![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKy0kEFQpRf7dB7TXEcm8WsxUCogItT6zr82ukczRqR0hUWH7HaCYCgz0GIHIZ4qkJAp1vYN5IafbAGuhuquZvZZkfe31aR4XQIH6r4TpzvT2ibAQIxPgpGvK4B2WC7aVN9ZhoGco_YgMX/s200/USBstick-PTA-8GB-TecraS11-CrystalDiskMark.jpg) |
Pen drive directly attached to the host. |
While the DVB-T RTL USB stick is travelling towards my shack, I am trying to understand if I can install all the software in a virtual machine instead of my powerful host system.
Main concern: would the
VirtualBox USB emulation be fast enough for the raw bandwidth required by the RTL stick?
I did some tests using a new USB pendrive. On the host system the benchmark suite peaked reading at 14.8 MByte/s. This is probably enough for the RTLSDR application.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh6FNMznQ17OuxTZx-N1VVlcgutHqkkaOCrVwzbMdxH9edvXBE95E5FZnoD1KEDdoknBqc-ubqgUuOerI_CAcKX5NHFNOiTS8K0JVPHv5Cep_7x8_Z8a5ye0wN71u3cXEmFHP78ZFSMWAq/s200/USBstick-PTA-8GB-VMWinXP-VirtualBox4.6.14_su_S11-noUSB2-CrystalDiskMark.jpg) |
Same pendrive, benchmarked in the virtual machine. |
Next I moved the USB stick to the VirtualBox guest using the standard
settings. Sequential reading reduced to 7 MByte/s, and all other values
were scaled down.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU7KIK1AuHg2zS9c1EQ6LBWyPbfktAgQU3lUb6Ud-l2zyfksUt0YxQiiO2vLVrUKXLru5vcrDhEYQs9iMmGXMShxtawpQk0gzrt3S5dbST_nADF_AUUyyPUNAtMiND-6P31_IlAs6ggi70/s200/USBstick-PTA-8GB-VMWinXP-VirtualBox4.6.14_su_S11-USB2-CrystalDiskMark.jpg) |
Pendrive in the guest with USB2 enabled. |
With a bit of googling I discovered that VirtualBox (4.1.16) has an extension pack that provides emulation of USB 2.0 EHCI. Downloaded, installed, rebooted: results were disappointing! Speed reduced even further, therefore the new driver probably only adds a hardware compatibility layer and not additional speed..
Nevermind. 7 MBps could be enough for running the RTL-based SDR in a virtual machine. If not, I will take the risk of installing everything on the host and enjoy VHF/UHF scanning.