This README is a tutorial on easily using GNU Radio Companion on any operating system. See the Quick Start below to get started.
This repository contains the Dockerfile for creating the Docker image on which GNU Radio Companion is run. This image is derived from docker-ubuntu-vnc-desktop, which allows you to easily use graphical programs running on the image, using either noVNC or conventional VNC.
See docker-ubuntu-vnc-desktop for more configuration options (not related to GNU Radio).
Note: this image uses GNU Radio version 3.8 on Ubuntu 18.04.
Install Docker Desktop from here. If you're on Linux, see here.
Once you've installed Docker Desktop, run the Docker container and access the virtual desktop on port 8080:
docker run -p 8080:80 brownspaceengineering/gnuradio-companion
The first time you run this, it may take a while to download the components of the image (it's about 750MB total). However, these will be cached and won't be downloaded when you run the command again.
Then visit http://127.0.0.1:8080 to view the virtual desktop enviornment. Launch GNU Radio Companion using the desktop icon.
If the web version (noVNC) doesn't work for you or is too slow, you can try using a VNC viewer (client) application, such as VNC Viewer. To start to the Docker container with this option enabled, forward port 5900 from the container using the following command:
docker run -p 5900:5900 -p 8080:80 brownspaceengineering/gnuradio-companion
Then, connect to 127.0.0.1 with your VNC viewer and launch GNU Radio Companion.
To be able to save files when using GNU Radio Companion (such as the .grc flowgraph files) and have them on your computer (not just inside the Docker container), you need to share a folder between the Docker container and your computer using this command:
docker run -p 5900:5900 -p 8080:80 -v /mypath:/root/workdir brownspaceengineering/gnuradio-companion
Make sure to replace the /mypath part with the full path on your computer to where you want to create the shared folder. For example, to make the shared folder be workdir on your desktop:
- Windows:
C:\Users\bse\Desktop\workdir\ - Mac:
/Users/bse/Desktop/workdir/ - Linux:
/home/bse/Desktop/workdir/
When running the container with this command, any files you save in /root/workdir on the container should show up in whatever folder you specified above, and vise versa.
Another way to transfer files is to just copy the text of them (note this doesn't work for non-plaintext files):
- Navigate to your file in the container using the file browser (button just to the right of the 'start menu' in the bottom left)
- Double-click on it and open it using Accessories->Leafpad when prompted
- Simply copy all the text of the file over to a plain text file on your computer, and save it with the same filename it had on the Docker image, including the file extension.