Linux Installation¶

Generic Linux devices are supported via the following drivers:

SPIDEV
MRAA
RPi (native via BCM2835)
LittleWire

Note

The following SPIDEV option should work with most Linux systems supporting SPI userspace device.

Using a package manager¶

The RF24Revamped library now (as of v1.4.1) has pre-built packages (*.deb or *.rpm files) that can be installed on a Raspberry Pi. These packages can be found on the library’s GitHub releases page

Warning

If you have previously installed the library from source code, then you will need to uninstall it manually to avoid runtime conflicts.

sudo rm /usr/local/lib/librf24revamped.*
sudo rm -r /usr/local/include/RF24Revamped

Download the appropriate package for your machine

Go to the library’s GitHub release page, and look for the latest release’s assets.

For all Raspberry Pi variants using the Raspberry Pi OS (aka Raspbian), you need the file marked for armhf architecture.

For Raspberry Pi variants using a 64-bit OS (like Ubuntu), you need the file marked for arm64 architecture.

Notice that the filenames will include the name of the utility driver that the package was built with. This does not mean that the LittleWire, MRAA, or wiringPi libraries are included in the package (you will still need to install those yourself beforehand).
Install the downloaded pkg

If you downloaded the file directly from your target machine using the desktop environment, then you only need to double-click the package (deb or rpm) file, and the OS should do the rest.

If you downloaded the file remotely and want to copy it over ssh, then use the scp command in a terminal.
```
scp pkg_filename.deb pi@host_name:~/Downloads
```
Note

You do not need to do this from within an ssh session. Also, you can use the target machine’s IP address instead of its host name

The scp command will ask you for a password belonging to the user’s name on the remote machine (we used pi in the above example).

Now you can open up a ssh session and install the copied package from the terminal.
```
ssh pi@host_name
cd Downloads
dpkg -i pkg_filename.deb
```

Building from Source¶

Install prerequisites if there are any (MRAA, LittleWire libraries, setup SPI device etc)

CMake may need to be installed
```
sudo apt-get install cmake
```
Note

See the MRAA documentation for more info on installing MRAA

Clone the RF24Revamped repo and navigate to it

git clone https://github.com/2bndy5/RF24.git RF24Revamped
cd RF24Revamped

Create a build directory inside the RF24 directory and navigate to it.
```
mkdir build
cd build
```
Configure build environment
```
cmake .. -D RF24_DRIVER=SPIDEV
```
Instead of using SPIDEV driver (recommended), you can also specify the RPi, wiringPi, MRAA, or LittleWire as alternative drivers.

Note

If the RF24_DRIVER option is not specified, then it will be automatically configured based on the detected CPU or installed libraries (defaults to SPIDEV when auto-detection fails).
Build and install the library
```
make
sudo make install
```
Build the examples

Navigate to the examples_linux directory
```
cd ../examples_linux
```
Make sure the pins used in the examples match the pins you used to connect the radio module
```
nano gettingstarted.cpp
```
and edit the pin numbers as directed in the linux/RPi general documation.

Create a build directory in the examples_linux directory and navigate to it.
```
mkdir build
cd build
```
Now you are ready to build the examples.<br>
```
cmake ..
make
```
If using the MRAA or wiringPi drivers, then you may need to specify the RF24_DRIVER option again.
```
cmake .. -D RF24_DRIVER=wiringPi
make
```
Run an example file
```
sudo ./gettingstarted
```

Cross-compiling the library¶

The RF24 library comes with some pre-made toolchain files (located in the RF24Revamped/cmake/toolchains directory) to use in CMake. To use these toolchain files, additional command line options are needed when configuring CMake to build the library (step 4 in the above instructions to build from source).

cmake .. -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/armhf.cmake
make

If you plan on using the cross-compiled library with your personal cross-compiled project, then it is advised to specify the path that your project will look in when linking to the RF24 library:

cmake .. -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/armhf.cmake
make
sudo make install

Remember to also specify the RF24_DRIVER option if not using the auto-configuration feature (see step 4 in the above instructions to build from source).

Installing the library remotely¶

To install remotely, you can create an installable package file using CMake’s built-in program called CPack.

cmake .. -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=cmake/toolchains/armhf.cmake
make
cpack

This will create a deb file and a rpm file in a new sub-directory called “pkgs” within the build directory. You can use either of these packages to install the library to your target machine (see the above instructions about using a package manager).