openBTS
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- Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:15 pm
Re: openBTS
I don't want to hijack the topic here, but just wanted to note that if it's an option, you may want to try out YateBTS, given that it has native bladeRF support.
It's pretty staight-forward to build, and the setup defaults to the Network in a Box (NIB) setup.
Check out their wiki. On the left side of the wiki, you'll see some categories. I'd recommend giving the "Installation and Administration" and the "Configuration" pages a good read before even entering a command on the console; there's a lot of good information there that really spells everything out nicely. I've seen people skip steps and then wonder why yate complains about things like not being configured with a transceiver, hence I stress reviewing their guides before starting.
You can install the web interface for registering phones, or forego that and instead register phones by editing config files and using the telnet interface.
Note that the Yate folks have their own community forum and #yate channel on Freenode, should you want to chat, troubleshoot, and discuss there.
With all that said, I really don't know enough in the realm of telephony or the *BTS projects to offer a great deal of advice or assistance in troubleshooting, sorry.
It's pretty staight-forward to build, and the setup defaults to the Network in a Box (NIB) setup.
Check out their wiki. On the left side of the wiki, you'll see some categories. I'd recommend giving the "Installation and Administration" and the "Configuration" pages a good read before even entering a command on the console; there's a lot of good information there that really spells everything out nicely. I've seen people skip steps and then wonder why yate complains about things like not being configured with a transceiver, hence I stress reviewing their guides before starting.
You can install the web interface for registering phones, or forego that and instead register phones by editing config files and using the telnet interface.
Note that the Yate folks have their own community forum and #yate channel on Freenode, should you want to chat, troubleshoot, and discuss there.
With all that said, I really don't know enough in the realm of telephony or the *BTS projects to offer a great deal of advice or assistance in troubleshooting, sorry.
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- Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:02 am
Re: openBTS
I managed to get the build to work and, after some library issues, also managed the installation, only to get a wrong USB error; I only have usb 2.0 in the computer I am using for this project. If anyone is interested, these are the changes I had to make, although I wouldn't recommend this route because it uses an old version of OpenBTS and is also a pain.
In the openbts/debian directory, I modified the file named control
change
to
If you prefer, you can also use
With that, I got the build to work, but trying to install I got an error for openbts because of its dependency on libc6-i686 which is apparently not possible to install in Ubuntu 14.04. I decided to go back to the openbts/debian/control file and changed in the Depends line libc6-i686 to only libc6, i.e. I deleted the -i686 bit. This feels like it may break the program, but it allowed for a proper installation of openbts on my computer. However, when I ran the program, I got the USB error. This is when I found the page zane93 mentions.
=================
In the openbts/debian directory, I modified the file named control
change
Code: Select all
Architecture: i386
Code: Select all
Architecture: amd64
Code: Select all
Architecture: all
I actually found that last week and have finally managed to install it correctly with not too many hiccups along the way. I will write a tutorial of what I had to do to try and put everything in a single page for further reference and will post the link here.zane93 wrote:Looks promising. I will try it within the next week or so.
https://github.com/Nuand/bladeRF/wiki/M ... OpenBTS-5/
=================
I might just give YateBTS a try, actually, thanks for the info. I was just being stubborn about getting OpenBTS to work. I can compare both of them after I install it and let you know my thoughts.jynik wrote:I don't want to hijack the topic here, but just wanted to note that if it's an option, you may want to try out YateBTS, given that it has native bladeRF support.
It's pretty staight-forward to build, and the setup defaults to the Network in a Box (NIB) setup.
Check out their wiki. On the left side of the wiki, you'll see some categories. I'd recommend giving the "Installation and Administration" and the "Configuration" pages a good read before even entering a command on the console; there's a lot of good information there that really spells everything out nicely. I've seen people skip steps and then wonder why yate complains about things like not being configured with a transceiver, hence I stress reviewing their guides before starting.
You can install the web interface for registering phones, or forego that and instead register phones by editing config files and using the telnet interface.
Note that the Yate folks have their own community forum and #yate channel on Freenode, should you want to chat, troubleshoot, and discuss there.
With all that said, I really don't know enough in the realm of telephony or the *BTS projects to offer a great deal of advice or assistance in troubleshooting, sorry.
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- Posts: 17
- Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:18 pm
Re: openBTS
That is great to hear! I look forward to your tutorial and I think some others do to...jpvc wrote:I managed to get the build to work and, after some library issues, also managed the installation, only to get a wrong USB error; I only have usb 2.0 in the computer I am using for this project. If anyone is interested, these are the changes I had to make, although I wouldn't recommend this route because it uses an old version of OpenBTS and is also a pain.
