The Soapy RTL-SDR project provides a plugin module to use the RTL-SDR dongle within the SoapySDR API and software that supports SoapySDR.

Pre-built installers for various systems are available through the Pothos SDR environment.

• https://github.com/pothosware/PothosCore/wiki/Downloads

• Install librtl-sdr - https://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr
• Install SoapySDR: https://github.com/pothosware/SoapySDR/wiki

Or install rtl-sdr packages on Ubuntu:

sudo apt-get install rtl-sdr librtlsdr-dev

The CMake build system will locate librtl-sdr and SoapySDR development files on your system. The plugin module will be built and installed into the SoapySDR modules directories.

git clone https://github.com/pothosware/SoapyRTLSDR.git
cd SoapyRTLSDR
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make
sudo make install

Use the SoapySDRUtil application to see if SoapySDR can detect your device. In this example, lets use the --probe option to print information about the RTL-SDR:

$ SoapySDRUtil --probe="driver=rtlsdr"
######################################################
##     Soapy SDR -- the SDR abstraction library     ##
######################################################
Probe device driver=rtlsdr
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
----------------------------------------------------
-- Device identification
----------------------------------------------------
  driver=RTLSDR
  hardware=R820T
  origin=https://github.com/pothosware/SoapyRTLSDR
  rtl=0
----------------------------------------------------
-- Peripheral summary
----------------------------------------------------
  Channels: 1 Rx, 0 Tx
  Timestamps: NO
  Other Settings:
     * Direct Sampling - RTL-SDR Direct Sampling Mode
       [key=direct_samp, default=0, type=string, options=(0, 1, 2)]
     * Offset Tune - RTL-SDR Offset Tuning Mode
       [key=offset_tune, default=false, type=bool]
     * I/Q Swap - RTL-SDR I/Q Swap Mode
       [key=iq_swap, default=false, type=bool]
     * Digital AGC - RTL-SDR digital AGC Mode
       [key=digital_agc, default=false, type=bool]
----------------------------------------------------
-- RX Channel 0
----------------------------------------------------
  Full-duplex: YES
  Supports AGC: YES
  Stream formats: CS8, CS16, CF32
  Native format: CS8 [full-scale=128]
  Stream args:
     * Buffer Size - Number of bytes per buffer, multiples of 512 only.
       [key=bufflen, units=bytes, default=262144, type=int]
     * Ring buffers - Number of buffers in the ring.
       [key=buffers, units=buffers, default=15, type=int]
     * Async buffers - Number of async usb buffers (advanced).
       [key=asyncBuffs, units=buffers, default=0, type=int]
  Antennas: RX
  Full gain range: [0, 49.6] dB
    TUNER gain range: [0, 49.6] dB
  Full freq range: [23.999, 1764] MHz
    RF freq range: [24, 1764] MHz
    CORR freq range: [-0.001, 0.001] MHz
  Sample rates: 0.25, 1.024, 1.536, 1.792, 1.92, 2.048, 2.16, 2.56, 2.88, 3.2 MSps