line.

Open a sample flow graph, e.g. an FM receiver flow graph you can find 
online, then compile and execute. If it works: success

$sudo apt-get install git --> will install git for cloning git repositories

$mkdir src
$cd src

$git clone https://github.com/daniestevez/gr-satellites.git --> the good 
stuff

$git clone https://github.com/daniestevez/libfec.git --> needed for 
gr-satellites

$cd libfec
$./configure
$make
$sudo make install
$cd ..

$sudo apt-get install python-pip --> needed to install gr-satellites 
dependencies

$pip2 install construct --> installs this gr-satellites dependency
$pip2 install requests --> make sure it has the trailing 's'

$sudo apt-get install swig --> installs this gr-satellites dependency
$apt-get install cmake --> if not installed already

$cd gr-satellites
$mkdir build
$cd build
$cmake ..
$make
$sudo make install
$sudo ldconfig
$cd ..
$./compile_hierarchical.sh --> blocks needed for certain gr-satellites 
flow graphs. Don't forget this step and be patient because it will take 
a while to complete.

Now you can start GNU Radio Companion and open a flow graph from the app 
folder in the source directory of gr-satellites. Compile and execute.

If it works start GQRX, activate the UDP audio stream and start decoding 
telemetry.