FAQs from Rohde & Schwarz

Installing R&S Power Viewer under Linux

Question

I found the R&S Power Viewer for Linux in the download section on your webpage. After also requesting the NRP Toolkit for my Linux Distribution I was not able to get a working software at all. Can you please let me know, how to perform the installation?

Answer

1.) Prerequisites
To perform a complete installation you need:

  • R&S PowerViewer for Linux. Please follow this link.
  • NRP Toolkit adequate for your certain Linux Distibution. You can request this by sending an email to -->customersupport@rohde-schwarz.com. To ensure fast service please provide the infomations about Distribution / Version and Architecture (32 / 64 Bit).

2.) Remarks
This document shows the installation using Ubuntu 18.04.

3.) Preparation
Copy both archives to Home/temp (which is /home/user/temp then) and unpack them. You will get two new folders after that operation:

Unpack archives

4.) Installation of the R&S NRP Toolkit
When opening the folder (in that case it's called "amd64") you will see some installer packages, archives and a readme file. The readme file gives some general information about the package and also some installation instructions. We will more or less follow these instructions for the first step:

  • Open a new terminal.
  • Change user to root typing "sudo su -".
  • Change to the dedicated folder (in this case "/home/username//temp/amd64").
  • Install the kernel module by typing dpkg -i filename (in this case - "dpkg -i nrpzmodule-dkms_4.2.5-1_all.deb").
  • After completion repeat this step for all the other installation packages in the folder.
Linux terminal

In some cases it might come to dependency problems. If this happens, simply install the missing package with the Advanced Packaging Tool (apt):

Advanced packaging tool

In this example it was libudv-dev to be installed before the library could have been added to the system. It was installed using "apt-get install libudev-dev".

5.) Installation of the Power Viewer application
After opening the folder (in that case it's called "PowerViewer_Linux") you will see both installers (32 and 64 bit) and the documentation. The readme file gives some general information about the package and also some installation instructions. We will more or less follow these instructions for the first step:

  • You can still stay in the Terminal application, but please log out as root, so that you are standard user again (type "exit").
  • Change to the adequate folder containing the Power Viewer files (type "cd ~/temp/PowerViewer_Linux").
  • Check the files using "ls -al" and check, if the adequate installer is executable.
Executable installer
  • When the file is not exectuable (see in the screenshot), it must be changed before running the installer.
  • Type "chmod +rwx Filename" to change the rights and check with the command "ls-al" again. It should loook like in the following screenshot now:
Chmod file name
  • Type sudo ./Filename to execute the file and start the installation.
  • Answer all the questions that appear during the installation process.
Confirm installer
  • The installation is done when you are back in the command line.

6.) How to start PowerViewer
The application is regularily available in the software launcher (Applications Button). Another way to start it is to use the command "/usr/local/bin/PowerViewer" in a Terminal window.

Power viewer terminal window