IMPORTANT

MOVED TO: https://github.com/Drm-tools/dream (qt6 branch)!

dream-qt6

An experimental Qt6 port of the Dream AM/DRM Receiver program for GNU/Linux.

Original starting point: https://sourceforge.net/p/drm/code/HEAD/tree/branches/dream-ollie-deployed/
Starting point of this branch: https://github.com/Drm-tools/dream-legacy/tree/dream-ollie-deployed

Currently this program is tested on Fedora 43, Debian 13 and Arch Linux.

Debian and RPM packages are in the works, I'll probably release a pre-alpha in the near future (transmitter part is broken without patched codecs)

Prerequisites (Qt6)

Debian 13:

Important

Enable the experimental repo: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianExperimental
Enable the contrib and non-free repos: https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList#debian.sources

Install the following packages:

sudo apt-get install git build-essential cmake cmake-qt-gui qt6-base-dev qt6-base-dev-tools qt6-networkauth-dev qt6-declarative-dev qt6-declarative-dev-tools libqt6network6 qt6-webengine-dev libgps-dev libsndfile-dev libpcap-dev libfftw3-dev libfaad-dev libfaac-dev libpulse-dev libhamlib-dev libfdk-aac-dev libspeexdsp-dev speex libspeexdsp1 libsoapysdr-dev portaudio19-dev gpsd pipewire-alsa

sudo apt-get install libqt6svg6*

sudo apt -t experimental install libqwt-qt6-dev

Fedora 42/43:

Important

Enable RPM Fusion at https://rpmfusion.org/Configuration
Configure multimedia packages at https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/Multimedia

Install the following packages:

sudo dnf in g++ opus-devel libsndfile-devel portaudio-devel qmake fdk-aac-devel libpcap-devel qt6-qt5compat-devel qt6-qtbase-devel qwt-qt6 qwt-qt6-devel faad2-devel faac-devel hamlib-devel gpsd-devel qt6-qtsvg-devel qt6-qtwebengine-devel fftw-devel speex-devel speexdsp-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel qt6-qttools-devel

Arch Linux:

Install the following packages:

sudo pacman -S libsndfile portaudio fdkaac libpcap qt6-base qwt hamlib gpsd qt6-svg qt6-webengine fftw speex speexdsp qt6-tools cmake alsa-lib glibc libfdk-aac libgcc libstdc++

Install the following AUR package:

yay -S qwt-qt6

Tip

If you use PipeWire:

sudo pacman -S pipewire-pulse pipewire-alsa

Compiling with CMake (this is an example)

Dream with GUI

mkdir build
cmake -S . -B build -DUSE_QT=ON -DENABLE_SNDFILE=ON -DENABLE_SPEEXDSP=ON -DENABLE_ALSA=ON -DENABLE_QWT=ON -DENABLE_GPS=ON -DENABLE_FDK_AAC=ON -DENABLE_OPUS=ON -DENABLE_HAMLIB=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -- -j8
cd build

CLI Dream (with QTConsole)

mkdir build
cmake -S . -B build -DUSE_QT=ON -DQTCONSOLE=ON -DENABLE_SNDFILE=ON -DENABLE_SPEEXDSP=ON -DENABLE_ALSA=ON -DENABLE_QWT=ON -DENABLE_GPS=ON -DENABLE_FDK_AAC=ON -DENABLE_OPUS=ON -DENABLE_HAMLIB=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -- -j8
cd build

CLI Dream (without QTConsole)

mkdir build
cmake -S . -B build -DUSE_QT=ON -DCONSOLE=ON -DENABLE_SNDFILE=ON -DENABLE_SPEEXDSP=ON -DENABLE_ALSA=ON -DENABLE_QWT=ON -DENABLE_GPS=ON -DENABLE_FDK_AAC=ON -DENABLE_OPUS=ON -DENABLE_HAMLIB=ON -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -- -j8
cd build

For a complete list of CMake options, please refer to CMakeLists.txt.

Compiling with qmake

Caution

Qt6 upstream is deprecating qmake, try using CMake if possible

qmake6 (alsa OR portaudio OR pulseaudio AND CONFIG+=sound):

qmake6 CONFIG+=alsa CONFIG+=sound
make -j8

Transmitter AAC fix

Caution

This method uses an older release of the FAAD and FAAC libraries, expect incompatibilities and vulnerabilities!

Tip

Remove all libfaad,libfaac and related packages (don't remove faad2 itself)

Build and install FAAD2 library

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/faac/faad2-2.7.tar.gz
tar zxf faad2-2.7.tar.gz
cd faad2-2.7
. bootstrap
./configure --enable-shared --without-xmms --with-drm --without-mpeg4ip
make $MAKE_ARGS
sudo cp include/faad.h include/neaacdec.h /usr/include
sudo cp libfaad/.libs/libfaad.so.2.0.0 /usr/local/lib/libfaad2_drm.so.2.0.0
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libfaad2_drm.so.2.0.0 /usr/local/lib/libfaad2_drm.so.2
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libfaad2_drm.so.2.0.0 /usr/local/lib/libfaad2_drm.so
cd ..

Build and install FAAC library

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/faac/faac-1.28.tar.gz
tar zxf faac-1.28.tar.gz
cd faac-1.28
. bootstrap
./configure --with-pic --enable-shared --without-mp4v2 --enable-drm
make $MAKE_ARGS
sudo cp include/faaccfg.h  include/faac.h /usr/include
sudo cp libfaac/.libs/libfaac.so.0.0.0 /usr/local/lib/libfaac_drm.so.0.0.0
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libfaac_drm.so.0.0.0 /usr/local/lib/libfaac_drm.so.0
sudo ln -s /usr/local/lib/libfaac_drm.so.0.0.0 /usr/local/lib/libfaac_drm.so
cd ..

[ source: https://gist.github.com/1zxLi/42e436e6ee638037d9e3060c808708fa ]

Running the program

Receiver:

./dream

Transmitter:

./dream -t

Extra options:

./dream -h

Known bugs

• Dream transmitter AAC and Opus codecs are broken (the distro packages are probably broken or have missing features)
• Compile-time errors related to Qwt on Debian 13 (use libqwt version 6.3 or later, it's in the experimental repos)
• If you encounter problems with SoapySDR, please open a new issue with full logs and outputs from the environment you're using (e.g. your terminal)
• Sometimes Dream crashes when changing the signal source or sink. If this happens, try pavucontrol.