[Discuss-gnuradio] 3.8.0.0-rc2 build from source on macOS

[Emmanuel Blot]

Hi,

With RC2 becoming available, I decided to give a new try building it 
under macOS (10.14) - I’ve been fighting w/ technical previews a 
couple of months ago with some limited success.

The build is now successful, but I still have a couple of questions for 
which I did not find the answers on the GNUradio web site - or I more 
likely failed to locate them, as I found quite outdated answers that do 
not seem to apply to 3.8 series.


- What is the proper/best/recommended UI framework to use?

  * Default build uses GTK, but it seems there is no 
spectrum/oscilloscope/... virtual device available with this framework. 
Am I wrong?
  * WxWidget does not seem to be supported anymore. Am I correct?
  * (Py)QT seems to be hardcoded to use Python2, whereas 3.8 can be 
build with Python3 as CMakeList.txt seems to check for Python2:

     gr-qtgui/CMakeLists.txt:find_package(PythonLibs 2)

   -- Configuring gnuradio-companion support...
   --   Dependency ENABLE_GNURADIO_RUNTIME = ON
   --   Dependency ENABLE_PYTHON = ON
   --   Dependency PYTHON_MIN_VER_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Dependency PYYAML_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Dependency MAKO_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Dependency PYGI_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Dependency GTK_GI_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Dependency CAIRO_GI_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Dependency PANGOCAIRO_GI_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Dependency NUMPY_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Enabling gnuradio-companion support.
   --   Override with -DENABLE_GRC=ON/OFF
   ...
   -- Configuring gr-qtgui support...
   --   Dependency Boost_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Dependency QT_FOUND = 1
   --   Dependency QWT_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Dependency ENABLE_VOLK = ON
   --   Dependency ENABLE_GNURADIO_RUNTIME = ON
   --   Dependency ENABLE_GR_FFT = ON
   --   Dependency ENABLE_GR_FILTER = ON
   --   Dependency PYTHONLIBS_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Dependency PYQT5_FOUND = TRUE
   --   Enabling gr-qtgui support.
   --   Override with -DENABLE_GR_QTGUI=ON/OFF

  So I’m kind of lost here, any help/advice/URL would be greatly 
appreciated.
  I’ve successfully built the gnuradio-companion with GTK + PyQT + 
QWT, but I’m not sure it can work as expected with this Python 2 
thing. Can it?

  How to know which framework is actually used, as it seems both GTK 
and QT dependencies are successfully found?
  Or does it mean the UI is using (Py)GTK, but some UI items rely on 
QT? I’m kinda lost….

  When QT support is not added, GRC accepts to drag and drop blocks, 
but on the first attempt to interconnect two blocks, the UI gets lost, 
zoom in, then crashes.
  When QT support is present, GRC fails even earlier when the first 
block is dropped, with the following backtrace:

    $ gnuradio-companion
    <<< Welcome to GNU Radio Companion 3.8.0.0-rc2 >>>

    Block paths:
       /usr/local/Cellar/gnuradio/3.8.0.0-rc2/share/gnuradio/grc/blocks
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File 
"/usr/local/Cellar/gnuradio/3.8.0.0-rc2/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/gnuradio/grc/gui/DrawingArea.py", 
line 103, in     _handle_drag_data_received
        self._flow_graph.add_new_block(selection_data.get_text(), 
coords)
      File 
"/usr/local/Cellar/gnuradio/3.8.0.0-rc2/lib/python3.7/dist-packages/gnuradio/grc/gui/canvas/flowgraph.py", 
line 176, in     add_new_block
        block.coordinate = coor
    AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'coordinate'

  BR,

  Thanks.