How to Install rbfeeder on Raspberry Pi OS Trixie (debian 13)

[abcd567]

Raspberry Pi OS Trixie (Debian 13) was release on Oct 01, 2025. The image can be downloaded from here:
https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/operating-systems/

The Trixie image is included in Raspberry Pi Imager also, which can download and write the image to microSD card in one go.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/


Please see next post for method to install rbfeeder & mlat-client on Raspberry Pi OS Trixie.


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[abcd567]

The standard method to install rbfeeder on Raspberry Pi is to run following command:

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sudo bash -c "$(wget -O - http://apt.rb24.com/inst_rbfeeder.sh)"


However as the Radarbox24 feeder is NOT (yet) available for Trixie, the above installation script fails on Trixie.

Following is the workaround for installing rbfeeder on RPi running 32-bit & 64-bit OS Trixie. This workaround is valid till such time RB24 makes their script & package avaiable for installing rbfeeder on Trixie also, in which case above noted installation command will succeed in installing rbfee der & mlat client.

Temporary Workaround for Installation of rbfeeder on Raspberry Pi OS Trixie
(TESTED , Works OK)

(a) Install tools

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sudo apt install dirmngr gnupg


(b) Set apt
Note: Following three (3) commands are very long. Scroll right to see and copy these in full

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gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys F2A8428D3C354953 

gpg --export --armor F2A8428D3C354953 | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/rb24.gpg 

echo "deb [signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/rb24.gpg] https://apt.rb24.com/ trixie main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rb24.list


(c) Update apt and install rbfeeder:

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sudo apt update

sudo apt install rbfeeder


(d) After installation is completed, signup as follows:

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sudo systemctl restart rbfeeder


After a few seconds, RBFeeder will connect to the AirNav servers and you can view your sharing-key with this command:

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sudo rbfeeder --showkey 


If you already have a sharing-key from a previous installation, you can set the same key using this command:

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sudo rbfeeder --setkey ‹your sharing key› 


(e) Activate decoder dump1090-rb
If you are not able to install a decoder such as dump1090-fa or readsb etc, no problem, the rbfeeder installation as above, includes installation of its builtin decoder dump1090-rb. You can check it's existance by following command

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ls -l /usr/bin/dump1090-rb 


By default this decoder is inactive. However you can activate it by following method:

Open file "rbfeeder.ini" for editing by following command:

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sudo nano /etc/rbfeeder.ini   


In the file opened,  at top you will see this line:

network_mode=true

Change true to false, so the line becoms like below:

network_mode=false

Save the file (Ctrl+O)

Reboot RPi

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sudo reboot 


After reboot, check sttatus

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sudo systemctl status rbfeeder 


(f) Install mlat-client
The installation of mlat-client from RB24 repository by command sudo apt install mlat-client   fails with following error message:
mlat-client:arm64 Depends python3 (< 3.12) but this is not installable (Trixie apt provides python 3.13)

Solution: Build & install mlat-client using source code

Install build tools & dependencies:

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sudo apt install git build-essential debhelper dh-python python3-dev python3-setuptools

sudo apt install python3-pyasyncore   


Build & install mlat-client:

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git clone https://github.com/mutability/mlat-client 

cd mlat-client

sudo dpkg-buildpackage -b --no-sign

cd ../ 

sudo dpkg -i mlat-client_0.2.13_*.deb 

sudo apt-mark hold mlat-client

sudo systemctl restart rbfeeder 


VERY IMPORTANT:
The trixie uses python3.13, in which module "asyncore" has been replaced by module "asyncio".

During runtime, the current version (0.2.13) of mlat-client requires the module "asyncore". As this module is missing, rbfeeder gives following error during runtime:

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from mlat.client.net import ReconnectingConnection
File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/mlat/client/net.py", line 25, in <module>
   import asyncore
ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'asyncore'


SOLUTION:
To make python3.13 backward-compatible to software which are still using "asyncore" (such as mlat-client), debian developers have provided a package "python3-pyasyncore". This package provides the missing module "asyncore". This package must be installed on user's RPi . For this reason, I have already included it under installation of dependencies in above method.

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sudo apt install python3-pyasyncore 



[abcd567]

ADDITIONAL SETTINGS (OPTIONAL)

If setting is "network_mode=false", it makes rbfeeder to start and use dump1090-rb. All settings of dump1090-rb are hard-coded in rbfeeder.

By default dump1090-rb is run with automatic gain control, which is very good. This is done by rbfeedr by passing folowing arguments to dump1090-rb:

--adaptive-range
--adaptive-burst

This setting for most purposes is very good. However if user wants to manually set a fixed gain, then this can ne done by adding following 3 lines under [client] section of file /etc/rbfeeder.ini

dump_gain=28
dump_adaptive_range=false
dump_adaptive_burst=false

Note: replace 28 in line "dump_gain=28" by gain value you want to set.

Save file and restart rbfeeder.

Please see screenshot attached.

[RZEE]

The feeder part works, addition of the MLAT unfortunately not.

Jan 06 16:32:26 zero2w rbfeeder[1916]: Tue Jan  6 16:32:26 2026 Lost connection                               to mlat1.rb24.com:40900
Jan 06 16:32:56 zero2w rbfeeder[1916]: Tue Jan  6 16:32:56 2026 Connected to mul                              tilateration server at mlat1.rb24.com:40900, handshaking
Jan 06 16:32:57 zero2w rbfeeder[1916]:         location: https://github.com/adsb                              exchange/mlat-server

[abcd567]

The feeder part works, addition of the MLAT unfortunately not.

Jan 06 16:32:26 zero2w rbfeeder[1916]: Tue Jan  6 16:32:26 2026 Lost connection                               to mlat1.rb24.com:40900
Jan 06 16:32:56 zero2w rbfeeder[1916]: Tue Jan  6 16:32:56 2026 Connected to mul                              tilateration server at mlat1.rb24.com:40900, handshaking
Jan 06 16:32:57 zero2w rbfeeder[1916]:         location: https://github.com/adsb                              exchange/mlat-server

(1) You have to add your location (latitude, longitude, altitude above sea level in meters) in file /etc/rbfeeder.ini under [client] , as shown below:

lat=xx.xxxx
lon=yy.yyyy
alt=zzz


(2) Mlat client seems to work ok, issue is connection failure to RB24 mlat server.

What is output of following command:

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sudo systemctl status rbfeeder | grep python3   


If mlat-client is working OK, you will get an output shown in attached screenshot.

[RZEE]

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pi@zero2w:~ $ sudo systemctl status rbfeeder | grep python3
             ├─1439 /usr/bin/python3 /usr/bin/mlat-client --input-type dump1090 --input-connect 127.0.0.1:32457 --server mlat1.rb24.com:40900 --lat 52.244300 --lon 4.825800 --alt 9 --user EXTRPI002506 --results beast,connect,127.0.0.1:32004
pi@zero2w:~ $
Yeah, The MLAT started working next day.

[abcd567]

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