Installing GopherTrunk on Windows 11

This is the path the prebuilt installer lays down for you. Five minutes from a fresh download to a working gophertrunk sdr list.

1. Download the installer

Go to the GopherTrunk releases page and download the asset named:

gophertrunk-<version>-windows-amd64-setup.exe

If you’d rather skip the installer and run from a folder, grab the matching gophertrunk-<version>-windows-amd64.zip and extract it anywhere — the contents are the same.

Why is the download blocked? Windows SmartScreen sometimes warns on installers it hasn’t seen before. Click More info → Run anyway, or right-click the file → Properties → check Unblock. The installer is unsigned today; signing is on the roadmap.

2. Run the installer

Double-click setup.exe and accept the defaults. The installer:

  • Copies gophertrunk.exe to C:\Program Files\GopherTrunk\ — a single static binary, no DLLs to ship.
  • Adds Start Menu entries for the daemon, the config template, and these instructions.
  • Optionally adds C:\Program Files\GopherTrunk to your system PATH so you can run gophertrunk from any PowerShell window (off by default — tick the “Add GopherTrunk to my PATH” checkbox during install if you want it).

When the wizard finishes, it’ll offer to open this document and a console window. Both are harmless to skip.

3. Install the WinUSB driver via Zadig (one-time, for each dongle)

Windows ships an RTL-SDR DVB-T receiver driver by default — that driver is what you’d use to watch broadcast TV, and it’s the wrong driver for SDR work. We need to swap it for WinUSB on a per-device basis. The standard tool is Zadig:

  1. Plug in the RTL-SDR dongle. The same flow works for any 0bda:2838 device — generic RTL-SDR Blog units, the NooElec NESDR Smart v5, and equivalent clones.
  2. Download Zadig from https://zadig.akeo.ie (single .exe, no install). Run it as Administrator.
  3. Options → List All Devices so the RTL-SDR shows up.
  4. From the dropdown, pick the dongle. It’ll typically appear as Bulk-In, Interface (Interface 0) or RTL2832U (the NESDR Smart v5 reports as RTL2838UHIDIR).
  5. With WinUSB selected as the target driver, click Replace Driver (or Install Driver, first time).
  6. Wait ~10 seconds for the success dialog.

You only do this once per dongle. If you ever want the dongle to work as a TV tuner again, run Zadig in reverse and pick the manufacturer driver.

4. Verify everything works

Open Windows Terminal (or PowerShell) and run:

gophertrunk version
gophertrunk sdr list

sdr list should print one line per attached dongle with its driver, index, serial, tuner, product string, and the gain settings the tuner exposes. If you see no SDR devices found and you’re sure the dongle is plugged in, the WinUSB driver swap probably didn’t take — re-run Zadig with Options → List All Devices checked and verify the “Driver” column shows WinUSB for your dongle.

If you didn’t tick the PATH option during install, run from the install folder instead:

cd "C:\Program Files\GopherTrunk"
.\gophertrunk.exe sdr list

5. Configure and start the daemon

The installer drops a starter config at:

C:\Program Files\GopherTrunk\config.example.yaml

Copy it somewhere writable — your home directory is fine — and edit the device serial + control-channel frequencies:

cp "C:\Program Files\GopherTrunk\config.example.yaml" "$HOME\gophertrunk.yaml"
notepad "$HOME\gophertrunk.yaml"

Then run the daemon against it:

gophertrunk run -config "$HOME\gophertrunk.yaml"

Logs stream to the terminal. Press Ctrl+C to stop cleanly.

For a long-running setup, register GopherTrunk as a Windows service with NSSM — that’s the simplest path until a native service manifest ships:

nssm install GopherTrunk "C:\Program Files\GopherTrunk\gophertrunk.exe" `
  run -config "C:\ProgramData\GopherTrunk\config.yaml"
nssm set GopherTrunk AppDirectory "C:\Program Files\GopherTrunk"
nssm start GopherTrunk

Uninstall

Settings → Apps → Installed apps → GopherTrunk → Uninstall. The uninstaller removes the install folder and every Start Menu entry, and undoes the PATH change if you opted in. Recordings under your call-log directory are left alone.

Troubleshooting

Symptom Likely cause
gophertrunk not recognised PATH wasn’t added — open a fresh terminal or run from C:\Program Files\GopherTrunk directly.
sdr list prints nothing Zadig WinUSB swap didn’t take — see step 3.
usb: device disconnected mid-stream The DVB driver re-attached itself — re-run Zadig.
WinUsb_Initialize fails The dongle is bound to the wrong driver — re-run Zadig and pick WinUSB.
Smart Screen blocks the installer Right-click → Properties → Unblock, or More info → Run anyway.

For anything else: open an issue at https://github.com/MattCheramie/GopherTrunk/issues with the gophertrunk version output and the first few lines of the daemon log.