HydraSDR RFOne

A tiny, efficient and ultra evolutive software defined radio.

This repository contains host software (Linux/Windows/MacOS) for HydraSDR RFOne, a project to produce a low cost and extensible open source software radio platform.

HydraSDR: https://www.hydrasdr.com

Warnings about libusb v1.0.24 on Windows & GNU/Linux (use newer version libusb 1.0.25 or latest version)

It is not recommended to use libusb v1.0.24 especially on Windows as there is tons of known issues it is why we are using libusb v1.0.23 See all major issues affecting libusb v1.0.24:

• libusb/libusb#850 Regression in libusb 1.0.24 under Linux -- buggy devices with configuration 0 #850
• libusb/libusb#858 Regression in 1.0.24: libusb_handle_events_timeout_completed not waiting on timeout #858
• libusb/libusb#913 Regression in 1.0.24: libusb 1.0.24 uses a lot of cpu in libusb_bulk_transfer under Linux #913
• libusb/libusb#994 1.0.24 - windows_exit hangs when exiting on with WinUSB #994
• libusb/libusb#982 libusb_set_interface_alt_setting(...) crashes in 1.0.24 in Win10. #982 For more details see https://github.com/libusb/libusb/issues & libusb/libusb#777

How to build rfone_host software on Windows:

Prerequisites for MSYS2/MinGW64:

• cmake-3.10 or more see http://www.cmake.org/cmake/resources/software.html
• libusb-1.0.23 see https://github.com/libusb/libusb/releases/download/v1.0.23/libusb-1.0.23.7z
• For Windows OS less than Vista Install Windows driver for HydraSDR hardware or use Zadig see http://sourceforge.net/projects/libwdi/files/zadig
  • If you want to use Zadig select HydraSDR USB device and just install/replace it with WinUSB driver.

Note for Windows build: You shall always execute hydrasdr_tools from Windows command shell and not from Cygwin or Mingw shell because on Cygwin/Mingw Ctrl C is not managed correctly and especially for hydrasdr_rx the Ctrl C(abort) will not stop correctly and will corrupt the file.

For VisualStudio 2019 or later:

• git clone https://github.com/hydrasdr/rfone_host.git rfone_host
• Download https://github.com/libusb/libusb/releases/download/v1.0.23/libusb-1.0.23.7z
• Extract libusb-1.0.23.7z to rfone_host directory
  • You should have rfone_host\libusb-1.0.23
    • Inside this directory there is README.txt, libusb-1.0.def and some directories
• Download https://gcc.gnu.org/pub/pthreads-win32/pthreads-w32-2-9-1-release.zip
• Extract pthreads-w32-2-9-1-release.zip to rfone_host directory libpthread-2-9-1-win
  • You should have rfone_host\libpthread-2-9-1-win
    • Inside this directory there is lot of README files and some directories (dll, include, lib)
• Launch rfone_host\libhydrasdr\vc\hydrasdr_2019.sln with VisualStudio 2019, choose Release and Build Solution

For MSYS2/MinGW64:

Launch mingw64

pacman -Syu

pacman -S cmake mingw-w64-x86_64-libusb

git clone https://github.com/hydrasdr/rfone_host.git rfone_host

cd rfone_host

mkdir build

cd build

Normal version:

cmake ../ -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DLIBUSB_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw64/include/libusb-1.0/

Debug version:

cmake ../ -G "MSYS Makefiles" -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DLIBUSB_INCLUDE_DIR=/mingw64/include/libusb-1.0/

make

make install

How to build the rfone_host software on Linux:

Prerequisites for Linux (Debian/Ubuntu/Raspbian):

sudo apt-get install build-essential cmake libusb-1.0-0-dev pkg-config git

Build rfone_host software on Linux:

git clone https://github.com/hydrasdr/rfone_host.git rfone_host

cd rfone_host

mkdir build

cd build

cmake ../ -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=ON

make

sudo make install

sudo ldconfig

Clean CMake temporary files/dirs:

cd rfone_host/build

rm -rf *

How to build rfone_host software on FreeBSD.

Get the prerequisites (from root)

pkg install git cmake

Build

git clone https:\\github.com\hydrasdr\rfone_host.git

cd rfone_host

mkdir build

cd build

cmake .. -DLIBUSB_LIBRARIES=/usr/lib/libusb.so

make

(from root) make install

Add users to group plugdev

(from root) useradd -a -G plugdev <user>

How to build the rfone_host software on MacOS

Prerequisites

Minimum macOS Version

• macOS 10.15 (Catalina) or newer, on x86-64
• macOS 11 (Big Sur) or newer, on arm64 (Apple Silicon)

Install Homebrew (if not already installed)

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

Install required dependencies

brew install cmake libusb pkg-config git

Building from source

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/hydrasdr/rfone_host.git rfone_host
cd rfone_host
mkdir build
cd build

Configure and build

For Intel Macs (x86_64):

cmake .. -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=x86_64 -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=OFF
make
sudo make install

For Apple Silicon Macs (ARM64):

cmake .. -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64 -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=OFF
make
sudo make install

For Universal Binary (Intel + ARM64):

cmake .. -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="x86_64;arm64" -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=OFF
make
sudo make install

Debug build (optional)

For development or debugging purposes:

cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64 -DINSTALL_UDEV_RULES=OFF
make
sudo make install

Post-installation

Update dynamic linker cache

sudo update_dyld_shared_cache

Verify installation

Check that the tools are properly installed:

hydrasdr_info

Platform-specific notes

macOS Permissions

On modern macOS versions, you may need to grant permissions for USB device access:

1. Go to System Preferences → Security & Privacy → Privacy
2. Add your terminal application to "Input Monitoring" if prompted
3. For development, you may need to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) temporarily

Universal Binary Considerations

• Building universal binaries requires both Intel and ARM64 versions of all dependencies
• Homebrew on Apple Silicon installs ARM64 versions by default
• For Intel versions on Apple Silicon, use: arch -x86_64 brew install <package>

Troubleshooting

If cmake fails to find libusb:

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/opt/homebrew/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"

For Intel Macs, use /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig instead of /opt/homebrew/lib/pkgconfig.

If you encounter permission issues:

sudo chown -R $(whoami) /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig

For Apple Silicon specific issues:

Some older build scripts may not recognize the ARM64 architecture. If you encounter issues, try:

export ARCHFLAGS="-arch arm64"

https://www.hydrasdr.com

This file is part of HydraSDR™ RFOne Copyright © 2025 Benjamin VERNOUX. All rights reserved. (based on HackRF project see https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/).