rtl_433 currently supports these input types:
- RTL-SDR (optional, recommended)
- SoapySDR (optional)
- files: CU8, CS16, CF32 I/Q data, U16 AM data (built-in)
- rtl_tcp remote data servers (built-in)
Building rtl_433 with RTL-SDR or SoapySDR support is optional but using RTL-SDR is highly recommended. The libraries and header files for RTL-SDR and/or SoapySDR should be installed beforehand.
Some distributions offer nightly builds.
openSUSE users of at least Leap 42.3 or Tumbleweed can add the repository with daily builds:
$ sudo zypper addrepo -f obs://home:mnhauke:rtl_433:nightly/rtl_433
rtl_433-nightly
$ sudo zypper install rtl_433
The usual update mechanism will now keep the rtl_433 version current.
Fedora users (38, 39 and Rawhide) can add the following copr repository to get nightly builds:
$ sudo dnf copr enable tvass/rtl_433
$ sudo dnf install rtl_433
The usual update mechanism will now keep the rtl_433 version current.
Depending on your system, you may need to install the following libraries.
Debian:
sudo apt-get install libtool libusb-1.0-0-dev librtlsdr-dev rtl-sdr build-essential cmake pkg-config
- If you require TLS connections, also install
libssl-dev
(sudo apt-get install libssl-dev
).
Centos/Fedora/RHEL with EPEL repo using cmake:
- If
dnf
doesn't exist, useyum
. - If you require TLS connections, install
openssl-devel
.
sudo dnf install libtool libusb1-devel rtl-sdr-devel rtl-sdr cmake
Mac OS X with MacPorts:
- If you require TLS connections, install
openssl
from either MacPorts or Homebrew.
sudo port install rtl-sdr cmake
Mac OS X with Homebrew:
brew install rtl-sdr cmake pkg-config
Get the rtl_433
git repository if needed:
git clone https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433.git
Installation using CMake and Make (commonly available):
cd rtl_433/
cmake -B build
cmake --build build --target install
Installation using CMake and Ninja (newer and faster):
cd rtl_433/
cmake -DFORCE_COLORED_BUILD:BOOL=ON -GNinja -B build
cmake --build build -j 4
cmake --build build --target install
If installing to a global prefix (e.g. the default /usr/local
) then instead run make install
with privileges, .i.e.
sudo cmake --build build --target install
Use CMake with -DENABLE_SOAPYSDR=ON
(default: AUTO
) to require SoapySDR (e.g. with Debian needs the package libsoapysdr-dev
), use -DENABLE_RTLSDR=OFF
(default: ON
) to disable RTL-SDR if needed.
E.g. use:
cmake -DENABLE_SOAPYSDR=ON ..
::: tip
If you use CMake older than 3.13 (check cmake --version
), you need to build using e.g. mkdir build ; cd build ; cmake .. && cmake --build .
:::
::: tip
In CMake 3.6 or older the OpenSSL search seems broken, you need to use cmake -DENABLE_OPENSSL=NO ..
:::
::: warning If you experience trouble with SoapySDR when compiling or running: you likely mixed version 0.7 and version 0.8 headers and libs. Purge all SoapySDR packages and source installation from /usr/local. Then install only from packages (version 0.7) or only from source (version 0.8). :::
To properly configure builds without relying on automatic feature detection you should set all options explicitly, e.g.
cmake -DENABLE_RTLSDR=ON -DENABLE_SOAPYSDR=ON -DENABLE_OPENSSL=ON -DBUILD_DOCUMENTATION=OFF -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -GNinja -B build
cmake --build build -j 10
DESTDIR=/tmp/destdir cmake --build build --target install
You need PothosSDR installed to get RTL-SDR and SoapySDR libraries. Any recent version should work, e.g. 2021.07.25-vc16.
When installing PothosSDR choose "Add PothosSDR to the system PATH for the current user".
