Running SDR# On Ubuntu 20.04 Linux via WINE

SDR# is a very popular Windows SDR program often used with the RTL-SDR and Airspy SDR. One drawback is that it lacks native Linux compatibility. In the past it has been possible to run SDR# via WINE, however some newer updates were thought to have broken that ability. WINE is a Windows emulator that allows some Windows programs to run under Linux.

However, recently on Twitter we've seen a Tweet by @albinstigo indicating that SDR# can indeed run on Ubuntu 20.04 via WINE 5.0. In a Tweet he explains the steps which are quite simple:

  1. Install WINE via apt.
  2. Install dotNET 4.8 via winetricks.
  3. Install the Verdana font via winetricks.
  4. Enjoy SDR

One limitation is that the emulated SDR# cannot connect to the SDR natively via the USB. So you will need to use TCP server software such as rtl_tcp or SpyServer to get it to work. Basically, run the server on the native Linux environment, then connect to it in SDR# running on the emulated Windows environment.

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Marc Remijn
#232708

Unfortunately I can’t get it to work on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS / Wine 6.0.3

Had to install dotnet48 with winetricks –force

But whether with dotnet48 or with mono or without any dotnet framework I get:

SDRSharp.exe\nCoreCLR Version: 6.0.722.32202\n.NET Version: 6.0.7\nDescription: The process was terminated due to an unhandled exception.\nException Info: System.ArgumentException: Font ‘?’ cannot be found.\r\n at System.Drawing.FontFamily.GetGdipGenericSansSerif()\r\n at”…
wine: Unhandled exception 0xe0434352 in thread 24 at address 7B010BE6 (thread 0024), starting debugger…
Unhandled exception: 0xe0434352 in 32-bit code (0x7b010be6).

I can’t get rid of this error. No matter if I install verdana font and/or corefonts.

Strange that it wants to load font “?”. The “?” font will probably never be found in any font package…

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Harry
#249479

Ubuntu 22.04 and Wine 6.0.3 here. The same problem as Mark Remijn have. All solves after installing gdiplus via winetricks as Evgeny advised. Off course one have to use SDRSharp developed for dotNET 4. That means version up to 1732.

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Evgeny
#198797

I strongly recommend installing gdiplus via winetricks to improve performance and to avoid font rendering bugs.

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Graham Whaley
#196232

I have a github gist with some details on this as well – also explains a bit why you have to use spyserver and cannot go direct to the dongle iirc. You can find it at https://gist.github.com/grahamwhaley/094d62d88575141377f02fa92342fb7e

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Bob
#196226

WINE is Not an Emulator 😉

1
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Erling
#196375

i was gonna say the same

1
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Eric Brombaugh
#196047

I can confirm – this process worked on Fedora 32. Note that Fedora 32 packages Wine 5.18 and winetricks complains that dotnet48 is broken under 5.18. I used the –force option and it appears to have worked – at least SDR# starts up. I was able to connect to several spyservers over the internet.

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mggyi
#226765

Download and install donet5.0.2. I’m using SDRSharp.exe 1.0.1811 with wine.

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