Number Stations 0.1
Download
One ISO file runs live from a USB stick, saves your changes to the stick, and installs to a disk.
Number Stations 0.1
Download number-stations-linux.isoThe download comes from linuxlive.com, which hosts the build.
- File
number-stations-linux.iso- Size
- 4.5 GiB (4,802,519,040 bytes)
- SHA-256
9b354fdd439777c2c98a23c65ab553a718003e9525e8e40250bd989faa64d887- Package list
- Every package in the ISO (text)
- Build log
- The GitHub Actions run that built and tested it
Before you start
What you need
- A 64-bit Intel or AMD computer. UEFI or older BIOS firmware both work. There is no ARM version for Apple-silicon Macs yet.
- A USB stick of 8 GB or more. Writing the ISO erases everything on it. What you save goes in the space the ISO leaves free, so a 16 GB or 32 GB stick gives you room for recordings.
- An RTL-SDR dongle, if you like. An RTL2832U stick, the common kind, works with Gqrx and the command-line tools. Without one, the WebSDR bookmarks in Firefox let you listen to receivers around the world.
- To install: a disk you are happy to erase. The installer uses one whole disk, and tells you if the disk is too small.
Four steps
From download to waterfall
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Check the file
When the download finishes, work out its SHA-256 checksum. It must match the one above character for character; if it doesn’t, download it again.
Windows (PowerShell)
Get-FileHash .\number-stations-linux.iso -Algorithm SHA256macOS (Terminal)
shasum -a 256 number-stations-linux.isoLinux (terminal)
sha256sum number-stations-linux.iso -
Write it to a USB stick
Pick the ISO, pick the stick, and write. Copy anything you need off the stick first. To save your changes on the stick later, write the ISO as it is, byte for byte, with one of these:
- Windows: Rufus. When it asks, choose DD Image mode.
- macOS: balenaEtcher or Fedora Media Writer.
- Linux: Fedora Media Writer, or GNOME Disks (Restore Disk Image).
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Start the computer from it
Plug the stick in, restart, and tap the boot menu key as soon as the screen lights up, then pick the stick from the list. Leave Secure Boot on; Number Stations uses Ubuntu’s signed boot chain.
- F12 Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Gigabyte
- Esc then F9 HP
- Esc ASUS laptops (F8 on desktop boards)
- F11 MSI
More computers, and what to do if nothing happens, on linuxlive.com.
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Tune in, then keep it
The boot menu’s first entry starts Number Stations and keeps what you change on the stick: files, settings, your WSJT-X callsign and your QLog log. The second entry starts clean for a session that leaves no trace, and leaves what you saved alone.
To make it permanent, open the installer from the desktop. It puts Number Stations on one whole disk, erasing what was there, and needs no internet connection.
Before you dive in
Known issues
Not checked by hand yet. This build of Number Stations 0.1 passed linuxlive’s own tests, listed on this page, but nobody has booted it and tried the radio apps since.
No USB stick?
Try it in a virtual machine
VirtualBox works on Windows, Linux and Intel Macs; on Linux, GNOME Boxes is simpler still. Give the machine at least 4 GB of memory and 2 processors, turn on EFI, and attach the ISO as the optical drive.
To use an RTL-SDR in the virtual machine, pass the dongle through to it: in VirtualBox, open Devices ▸ USB while it runs and tick the dongle, whose name usually starts with RTL2838.
Started from an ISO file, the live session cannot save to a stick, so it starts clean every time. To try the installer, add a virtual disk of 32 GB before you start.
Tested on every build
| How it started | Result | Seconds |
|---|---|---|
| UEFI, from a USB stick | to the desktop | 27.5 |
| UEFI with Secure Boot, as a disc image | started | 20.5 |
| UEFI, as a disc image | started | 18.5 |
| BIOS, as a disc image | started | 18.5 |
| BIOS, from a USB stick | started | 20.5 |
Timed in QEMU by the build that made this ISO. Each build is also installed to a disk and started from it.
Make it yours
Newer builds and remixes
Every change to the source is built in GitHub Actions, where signed-in GitHub users can download the ISO from the run’s Artifacts. The Workshop on linuxlive.com copies Number Stations’ spec into a distro of your own to change and rebuild.