A while ago I already managed to compile gqrx on OS X, but then Alexandru Csete decided to move on to a new audio backend called pulseaudio. Sadly there is no proper pulseaudio port for OS X. Thus I bring you my branch of gqrx 2.1 which runs quite well on OS X.
This release bundles all the rtl-sdr, gr-osmosdr, GNU Radio, libUSB, boost and Qt dependencies allowing it to work out of the box. Though feel free to contact me in case you encounter problems. It has been reported to run fine on Snow Leopard (10.6), OS X Lion (10.7), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8) and OS X Mavericks (10.9). Sadly Leopard (10.5) isn’t supported due to Apple breaking binary compatibility on 64bit binaries for some reason.
Download the ready to use DMG/APP here:
gqrx_8.dmg – (07/01/2013) Latest GIT. Some people are reporting FFT issues with this build, in case you encounter those try the one below and leave a comment.
Old versions:
gqrx_7.dmg – (02/03/2013) Up to date with GIT. I’ve added a deadlock prevention feature in case your settings keep gqrx from starting up properly. After a crash/forced-close it asks you whether you want to reset all your settings to default. This should help you guys with invalid rtl_tcp settings and the like. I have also fixed rtl_fm to now properly work on OS X (It used to only output noise), as well as multimonNG which now supports umlauts for POCSAG decoding. So check out the bundled command-line utilities! 
(e.g. /Applications/Gqrx.app/Contents/MacOS/rtl_test -t)
gqrx_6.dmg – Latest (01/16/2013) updates from GIT, yet again. This time I also packaged some command-line utilities (multimonNG rtl_adsb rtl_eeprom rtl_fm rtl_sdr rtl_tcp rtl_test) together with Gqrx. rtl_fm seems to be broken on OS X, yet we’re still triaging the bug. It would be great if you could try it and report whether it works for you. (http://kmkeen.com/rtl-demod-guide/index.html) I am considering packaging up the whole of gnuradio including the companion GUI if there is demand.
gqrx_5.dmg (Latest updates from GIT, supports adjusting the FFT resolution which should fix the pink curtain problem. The zoom slider has been removed from upstream, yet you can still zoom by using the mouse wheel on the axes.)
gqrx_4.dmg (GNU Radio component has now been compiled with “-DTRY_SHM_VMCIRCBUF=OFF”, this should hopefully fix the shared memory problem some of you have encountered. Please report whether it works now.)
gqrx_3.dmg (Rebased to the zoom branch. Credit goes to vpelletier for the awesome patch!)
Pan: left-click on X-axis labels & drag horizontally
Pan (alternative): Mouse wheel on X-axis labels, faster pan with Shift held and slower pan with Ctrl held.
Change central frequency: middle-click on X-axis labels & drag horizontally
Zoom: slider on FFT panel
gqrx_2.dmg (Updated gr-osmosdr and fixed a crash when disabling demod.)
gqrx.dmg
PS:
The screenshot was taken in direct sampling mode, that’s why I was able to receive 0-2.4mhz. I’ll probably blog about my modded dongle soon.
Software licenses:
Gqrx
Qt
multimonNG
boost
gr-osmosdr
rtl-sdr
GNU Radio
FFTW
PortAudio
libusb
I just took my test today and I got my Tech license — I got into this for the SDR stuff and competing. I want to help you test or do anything I can. Feel free to contact me.
Thanks for the great work.
i see you have afsk1200 decoder any updates on other multimode-ng implementations
demod_afsk12.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_afsk24.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_afsk24_2.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_afsk24_3.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_ccir.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_clipfsk.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_display.c Substituted u_int with unsigned int to avoid posix dependencies 5 months ago
demod_dtmf.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_dumpcsv.c added examples for DUMPCSV 5 months ago
demod_dzvei.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_eas.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_eea.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_eia.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_fsk96.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_hapn48.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_morse.c FreeBSD fixed 5 months ago
demod_poc12.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_poc24.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_poc5.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_pzvei.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_ufsk12.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_zvei1.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
demod_zvei2.c MORSE_CW demod, integer math and gen-ng 6 months ago
greetings from belgium
Hi, I tried to install the most recent and the one before that version of GQRX and I am getting a message that it will not run on my type of mac. I don’t understand as ~I thought my machine would be powerful enough for sdr. Maybe it is asking a bit much of my machine but am I doing anything wrong?. It is a 1.83 GHz Dual Core with 2GB of ram. The OS is Snow Leopard. Please let me know if it can. I am pretty new to OSX.
Maybe your machine doesn’t support 64bit operation? Please tell me the CPU model.
Hi!
I’ve just started trying to use your port with the NooElec R820T but I received an error message with both versions 7&8.
I’m running on osx10.9.2 a macbook with 2.7ghz i7processor.
Here’s the specifics to the application exception:
Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Application Specific Information:
terminating with uncaught exception of type boost::filesystem::filesystem_error: boost::filesystem::create_directory: Permission denied: “/Users/Zack/.gnuradio”
abort() called
hope you can help out as I’d love to try out your port and not have to dualboot
Hi Zack,
Looks like it tries to create a settings/configuration directory and fails due to lack of permissions.
I suggest to create it manually (“mkdir /Users/Zack/.gnuradio” in Terminal) and make it writable
I’ve had lots of problems using Brew and MacPorts to get working gnuradio. I’m most interested in using gnuradio-companion as I’d like to decode AIS signals. You mentioned in your blog post you’d consider a full package for gnuradio with the companion, can I request that you consider it?
On a separate note, I am unable to record audio as GQRX crashes each time, and the build you have compiled does not contain the network element as I would quite like to stream the audio to process using aismon on Windows if I cannot find a suitable OSX package.
Thank you for your contribution, I’m really enjoying toying with SDR
Unpackaged my R820T SDR not even 15 minutes ago, installed your port on my Mac, and I’m playing local radio! Works great!!!!
Is there any chance of a bundled build of the latest snapshot?
I’ve been trying the Macports route with little success, mostly as it breaks the setup I need for work, which is tied heavily to Homebrew, so finding your bundles was great – but the problem I have needs verification on the latest snapshot before I start reporting bugs to Alex.
Tried both files with os x mavericks and the program would not load, hat to force quit.
Awesome! For me gqrx from git just wasn’t working properly, but your port worked straight away!
Yup, spot on – FFT issues within ‘gqrx_8.dmg’.
With the FFT size held at 4096, any Rate – including 50fps – is ‘happy to-play-ball’ all day long.
Selecting anything higher than 4096 is only possible by backing the Rate down somewhat.
(For me, an FFT size locked at the maximum of 16384 – demands that the Rate chosen is no higher than 25fps, and even then it’ll still occasionally lock up. When running an FFT size of 16384, I can only attain a rock-steady-stable-state – with the Rate locked at 20fps.)
Running Lion v10.7.5 on a MacBook (Late 2007), 2.0GHz Intel Core2 Duo with 2GB 800MHz DDR2 RAM…
So, I’m gonna ‘nudge another smack of encouragement’ at urging Elias to go ALL-IN!
C’mon, you know we all want it – give us GNU Radio on OS X…
On which way can I use the funcube pro with these software
What need I to do to get I working
Sorry I have give you a wrong email address
But what need I to do to get Gqrx running with funcube pro dongle
With RTL28xx dongle it running fine
Hi,
Any plans to update your dmg for the latest gqrx release, 2.3? Right now, the only way to install it is macports, which comes with its own costs.