LibreSDR

This is an unofficial port of PlutoSDR onto LibreSDR, a.k.a. ZynqSDR. There is not a whole lot of information from the manufacturer, but the device can be purchased on Aliexpress, eBay, and other platforms. The board schematics from one of the Aliexpress sellers are included—see zynqsdr_rev5.pdf. This set of patches was not tested for full functionality in every possible mode, probably contains bugs or incorrect interpretations of the schematics, and is intended for fellow hackers to get started with low-level software and FPGA modifications.

Prerequisites: Prepare the development environment for PlutoSDR v0.37. For details, see https://github.com/analogdevicesinc/plutosdr-fw/tree/v0.37

This includes Vivado and Vitis 2021.2. Please use only the supported build host environment. Newer versions of Vivado will not work due to specific dependencies in the HDL design.

How to build?

1. Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/day0wl/libresdr-fw.git

2. Change directory to the cloned source code and get the original Pluto firmware code v0.37:

cd  libresdr-fw
git clone --recursive --branch v0.37 https://github.com/analogdevicesinc/plutosdr-fw.git plutosdr-fw_0.37_libre

3. Apply patches:

./apply.sh

4. Change directory to the patched Pluto firmware sources and build it:

cd plutosdr-fw_0.37_libre  
export CROSS_COMPILE=arm-linux-gnueabihf-
export PATH=$PATH:/opt/Xilinx/Vitis/2021.2/gnu/aarch32/lin/gcc-arm-linux-gnueabi/bin
export VIVADO_SETTINGS=/opt/Xilinx/Vivado/2021.2/settings64.sh
export TARGET=libre
make
make sdimg

Make a cup of coffee, then probably one more. Collect results in the build directory, and in addition, a set of files for the SD card in build_sdimg directory.

Usually, LibreSDR is shipped with empty QSPI flash and boots from the included SD card. Use any small capacity SD card, format it as FAT32, and copy the contents of the build_sdimg directory onto it. Insert the SD card into LibreSDR and it should boot from it. Once it is running, the software can be updated using the mounted drive, just like PlutoSDR. This will populate the QSPI flash, and LibreSDR will be able to run without an SD card. USB OTG will act as a normal PlutoSDR. The serial console is available on the debug port as /dev/ttyUSB2 if you don’t have any other USB serial devices in the system. Set your terminal application to 115200N8. Gigabit Ethernet is enabled, and the IP address is set by default to 192.168.1.10.

You can also use a full AD-provided Linux build. Just replace BOOT.BIN and the device tree file from this build and it should be able to mount the SD card as the root file system. This will allow you to run any Linux applications or scripts directly on LibreSDR.

From this point, you are on your own, but pull requests and enhancements are welcome!