For TLS support (mqtts and influxs) you need OpenSSL installed. E.g. install Chocolatey then open a Command Prompt and
choco install openssl
Clone the project, e.g. open Visual Studio, change to "Team Explorer" > "Projects" > "Manage Connections" > "Clone"
and enter https://github.com/merbanan/rtl_433.git
If you want to change options, in the menu select "CMake" > "Change CMake Settings" > "rtl433", select e.g. "x64-Release", change e.g.
"buildRoot": "${workspaceRoot}\\build",
"installRoot": "${workspaceRoot}\\install",
To start a build use in the menu e.g. "CMake" > "Build all"
Or build at the Command Prompt without opening Visual Studio. Clone rtl_433 sources, then
cd rtl_433
cmake -G "Visual Studio 15 2017 Win64" -B build
cmake --build build
You'll probably want librtlsdr and libusb.
libusb has prebuilt binaries for windows, librtlsdr needs to be built (or extracted from the PothosSDR installer)
taken and adapted from here: https://www.onetransistor.eu/2017/03/compile-librtlsdr-windows-mingw.html
- install MinGW-w64 and CMake
- it's easiest if you select the option to include CMake in your path, otherwise you'll need to do this manually
- download the libusb binaries from https://sourceforge.net/projects/libusb/files/libusb-1.0/ or from https://libusb.info/
- take the latest release and then download the .7z file, the other file contains the sources (or 'windows binaries' on the .info website)
- extract the archive and open the extracted folder
- copy the contents of the include folder to
<mingw_installation_folder>/include
- copy the
mingw64/dll/libusb-1.0.dll.a
file to `<mingw_installation_folder>/lib - copy the
mingw64/dll/libusb-1.0.dll
file to<mingw_installation_folder>/bin
- download the source code of librtlsdr https://github.com/steve-m/librtlsdr
- go into the librtlsdr folder
- open CMakeLists.txt with an editor that knows unix line endings
- go to
# Find build dependencies
(around line 65) and comment/remove the line withfind_package(Threads)
- add the following lines instead:
SET(CMAKE_THREAD_LIBS_INIT "-lpthread")
SET(CMAKE_HAVE_THREADS_LIBRARY 1)
SET(Threads_FOUND TRUE)
- go into the cmake/modules folder and open FindLibUSB.cmake with a text editor
- find the lines with the following text in them
/usr/include/libusb-1.0
/usr/include
/usr/local/include
- add some extra lines to point to the MinGW include folder where you extracted libusb-1.0, making it look like this
- take note of the "" around the folder names, these are needed when there are spaces in the folder name
- you'll need to find out the exact paths for your system
/usr/include/libusb-1.0
/usr/include
/usr/local/include
"C:/Program Files/mingw-w64/x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0/mingw64/include"
"C:/Program Files/mingw-w64/x86_64-8.1.0-posix-seh-rt_v6-rev0/mingw64/include/libusb-1.0"
- open a MinGW terminal in the librtlsdr folder
- generate makefiles for MinGW:
cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" -B build
- build the librtlsdr library:
cmake --build build
- clone the rtl_433 repository and cd into it
- run
cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" -B build
in the build directory - run cmake-gui (this is easiest)
- set the source (the rtl_433 source code directory) and the build directory (one might create a build directory in the source directory)
- click configure
- select the grouped and advanced tickboxes
- go into the librtlsdr config group
- point the
LIBRTLSDR_INCLUDE_DIRS
to the include folder of the librtlsdr source - point the
LIBRTLSDR_LIBRARIES
to thelibrtlsdr.dll.a
file in the <librtlsdr_source>/build/src folder- that's the one you've built earlier
- start a MinGW terminal and run
cmake --build build
to build- when something in the tests folder doesn't build, you can disable it by commenting out
add_subdirectory(tests)
in the CMakeLists.txt file in the source folder of rtl_433
- when something in the tests folder doesn't build, you can disable it by commenting out
- rtl_433.exe should be built now
- you need to place it in the same folder as librtlsdr.dll and libusb-1.0.dll (you should have seen both of them by now)
- good luck!
If your system is missing or you find these steps are outdated please PR an update or open an issue.