In the openbts/debian directory, I modified the file named control
changetoCode: Select all
Architecture: i386
If you prefer, you can also useCode: Select all
Architecture: amd64
With that, I got the build to work, but trying to install I got an error for openbts because of its dependency on libc6-i686 which is apparently not possible to install in Ubuntu 14.04. I decided to go back to the openbts/debian/control file and changed in the Depends line libc6-i686 to only libc6, i.e. I deleted the -i686 bit. This feels like it may break the program, but it allowed for a proper installation of openbts on my computer. However, when I ran the program, I got the USB error. This is when I found the page zane93 mentions.Code: Select all
Architecture: all
I actually found that last week and have finally managed to install it correctly with not too many hiccups along the way. I will write a tutorial of what I had to do to try and put everything in a single page for further reference and will post the link here.zane93 wrote:Looks promising. I will try it within the next week or so.
https://github.com/Nuand/bladeRF/wiki/M ... OpenBTS-5/
=================
I might just give YateBTS a try, actually, thanks for the info. I was just being stubborn about getting OpenBTS to work. I can compare both of them after I install it and let you know my thoughts.jynik wrote:I don't want to hijack the topic here, but just wanted to note that if it's an option, you may want to try out YateBTS, given that it has native bladeRF support.
It's pretty staight-forward to build, and the setup defaults to the Network in a Box (NIB) setup.
Check out their wiki. On the left side of the wiki, you'll see some categories. I'd recommend giving the "Installation and Administration" and the "Configuration" pages a good read before even entering a command on the console; there's a lot of good information there that really spells everything out nicely. I've seen people skip steps and then wonder why yate complains about things like not being configured with a transceiver, hence I stress reviewing their guides before starting.
You can install the web interface for registering phones, or forego that and instead register phones by editing config files and using the telnet interface.
Note that the Yate folks have their own community forum and #yate channel on Freenode, should you want to chat, troubleshoot, and discuss there.
With all that said, I really don't know enough in the realm of telephony or the *BTS projects to offer a great deal of advice or assistance in troubleshooting, sorry.
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- Posts: 7
- Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:02 am
Re: openBTS
Here's the link for the tutorial I have written, sorry for it being in wordpress, but I have to keep a blog for this project: https://imjuanpablo.wordpress.com/2015/ ... r-bladerf/ Let me know if it works and where it fails for you so we can try to make it useful for as many people as possible.
JP
JP
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- Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:18 pm
Re: openBTS

jpvc wrote:Here's the link for the tutorial I have written, sorry for it being in wordpress, but I have to keep a blog for this project: https://imjuanpablo.wordpress.com/2015/ ... r-bladerf/ Let me know if it works and where it fails for you so we can try to make it useful for as many people as possible.
JP
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- Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:15 pm
Re: openBTS
jpvc,
Nice work! Just to ensure credit is given where credit is due, I wanted to note that the bladeRF devs didn't write that wiki page -- community members have created that. Just didn't want the bladeRF team stealing credit for other folks' hard work!
You can check the history of edits, but as noted in the beginning, mambrus created the write-up based upon discussions he had with rwr in the #bladeRF channel on Freenode.
Please do feel free to add a link to your blog post on the wiki, as it will make a great addition!
- Jon
Nice work! Just to ensure credit is given where credit is due, I wanted to note that the bladeRF devs didn't write that wiki page -- community members have created that. Just didn't want the bladeRF team stealing credit for other folks' hard work!

You can check the history of edits, but as noted in the beginning, mambrus created the write-up based upon discussions he had with rwr in the #bladeRF channel on Freenode.
Please do feel free to add a link to your blog post on the wiki, as it will make a great addition!
- Jon
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- Posts: 17
- Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:18 pm
Re: openBTS
I have some edits to add to your WP I will post once I get through a full build.jpvc wrote:Here's the link for the tutorial I have written, sorry for it being in wordpress, but I have to keep a blog for this project: https://imjuanpablo.wordpress.com/2015/ ... r-bladerf/ Let me know if it works and where it fails for you so we can try to make it useful for as many people as possible.
JP
I'm getting stuck here 3/4 of the way down. Make fails.
"Change to the subscriber registry directory and run the Makefile
../subscriberRegistry/
make"
Search yielded no results to get through this. Any ideas?
:/home/openbts_5/subscriberRegistry$ sudo make
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
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- Posts: 7
- Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:02 am
Re: openBTS
My bad! It should sayzane93 wrote:I have some edits to add to your WP I will post once I get through a full build.jpvc wrote:Here's the link for the tutorial I have written, sorry for it being in wordpress, but I have to keep a blog for this project: https://imjuanpablo.wordpress.com/2015/ ... r-bladerf/ Let me know if it works and where it fails for you so we can try to make it useful for as many people as possible.
JP
I'm getting stuck here 3/4 of the way down. Make fails.
"Change to the subscriber registry directory and run the Makefile
../subscriberRegistry/
make"
Search yielded no results to get through this. Any ideas?
:/home/openbts_5/subscriberRegistry$ sudo make
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.
I have modified the post.Change to the subscriber registry directory, build and run the MakefileCode: Select all
cd ../subscriberRegistry/ ./autogen.sh ./configure make
Thanks for taking the time to try this out!
