Here are some software setup tips for particular Operating Systems and Linux distributions.

These instructions were written and tested for both Ubuntu 12.04LTS and Ubuntu 14.04LTS. You will also need to be familiar with terminal use. An unofficial HackRF Ubuntu Setup guide is also available.

First things first, make sure all your current software is up to date
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get upgrade -y

Works on Ubuntu version 15.04 'Vivid' and later.
$ sudo apt-get install gqrx-sdr
This will install gnuradio, gnuradio-companion, gqrx as main programs and support for HackRF, USRP, RTL-stick.

1. Clone PyBOMBS in your home directory and start the app store:
   $ git clone https://github.com/pybombs/pybombs.git && cd pybombs && ./app_store.py
2. You will be prompted for a dozen parameters (gituser, prefix, ...), press Enter to keep their default values.
3. The script will open the App Store GUI window. Install the gnuradio recipe by clicking on its icon. The window will freeze during compilation and installation. Note: This step may take a few hours to complete.
4. The script will end with the line installation ok via: src or Writing "/home/<user>/.volk/volk_config"...
5. Repeat the last step for the hackrf recipe.
6. After closing the app store run: $ ./pybombs env
   
7. The output tells you to run something similar to source /home/<user>/target/setup_env.sh, do it.
8. Add this same line to the end of your /home/<user>/.bashrc file.
9. Launch GRC: $ gnuradio-companion

Troubleshooting: [GNU Radio Installation Instructions] (https://github.com/gnuberries/raspberry-radio/wiki/GNU-Radio-Installation-Instructions-(for-desktop-or-notebook))

Note: These instructions use the older build-gnuradio instead of the newer PyBOMBS. Either should work fine.

1. Create a directory to hold all the files needed to build the supporting software. In this example we will create a directory called hackrf_files under our home folder:
   $ mkdir ~/hackrf_files
2. Download a copy of Marcus D. Leech's fantastic GNU radio setup script. You can find it here:
   http://www.sbrac.org/files/build-gnuradio
3. Save the script to ~/hackrf_files/build-gnuradio.sh
4. Give the script execution permission
   $ chmod 744 ~/hackrf_files/build-gnuradio.sh
5. Execute the script using ~/hackrf_files/build-gnuradio.sh and follow the prompts
   WARNING: This step may very well take a few hours to complete!

If you used the above steps to install GNU Radio, simply do the following to build and install the HackRF tools:

cd ~/hackrf_files && git clone https://github.com/mossmann/hackrf.git
cd ~/hackrf_files/hackrf/host && mkdir build && cd build && cmake .. && make && sudo make install && sudo ldconfig

sudo port install gr-osmosdr

https://github.com/andresv/homebrew-gnuradio

emerge hackrf-tools
USE="hackrf" emerge gr-osmosdr

pacman -S gnuradio gnuradio-osmosdr
pacman -S gnuradio-companion

If your distribution is based on RPM or DEB, then easiest is to use PyBOMBS to automatically compile and install libhackrf, gr-osmosdr, and GNU Radio from source.