rtl_tcp Daemon

Table of Contents

Create user and group #

groupadd --system rtl_tcp

sudo useradd --system --gid="rtl_tcp" --create-home  --home-dir="/var/lib/rtl_tcp" --shell="/usr/sbin/nologin" rtl_tcp

Add rtl_tcp user to plugdev group to allow the usage of the rtl-sdr dongle:

usermod -aG plugdev rtl_tcp

Configure systemd #

nano /etc/systemd/system/rtl_tcp.service

[Unit]
Description=rtl_tcp Daemon
After=network.target network-online.target
Requires=network-online.target

[Service]
User=rtl_tcp
Group=rtl_tcp
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/rtl_tcp -a 0.0.0.0 -b 16 -n 128
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
TimeoutStopSec=10s

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload systemd:

systemctl daemon-reload

Enable and start rtl_tcp.service:

systemctl enable --now rtl_tcp.service