[Hackrf-dev] HackRF in a Virtualized Environment (Windows7>VmWare>Pentoo\Kali\Ubuntu)

[Rich S]

Sohil,

I'm in finals week of my Masters program, but will be relatively free in 
one week.  I will build a virtual machine in VirtualBox based on 
Ubuntu14 and pybombs.  I'll test it it with my HackRF to see if it 
works, then try to find a way to put it on Git, dropbox or something 
similar.

I have not used VMware in at least 10 years, is there a free way to 
make/play virtual machines?

Rich


On 9/4/2014 5:35 AM, Sohil Shah wrote:
>
> Background:
>
> I received my HackRF this Tuesday and tried running it under Pentoo, 
> Kali and Windows. It did not work on either. I installed the latest 
> Zadiag drivers on Windows and got the latest version of SDR#. As far 
> as Kali and Pentoo go I followed the guide online except that I was 
> running it from within a VM using VmWare. I have not dared to update 
> my firmware. I will wait till Zero releases the Pentoo build with all 
> the necessary tools and Mike posts his lesson on firmware flashing.
>
> My question today is has anyone tried using the HackRF in a 
> Virtualized environment [Windows7>VmWare_WorkStation10>Pentoo/Kali/Ubuntu]
>
> I am aware of there being limits over USB in a virtualized 
> environment, but for a lot of reasons I would like to use the HackRF 
> on my Windows box using VmWare Workstation 10 as the virtualized 
> environment on either Kali/Ubuntu or Pentoo (Zero's latest build when 
> its released).
>
> I can understand that there may be a lot of people who will say, use 
> it on bare metal and that is fine, but I really want to see if it is 
> possible to use the HackRF in a virtualized environment. I have used 
> the RTLSDR in a virtualized environment for over a year now and it 
> seems to be doing just fine with a lot of applications. I am not sure 
> what the limitations of using the HackRF in a virtualized environment 
> are. I do not intend to use it at its maximum sample rate as I am sure 
> a lot of applications don't require that high a samp_rate, E.G 
> everything running on the RTLSDR is running at under 3.2MSPS.
>
> My crude understanding is that more the MSPS more the I/O demand or 
> bandwidth required on the USB bus and the driver that shuttles the 
> samples between Windows through VMware to the Virtual Machine. I don't 
> know what the max_limit for such a setup is in terms of MSPS but I'd 
> like to know if someone has been able to do a calculation of the 
> amount of lost USB packets when going from 0MSPS to 22MSPS in a 
> virtualized environment or if someone is willing to give me an idea as 
> to how one would go about doing that as I am not sure if there is any 
> existing way to calculate that. My goal is to figure out an ideal MSPS 
> at which the HackRF is ideally useable in a Virtaul Machine running on 
> Windows7 inside VmWare Workstation 10. As far as hardware goes I have 
> the Lenovo ThinkPad T430 (Intel Chipset) which based on what I have 
> read is one of the good performers on the hardware side, hence any 
> losses or limitations would really be a software/virtualization issue 
> as opposed to a hardware issue.
>
>
> If someone still can't wrap their head around the fact that why I 
> would want to use Virtualization let me explain.
>
> 1)    1) I only have one computer (laptop).
>
> 2)     2) I really need to have windows installed on it and can't have 
> dual boot on it with any Linux flavor.
>
> 3)     3) This limits me to using a live CD/USB
>
> 4)     4) I would like to watch Mike's videos and refer to online 
> guides while doing the exercises in GRC.
>
> 5)    5) All Live CD's may not have all the required tools, codecs 
> etc. to watch video files and or video content online. (I know this is 
> a lame argument but there are certain limitations and not everything 
> will run straight out of the box on all platforms, plus it adds noise 
> on the link in the next point)
>
> 6)    6) Coming to the most important point. I want to simulate an 
> environment where I have one host (think drone or remote computer) to 
> which the HackRF is physically connected and another host that is 
> actually commanding and getting responses from the first host. All 
> Signal processing etc. is happening on the drone/remote machine. Only 
> basic periodic updates (command and control) are being transmitted 
> between the two hosts. To simulate this I need to use virtualization 
> on my laptop.
>
> If you had the patience to get so far in my post, I thank you. I would 
> really appreciate if someone can shed some light on running the HackRF 
> in a virtualized environment, maybe Mike can do a follow up to the 
> Mysteries Video to see what kind of anomalies we see while using the 
> HackRF in a virtual environment as opposed to running on bare metal. I 
> am sure others may also have specific needs to run the HackRF in a 
> virtualized environment. If not for anything else just to be able to 
> say it's not impossible is the simple motivation for my quest.
>
> Thank you for your time.
>
>
> -- 
>
> Sohil Shah.
>
> Nothing is Impossible, Never Undermine the Potential of the Human 
> Spirit = My Life's Motto!!
> Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish - Steve Jobs
>
>
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