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

Thu Sep 4 06:06:29 EDT 2014

Yeah, VMWare Player is free and VMWare encourage the distribution of
images, providing a searchable Virtual Appliance marketplace.

VMWare Player Info: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
Virtual Appliance Marketplace:
https://solutionexchange.vmware.com/store/category_groups/virtual-appliances

On 4 September 2014 10:48, Rich S <richnsanders at gmail.com> wrote:

>  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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>
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