h1. Installing GNU Radio

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h2. Ways to install GNU Radio

There are two ways to install GNU Radio: either by using pre-compiled binary packages, or manually compiling it from source. Most Linux distributions provide binary packages through their regular repositories, and this is generally the easiest and fastest way to get a running system.

The development of GNU Radio is extremely fast-paced, however, and binaries provided by your favourite distribution are most likely outdated.

If you want any of the following:

* ...the most up-to-date code

* ...to closely follow the development of GNU Radio

* ...to modify GNU Radio yourself.

... you will most likely want to install GNU Radio from source (see the next section). For Fedora and Ubuntu users, there is a script which does all the heavy lifting. For other distributions, you will have to run through the install process manually.

h2. Using the build-gnuradio script

The "@build-gnuradio@":http://www.sbrac.org/files/build-gnuradio is an install script for recent Fedora and Ubuntu systems provided by Marcus Leech. For most users, this is the recommended way.

For the impatient: open a terminal window, move to the directory you would like the source files to be stored (e.g. 'cd src/') and run this command:

<pre>

$ wget http://www.sbrac.org/files/build-gnuradio && chmod a+x ./build-gnuradio && ./build-gnuradio

</pre>

This downloads the installer (@build-gnuradio@) and makes it executable. It then downloads and installs all dependencies, downloads both UHD and GNU Radio from git (which means it will automatically install the latest version from the 'main' branch), runs the make process and installs it on your system. In most cases, simply running the script will do all you need to get a running GNU Radio system built from source. Also, you still have all the source code lying on your hard disk and therefore available for future modifications. It combines the flexibility of installing from source with the ease of using binaries and is recommended for most users of Ubuntu and Fedora.

Thanks to Marcus Leech for putting this together and hosting it.

h2. Using pre-compiled binaries

*NOTE: These are very old, and we are no longer putting new version into the standard repositories for apt-get and yum installation. We will be adding our own support for this in the near future. Meanwhile, please follow the instructions for building from source or using the build-gnuradio script (see next two sections).*

Pre-compiled binaries come packaged with your distribution. On Ubuntu, installing GNU Radio from binaries is as easy as calling

<pre>

$ apt-get install gnuradio

</pre>

On Fedora, run

<pre>

$ yum install gnuradio

</pre>

h2. Installing manually from source

If you choose this route, you have slightly more work to do. First, you need to [[Download|download]] the code. You can get the code as a tarball or check it out from the git repository.

To build GNU Radio, refer to the [[BuildGuide|build guide]].

If you want to be able to use USRP devices, you need to install "UHD":http://code.ettus.com/redmine/ettus/projects/uhd/wiki *before* installing GNU Radio.

h2. Windows users

Currently, there are no up-to-date binaries available for Windows. You will need to install GNU Radio from source. For this, refer to the [[WindowsInstall|windows install guide]].

h2. OK, it's installed, what now?

If the installation worked without any trouble, you're ready to use GNU Radio. If you have no idea how to do that, read the [[HowToUse|page on how to use GNU Radio]]. You probably want to connect some [[Hardware]] to your computer to try and receive or transmit stuff. If you or your group would like to get a professional jump start on using GNU Radio and the USRP, "Corgan Enterprises LLC":http://corganenterprises.com offers a 3-day, hands-on "training class":http://corganenterprises.com/wiki/GNU_Radio_Training, to be held at your own location.