rtl_eeprom(1)

💖 rtl_eeprom — the EEPROM glow-up tool 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, and let me tell you about rtl_eeprom — it's the EEPROM programming tool for RTL2832 based DVB-T receivers, and it lives in the rtl_eeprom(1) manual. she's giving tiny-but-powerful. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

rtl-eeprom — EEPROM programming tool for RTL2832 based DVB-T receivers 🦋

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🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

So what does she do? She dumps configuration and she also writes EEPROM configuration. Two moods, one binary. 💅

She was written by Steve Markgraf and incorporated in the osmocom rtl-sdr project. Iconic lineage fr fr.

⚠️ Use at your own risk, especially -w! Not me warning you twice — the page literally says it twice. We'll get there.

There is so much software available for the RTL2832, bestie. Most of the user-level packages rely on the librtlsdr library, which comes as part of the rtl-sdr codebase. And that codebase contains both the library itself and a bunch of command line tools such as rtl_test, rtl_sdr, rtl_tcp, and rtl_fm. ✨

These command line tools use the library to test for the existence of RTL2832 devices and to perform basic data transfer functions to and from the device. Like, they're doing the lord's work. 👑

And because most of the RTL2832 devices are connected using USB, the librtlsdr library depends on the libusb library to communicate with the device. That's the whole chain, no cap. 🔗

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🚨 USAGE 🚨

Writing bad information to the EEPROM will make your device useless.

Read that again. Slowly. 💀 I'm not being dramatic, that's just what the page says. Bad bytes in, bricked vibes out.

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📜 SYNOPSIS 📜

rtl_eeprom [OPTIONS]

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💅 OPTIONS 💅

okay here's the menu, bestie. one bullet per flag, all facts intact:

• -d device_index — pick which device you're talking to. (default: 0)
• -m <str> — set the manufacturer string 🏷️
• -p <str> — set the product string 📦
• -s <str> — set the serial number string 🔢
• -i <0,1> — disable/enable the IR-endpoint 🙈
• -g <conf> — generate default config and write it to the device. <conf> can be one of:
  • realtek — Realtek default (as without EEPROM)
  • realtek_oem — Realtek default OEM with EEPROM
  • noxon — Terratec NOXON DAB Stick
  • terratec_black — Terratec T Stick Black
  • terratec_plus — Terratec T Stick+ (DVB-T/DAB)
• -w <filename> — write dumped file to device ⚠️
• -r <filename> — dump EEPROM to file 📝
• -h — display this help text 🫶

🚨 Use on your own risk, especially -w! Yes, again. Third time. She's serious. This is your third and final warning, bestie — -w is not a casual little experiment. 😭

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

RTL-SDR wiki documentation: http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr 🌈

Other rtl-sdr programs, the whole friend group:

rtl_adsb(1), rtl_fm(1), rtl_sdr(1), rtl_tcp(1), rtl_test(1)

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🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

This manual page was written by Maitland Bottoms for the Debian project (but may be used by others). Sharing is caring, periodt. 🫶

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⭐ COPYRIGHT ⭐

Copyright (c) 2013 A. Maitland Bottoms <bottoms@debian.org>

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. 💖

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

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okay that's the whole page, you ate it, you read the whole thing, main character energy fr fr. 🌸🦋✨ This was the RTL-SDR manual, version 0.5.0, serving rtl_eeprom(1) realness. go forth and don't brick your dongle, iykyk 💅👑