CondaInstall

= Why use conda? =

Conda is a cross-platform package manager (supporting Linux, macOS, and Windows) that makes it easy to install GNU Radio, its dependencies, and out-of-tree modules in a self-contained environment. Conda lets you create independent environments with their own sets of packages, and those environments are separate from your system installation and other package managers. If you've struggled with installing GNU Radio by other methods, you want to use GNU Radio with other bleeding-edge software available through conda-forge, or you want to try out a new version without affecting your tried-and-true system installation, conda may be right for you! In addition to GNU Radio, there are also related software packages you can install that may be of interest.

= Installation =

The conda packages for GNU Radio are unofficial and supported through volunteer effort within the conda-forge community. Conda-forge is a community-maintained collection of conda packages where anyone with interest can help improve or add packages. Please report and discuss any packaging-specific issues with the maintainers at the gnuradio feedstock. If you'd like to help or are interested in adding other related software to conda-forge (e.g. out-of-tree modules), get in touch with the maintainers through Github.

Step 1: Install conda itself
First, you will need to install a base conda distribution so that you can use the  program to create an environment and install the GNU Radio packages. If you already have this and can run  on a command line or use the Anaconda Navigator to install packages, skip to the next step.

If this is your first time using conda, we recommend miniforge for the base installation. This provides a minimal environment to run  that is already set up to pull packages from conda-forge (which is where you can find GNU Radio). Download and install miniforge by following the instructions at. Installers for many different platforms are available there, but the most relevant are the following:


 * Linux x86_64
 * macOS x86_64
 * Windows x86_64

For Linux and macOS, run the downloaded installer from a console and follow the prompts:


 * (Linux)
 * (macOS)

By default, this will install miniforge to your home directory at  and allow you to use the   command from any console.

For Windows, double click on the downloaded installer executable and follow the prompts. By default, this will install miniforge to your user directory at  and add a "Miniforge Prompt" entry to your start menu. Running the "Miniforge Prompt" should bring up a console window where your base conda environment is activated and you can use the  command.

This guide provides a nice introduction to using conda generally; it may help you better understand the rest of these instructions, but it is not necessary to read.

(Optional, experts only) It may be convenient to now install  in your base environment and use it in place of the   command. Mamba is a third-party alternative to conda that is written in C instead of Python, and its main benefit is faster dependency resolution when installing packages. If you do install mamba, you can simply use the  command in place of   for all subsequent steps.

Step 2: Create an environment for GNU Radio
It's almost never a good idea to install additional packages to your base conda environment because their dependencies may interfere with conda's own dependencies. We recommend creating an environment specifically for GNU Radio and related packages. From a console with the base conda environment activated, run

to create an empty environment called "gnuradio". Enter the environment by activating it with the command:

Before installing the GNU Radio packages, we need to ensure that the environment is set up to look for packages from conda-forge:

Now you're ready to actually install GNU Radio!

Step 3: Install GNU Radio from conda-forge
GNU Radio on conda-forge is split into a few subpackages. Most users will be happy with the full installation provided by the  metapackage. From within your activated "gnuradio" environment (previous step), run the command:

This will install the latest available version of GNU Radio along with the latest version of Python. If you want a specific version of the  package (get a list of possibilities from  ), you can specify it like

If you want a specific version of Python, you can install it before  or specify them together like

To upgrade all non-Python packages in your environment to their latest available versions, use the upgrade command

The  metapackage installs all of the following subpackages:



If you don't want all of those and their dependencies, you can install the ones you'd like individually like

to get only the core package (always a dependency) and UHD support without any GUI elements.

= Installing related software =

Beyond core GNU Radio and the in-tree modules, some out-of-tree modules and related software have also been packaged for conda. This is a non-exhaustive list of other packages that you can install using the  command:



If you have other hardware or OOT modules that you'd like to see supported, first search Anaconda cloud to see if a package not listed above already exists on conda-forge or another channel. If it doesn't, you can create your own package recipe and submit it to conda-forge (see the documentation at for details) and/or get in touch with the maintainers of the existing packages to see if they would be willing to help.