Update README with Linux instructions for RADE.

[tmiw]

Due to high interest from Linux users, this PR adds some general documentation to the README for getting RADE to run on Linux.

[barjac]

This seems broken.

Following this step by step: Install PyTorch, TorchAudio and matplotlib Python packages. Some distros have packages for one or more of these, but you can also use pip in a Python virtual environment (recommended to ensure the latest versions):

OK that is fine, next:

$ cd freedv-gui (OK)
$ python3 -m venv rade-venv (OK)
$ ./rade-venv/bin/activate (permission denied as activate is not executable)
$ chmod +x ./rade-venv/bin/activate (OK)
$ ./rade-venv/bin/activate (OK)
(rade-venv) $ cd build_linux                  ####### needs explaining to cd #######
$ cd rade-venv (OK)
(rade-venv) $ pip3 install -r cmake/rade-requirements.txt (no such file/dir) ? maybe:
(rade-venv) $ pip3 install -r ../cmake/rade-requirements.txt  (OK since we are in rade-venv)

Build FreeDV to make sure the correct dependencies are linked in (namely numpy): 
(rade-venv) $ ./build_linux.sh                (No such file or dir) ? maybe:
(rade-venv) $ ../build_linux.sh
CMake Error: The source directory "/home/baz/freedv-gui-rade/freedv-gui/rade-venv" does not appear to contain CMakeLists.txt.

So what now?

Note. I know very little about python so tried to follow this doc step by step as any 'user' would do.

[tmiw]

Tweaked the README a bit. The intention is to basically do the following:

$ cd freedv-gui
$ python3 -m venv rade-venv
$ . ./rade-venv/bin/activate
(rade-venv) $ pip3 install -r cmake/rade-requirements.txt
(rade-venv) $ ./build_linux.sh
(rade-venv) $ cd build_linux
(rade-venv) $ ln -s `pwd`/rade_src/model19_check3 model19_check3
(rade-venv) $ PYTHONPATH=`pwd`/rade_src:$PYTHONPATH src/freedv

Suggestions on how to make that more clear are welcome.

[barjac]

Ah! You missed '.' . ./rade-venv/bin/activate I assumed activate was a script :0

Is there a way to avoid installing several GB of nvidia stuff if you don't have any nvidia hardware?

[tmiw]

Ah! You missed '.' . ./rade-venv/bin/activate I assumed activate was a script :0

Is there be a way to avoid installing several GB of nvidia stuff if you don't have any nvidia hardware?

It looks like you can use the following to do that:

pip3 install torch torchaudio --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cpu

(from https://pytorch.org/get-started/locally/)

Maybe there's a way to include --index-url in the requirements file? The difficulty being that including it doesn't seem to be needed for all platforms.

[barjac]

OK thanks - just looking at your update and I think maybe for clarity you should use $(pwd) rather than the backticks which may confuse some users. Similarly: source ./rade-venv/bin/activate

[tmiw]

OK thanks - just looking at your update and I think maybe for clarity you should use $(pwd) rather than the backticks which may confuse some users.

Done.

[Tyrbiter]

Might be sensible to show user as \ so that people realise it should be their own user ID.

[barjac]

It's working now, thanks Mooneer for your help! :) I had a long QSO on 80m with Matt (who reads the RSGB news) and we got down to about 2w at each end in a rather noisy band with hardly any errors noticeable! Utterly spectacular!!

Err... That should be $(pwd) not $PWD surely, as in bash command expansion, I don't have a PWD environment variable.

[tmiw]

Might be sensible to show user as so that people realise it should be their own user ID.

Done.

Err... That should be $(pwd) not $PWD surely, as in bash command expansion, I don't have a PWD environment variable.

Also done. Any other changes needed before this gets merged?

It's working now, thanks Mooneer for your help! :) I had a long QSO on 80m with Matt (who reads the RSGB news) and we got down to about 2w at each end in a rather noisy band with hardly any errors noticeable! Utterly spectacular!!

Good to hear!

[ekk11]

The tweaked README worked for me: Ubuntu 24.04.1 LTS (noble).

[tmiw]

Thanks, I'll go ahead and merge since the instructions do seem to work for at least some Linux users. I'd recommend sharing tips over at the digitalvoice mailing list if you find that the instructions as written don't work for you.