Re: Multiple GNU Radio versions installed in parallel. Viable?

[Derek Kozel]

    Hi Anton,
    
    It is very possible to have multiple versions installed in parallel
    and even not that difficult (on Linux). PyBOMBS does indeed
    specifically support installing different versions into different
    environments and selectively activating them. Keeping your system
    install is likely to cause issues since it will always be in the
    library paths no matter what other version/prefix is active.
    
    PyBOMBS is generally stable, the recipes are in a separate
    repository that is a little more active. Both do need more testers
    and contributors to keep them working entirely smoothly though.
    
    Anaconda is increasingly popular and stable for setting up separate
    environments.
    https://wiki.gnuradio.org/index.php/CondaInstall
    
    Personally I just use CMake to specify different install locations
    when building from source and then have a short script to activate
    an environment. Not the most robust, but simple and effective.
    
    In the GNU Radio source directory, or an OOT source directory:
    
    cmake -G Ninja -B build-${PREFIX_NAME} -S .
    -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=${PREFIX_PATH}
    cmake --build build-${PREFIX_NAME} --target install
    
    A setenv.sh script:
    
    prefix="gr310"
    export PREFIX_NAME=${prefix}
    export PREFIX_PATH=$HOME/prefixes/${prefix}
    export PATH="$HOME/prefixes/${prefix}/bin:$PATH"
    export
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$HOME/prefixes/${prefix}/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH"
    export LIBRARY_PATH="$HOME/prefixes/${prefix}/lib:$LIBRARY_PATH"
    export
PKG_CONFIG_PATH="$HOME/prefixes/${prefix}/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"
    export
PYTHONPATH="$HOME/prefixes/${prefix}/lib/python3/dist-packages/:$PYTHONPATH"
    
    Activated with `source setenv.sh`
    
    The only currently known issue with running multiple versions like
    this is that the preferences file is shared between them and there
    have been one or two bugs with conflicts. I don't think they're a
    problem with the latest 3.8 and 3.9 releases and there's a longer
    term rework to preferences in review.
    
    Cheers,
    Derek

On 29/06/2021 19:59, Anton Ottosson wrote:

Hi,

I have been using (or learning to use) GNU Radio 3.9.2 for a couple of weeks now, and for the last few days I've had some trouble with it (specifically https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/discuss-gnuradio/2021-06/msg00106.html). For this reason I am thinking about trying the 3.8 version instead. I also intend to be using the extension https://github.com/bastibl/gr-ieee802-11 and I think that might go smoother with 3.8 as well. Now, the best thing would be if I could have both versions installed in parallel, so here are a few questions about that:

- Is it viable to run both 3.9 and 3.8 on the same machine (without using virtual machines), or will it be more trouble than it is worth?

- What is the best way to do this? PyBOMBS (https://github.com/gnuradio/pybombs) looks promising, because it installs "into a specified user directory rather than in the system files" (from the README). But I notice that the repo has not seen any action in the last few years, so maybe PyBOMBS is dead?

- If I use PyBOMBS, can I keep my current 3.9 installation (installed "in the system files" by package manager, via PPA) and additionally install 3.8 with PyBOMBS? Or will this be a mess?

Best regards,

Anton