I wanted to experiment a bit with
rtl_tcp on ritchie which has linux
kernel 3.12, and after inserting the stick I noticed the following in
the syslog:
[405465.908104] usb 1-3: new high-speed USB device number 2 using ehci-pci
[405466.052247] usb 1-3: New USB device found, idVendor=0bda, idProduct=2838
[405466.052274] usb 1-3: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3
[405466.052293] usb 1-3: Product: RTL2838UHIDIR
[405466.052310] usb 1-3: Manufacturer: Realtek
[405466.052328] usb 1-3: SerialNumber: 00000001
[405466.217234] usb 1-3: dvb_usb_v2: found a 'Realtek RTL2832U reference design' in warm state
[405466.285098] usb 1-3: dvb_usb_v2: will pass the complete MPEG2 transport stream to the software demuxer
[405466.285208] DVB: registering new adapter (Realtek RTL2832U reference design)
[405466.348588] usb 1-3: DVB: registering adapter 0 frontend 0 (Realtek RTL2832 (DVB-T))...
[405466.378308] r820t 0-001a: creating new instance
[405466.390283] r820t 0-001a: Rafael Micro r820t successfully identified
[405466.397306] Registered IR keymap rc-empty
[405466.397785] input: Realtek RTL2832U reference design as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0f.5/usb1/1-3/rc/rc0/input5
[405466.404262] rc0: Realtek RTL2832U reference design as /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:0f.5/usb1/1-3/rc/rc0
[405466.449642] IR NEC protocol handler initialized
[405466.453552] IR RC5(x) protocol handler initialized
[405466.459768] IR RC6 protocol handler initialized
[405466.470835] usb 1-3: dvb_usb_v2: schedule remote query interval to 400 msecs
[405466.471385] IR JVC protocol handler initialized
[405466.474504] IR Sony protocol handler initialized
[405466.481423] IR SANYO protocol handler initialized
[405466.483311] usb 1-3: dvb_usb_v2: 'Realtek RTL2832U reference design' successfully initialized and connected
[405466.483477] usbcore: registered new interface driver dvb_usb_rtl28xxu
[405466.493045] input: MCE IR Keyboard/Mouse (dvb_usb_rtl28xxu) as /devices/virtual/input/input6
[405466.498074] IR MCE Keyboard/mouse protocol handler initialized
[405466.501562] lirc_dev: IR Remote Control driver registered, major 251
[405466.510997] rc rc0: lirc_dev: driver ir-lirc-codec (dvb_usb_rtl28xxu) registered at minor = 0
[405466.511017] IR LIRC bridge handler initialized
It has valid drivers as dvb-t receiver and ir receiver now!
That's not what I wanted, I want raw usb access for
rtl_tcp. Time to blacklist certain modules:
blacklist dvb_usb_rtl28xxu
blacklist rtl2830
blacklist rtl2832
blacklist lirc_dev
And now no drivers get loaded and rtl_tcp has raw usb access again after
updating the udev rules.
No success with gqrx using a remote rtl_tcp: audio was stuttering and
frequency changes were visible in rtl_tcp but didn't really happen, there was
a huge lag. Traffic between the system running rtl_tcp and gqrx was going
over a wireless network, a linux router and a wired network. Bandwidth
was not a problem.
I was considering running one rtl-sdr stick with the HF convertor
in the shed so it would have less interference but that doesn't seem feasible
at the moment.