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- Posts: 17
- Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:18 pm
Re: openBTS
yep I was just about to post this:jpvc wrote:My bad! It should sayzane93 wrote:I have some edits to add to your WP I will post once I get through a full build.jpvc wrote:Here's the link for the tutorial I have written, sorry for it being in wordpress, but I have to keep a blog for this project: https://imjuanpablo.wordpress.com/2015/ ... r-bladerf/ Let me know if it works and where it fails for you so we can try to make it useful for as many people as possible.
JP
I'm getting stuck here 3/4 of the way down. Make fails.
"Change to the subscriber registry directory and run the Makefile
../subscriberRegistry/
make"
Search yielded no results to get through this. Any ideas?
:/home/openbts_5/subscriberRegistry$ sudo make
make: *** No targets specified and no makefile found. Stop.I have modified the post.Change to the subscriber registry directory, build and run the MakefileCode: Select all
cd ../subscriberRegistry/ ./autogen.sh ./configure make
Thanks for taking the time to try this out!
So after a nights sleep I have gone back to review. Of course the error is correct there is no make file found in the subscriberRegistry dir.
So it looks like this has to be done first
sudo ./autogen.sh (this generates configure),
sudo ./configure (seems to run without error),
sudo make (seems to run without error)
Ill be posting a full list of edits/additions so jpvc can add it to his WP site.
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- Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:02 am
Re: openBTS
Check! Updated the post with this info as well, thanksjynik wrote: I wanted to note that the bladeRF devs didn't write that wiki page -- community members have created that. Just didn't want the bladeRF team stealing credit for other folks' hard work!
You can check the history of edits, but as noted in the beginning, mambrus created the write-up based upon discussions he had with rwr in the #bladeRF channel on Freenode.

Good idea. Should I just put the link in the home page under the How-to's ?jynik wrote: Please do feel free to add a link to your blog post on the wiki, as it will make a great addition!
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- Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:18 pm
Re: openBTS
Stating with a fresh install of Ubuntu 14.04 following the wordpress posted by jpvc.jpvc wrote:Here's the link for the tutorial I have written, sorry for it being in wordpress, but I have to keep a blog for this project: https://imjuanpablo.wordpress.com/2015/ ... r-bladerf/ Let me know if it works and where it fails for you so we can try to make it useful for as many people as possible.
JP
I had some trouble installing libortp8 and uhd. I would suggest running the below prior to the first step or integrate it in somehow.
1) E: Unable to locate package libortp8
Code: Select all
sudo vim /etc/apt/sources.list
to the end, add:
deb http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu precise main universe
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install libortp8 libosip2-4
http://code.ettus.com/redmine/ettus/pro ... /UHD_Linux
Code: Select all
sudo bash -c 'echo "deb http://files.ettus.com/binaries/uhd/repo/uhd/ubuntu/`lsb_release -cs` `lsb_release -cs` main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ettus.list' sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install -t `lsb_release -cs` uhd
4) Building OpenBTS apps missing "make" after "./configure --with-uhd"
5) Missing dir for smq.cdrBack in your OpenBTS_5 directory, copy the transceiver-bladerf file you just created into the openbts/apps directory and tell openbts to call it when it needs a transceiverCode: Select all
cp ./yatebts/mbts/TransceiverRAD1/transceiver-bladerf openbts/apps/; cd openbts/apps/; ln -sf transceiver-bladerf transceiver After this we are finally ready to build OpenBTS. Go bach to the openbts directory and run autogen.sh and after that configure with the uhd flag ./autogen.sh; ./configure --with-uhd
sudo mkdir /var/lib/OpenBTS
Other than those couple of items the instructions where spot on. I will continue to test and post any other issues...
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- Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:18 pm
Re: openBTS
Before I start shooting from the apt-get does anyone have any suggestions on getting asterisk installed and integrated with OpenBTS 5? Should I install it from RangeNetworks Git?
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Re: openBTS
UHD package is to use the software with Ettus USRP software defined radios.
If you're going to use it with a bladeRF, this package shouldn't be needed.
If you're going to use it with a bladeRF, this package shouldn't be needed.
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- Joined: Mon Aug 18, 2014 6:18 pm
Re: openBTS
Agreed, but when following the guide to auto install all dependence the below failed due to UHD not being able to install. It looks like UHD is referenced quite often in the script https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Range ... r/build.shjump wrote:UHD package is to use the software with Ettus USRP software defined radios.
If you're going to use it with a bladeRF, this package shouldn't be needed.
Code: Select all
sudo apt-get install $(
wget -qO - https://raw.githubusercontent.com/RangeNetworks/dev/master/build.sh | \
grep installIfMissing | \
grep -v "{" | \
cut -f2 -d" ")
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- Joined: Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:15 pm
Re: openBTS
Just added it under How-To's. Feel free to touch up the link or reference to your blog as you see fit!jpvc wrote:Good idea. Should I just put the link in the home page under the How-to's ?
