Build RTL-SDR on OSX with no tears using homebrew. Forked from https://gist.github.com/0xabad1dea/5777726, a macports solution.

rtlsdr-osx.txt

rtl-sdr build notes for OSX 
using macports http://www.macports.org/
see http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr

brew install cmake
brew install libusb
brew install pkgconfig
brew install sox # for easy audio
git clone git://git.osmocom.org/rtl-sdr.git
cd rtl-sdr/
mkdir build
cd build/
cmake ../
make
sudo make install


rtl_test -t


Found 1 device(s):
  0:  Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6 
Sampling at 2048000 S/s.
No E4000 tuner found, aborting.

Thx for this!

Works great on the latest, today El Cap 10.11.4

~~

Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Supported gain values (29): 0.0 0.9 1.4 2.7 3.7 7.7 8.7 12.5 14.4 15.7 16.6 19.7 20.7 22.9 25.4 28.0 29.7 32.8 33.8 36.4 37.2 38.6 40.2 42.1 43.4 43.9 44.5 48.0 49.6
[R82XX] PLL not locked!
Sampling at 2048000 S/s.
No E4000 tuner found, aborting.

Worked great!

Worked for me on Sierra 10.12. Cheers!

Works on Sierra 10.12.6 Thanks!!

High Sierra 10.13.3 not working and getting a compile error

~/git/sdr/rtl-sdr/src/rtl_test.c:165:4: error: member reference type
      'struct timespec' is not a pointer; did you mean to use '.'?
        ts->tv_sec = tv.tv_sec;

~/git/sdr/rtl-sdr/src/rtl_test.c:165:13: error: expression is not
      assignable
        ts->tv_sec = tv.tv_sec;

Following the error message suggestions I changed
ts->tv_sec = tv.tv_sec;
to
ts.tv_sec = tv.tv_sec;

and everything compiled and rtl_test -t worked fine. Thanks!

Yep, had to manually edit rtl_test.c as well on high sierra.

Shouldn't line two say using homebrew not macports?

$ brew install libusb
==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/libusb-1.0.22.high_sierra.b
######################################################################## 100.0%
==> Pouring libusb-1.0.22.high_sierra.bottle.tar.gz
Error: The brew link step did not complete successfully
The formula built, but is not symlinked into /usr/local
Could not symlink lib/libusb-1.0.0.dylib
Target /usr/local/lib/libusb-1.0.0.dylib
already exists. You may want to remove it:
rm '/usr/local/lib/libusb-1.0.0.dylib'

To force the link and overwrite all conflicting files:
brew link --overwrite libusb

To list all files that would be deleted:
brew link --overwrite --dry-run libusb

Possible conflicting files are:
/usr/local/lib/libusb-1.0.0.dylib
/usr/local/lib/libusb-1.0.dylib -> /usr/local/lib/libusb-1.0.0.dylib
==> Summary
[mug icon] /usr/local/Cellar/libusb/1.0.22: 29 files, 514.9KB

Thanks.
Worked (or at least as far as I can tell...) on Mojave 10.14.5 today. (2019-06-12)

I have made a version of these instructions based on MacPorts:

https://gist.github.com/ajmas/144719991f54931b99de43efae13389f

Feel free to copy anything useful.

Hi! Under macOS Catalina (10.15.7) I am following these instructions. Among the previous commands,

I issued the brew install libusb and it finished with no errors. But, later when inside rtl-sdr/build when running make, I get:

user@MBP % make
Scanning dependencies of target convenience_static
[  3%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/convenience_static.dir/convenience/convenience.c.o
[  6%] Linking C static library libconvenience_static.a
[  6%] Built target convenience_static
Scanning dependencies of target rtlsdr
[  9%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/rtlsdr.dir/librtlsdr.c.o
[ 12%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/rtlsdr.dir/tuner_e4k.c.o
[ 15%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/rtlsdr.dir/tuner_fc0012.c.o
[ 18%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/rtlsdr.dir/tuner_fc0013.c.o
[ 21%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/rtlsdr.dir/tuner_fc2580.c.o
[ 25%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/rtlsdr.dir/tuner_r82xx.c.o
[ 28%] Linking C shared library librtlsdr.dylib
[ 28%] Built target rtlsdr
Scanning dependencies of target rtl_test
[ 31%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/rtl_test.dir/rtl_test.c.o
[ 34%] Linking C executable rtl_test
ld: library not found for -lusb-1.0
clang: error: linker command failed with exit code 1 (use -v to see invocation)
make[2]: *** [src/rtl_test] Error 1
make[1]: *** [src/CMakeFiles/rtl_test.dir/all] Error 2
make: *** [all] Error 2

Any ideas or help are appreciated.

Try this make LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib

I had this error last week. I found this https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65296289/fatal-error-libusb-libusb-h-no-such-file-or-directory-librtlsdr-install-for-gn Tsyvarev <https://stackoverflow.com/users/3440745/tsyvarev> recommends installing pkg-config then retrying. According to the project's CMakeLists.txt <http://osmocom.org/projects/rtl-sdr/repository/revisions/master/entry/CMakeLists.txt#L72>, it expects either libusb to be found with pkg-config or, if pkg-config is not available, libusb parameters should be filled manually: LIBUSB_INCLUDE_DIRS should be set to include directory (/usr/include/libusb-1.0 in your case) and LIBUSB_LIBRARIES should be set to the libusb library (for link with). Though it seems to be simpler to install pkg-config. – Tsyvarev <https://stackoverflow.com/users/3440745/tsyvarev> Dec 14 '20 at 22:48

On Fri, 26 Feb 2021 at 6:44 am, Nicu ***@***.***> wrote: ***@***.**** commented on this gist. ------------------------------ On MacOS Mojave, I get the following: [ 9%] Built target convenience_static [ 9%] Building C object src/CMakeFiles/rtlsdr.dir/librtlsdr.c.o /Users/surdu/Downloads/rtl-sdr/src/librtlsdr.c:30:10: fatal error: 'libusb.h' file not found #include <libusb.h> ^~~~~~~~~~ 1 error generated. make[2]: *** [src/CMakeFiles/rtlsdr.dir/librtlsdr.c.o] Error 1 make[1]: *** [src/CMakeFiles/rtlsdr.dir/all] Error 2 make: *** [all] Error 2 — You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <https://gist.github.com/9477732#gistcomment-3645645>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AE2PZZ6RXX3ROZCQQORNBKTTA2SA3ANCNFSM4HXFFBFA> .

-- *richard horobin*.