Installation (Debian 13)

This document describes the interactive install.sh installer and manual steps for installing Neo-RX on Debian 13.

Quick: run the installer (interactive):

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/chevybowtie/NESDR-Smart-v5-APRS-iGate/HEAD/install.sh | bash
# or curl -fsSL https://bit.ly/49l7lnD | bash

If you download the file (-O flag), you can use the following flags:

• --dry-run — show actions without making changes.
• --yes — assume yes to prompts (non-interactive).
• --target-dir PATH — where to create the virtualenv and install files (default: ~/.local/share/neo-rx).

The installer downloads a tarball (master branch archive) and installs in a virtualenv. By default it will prompt for system package installation (it will not enable or create services automatically).

The installer will first attempt to download the CI-published release asset at:

https://github.com/chevybowtie/NESDR-Smart-v5-APRS-iGate/releases/download/master-latest/repo-master.tar.gz

If that asset is not yet available the installer falls back to the default branch archive at:

https://github.com/chevybowtie/NESDR-Smart-v5-APRS-iGate/archive/refs/heads/master.tar.gz

No additional environment variables are required; the installer uses the release asset URL first and the branch archive as a fallback.

Suggested apt packages (manual install):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y python3 python3-venv curl tar

Optional packages for SDR/APRS features:

sudo apt install -y rtl-sdr direwolf sox

After running the installer, render and review the Direwolf configuration:

~/.local/share/neo-rx/.venv/bin/neo-rx aprs setup

To run Direwolf with the bundled helper script once ~/.config/neo-rx/direwolf.conf is created, use:

./scripts/run_direwolf.sh

Systemd unit (sample — installer does NOT create this automatically):

[Unit]
Description=Neo-RX Direwolf helper

[Service]
ExecStart=%h/.local/share/neo-rx/.venv/bin/neo-rx aprs listen
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

If you prefer to manage a system service, create a systemd --user unit and enable it manually.

If you want the installer to automatically fetch a master archive from GitHub when pushes to master occur, create a GitHub Actions job that produces a branch archive URL — a placeholder workflow file is included in the repo as .github/workflows/generate-archive.yml (implement CI later).