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ROS2 Installation

This document provides a guide for setting up the ROS2 Humble environment.

tip
  • It is recommended to perform the following operations using VNC remote desktop or a connected display.
  • The ROS2 environment is set up in a Docker container. It is recommended to install and learn how to use Docker first.
  • Ubuntu is the officially preferred and primarily supported distribution for ROS2. We will set up the ROS2 environment using a Docker Ubuntu image.

Pull Docker Image​

Use the docker pull command to download the Ubuntu 22.04 Docker image.

radxa@device$
docker pull ubuntu:22.04

Create Docker Script​

Start an Ubuntu 22.04 Docker container using a script.

You need to create a startup script named ros_humble.sh:

radxa@device$
vi ros_humble.sh

Add the following content to the script:

#!/bin/bash
xhost +

docker run -it \
--net=host \
--env="DISPLAY" \
--env="QT_X11_NO_MITSHM=1" \
-v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
ubuntu:22.04 /bin/bash

Parameter explanation:

  • xhost +: Allows Docker container to access the X11 server
  • -it: Run the container in interactive mode
  • --net=host: Use the host's network stack
  • --env="DISPLAY": Set environment variable for X11 graphical interface display
  • --env="QT_X11_NO_MITSHM=1": Set environment variable for Qt application display
  • -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix: Mount X11 Unix domain socket for X11 graphical interface display
  • ubuntu:22.04: Use Ubuntu 22.04 image
  • /bin/bash: Start Bash shell inside the container

Start Docker Container​

Use the bash command to run the script.

radxa@docker$
bash ros_humble.sh

Install Humble​

Check Encoding Environment​

Ensure the environment for installing Humble supports UTF-8 encoding.

radxa@docker$
locale

If the system encoding format is UTF-8, you should see output similar to the following in the terminal:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NAME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ADDRESS="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TELEPHONE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MEASUREMENT="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

If the terminal output is not UTF-8 encoding, you can install and modify the encoding environment by running the following commands in the terminal:

radxa@docker$
apt update && apt install locales
locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
echo "export LANG=en_US.UTF-8" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Set up Software Sources and Keys​

Ensure your system is up to date, then enable the Ubuntu Universe repository and add the ROS2 key.

radxa@docker$
apt-cache policy | grep universe
apt install software-properties-common curl -y
add-apt-repository universe
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg

If you encounter the error: curl: (7) Failed to connect to raw.githubusercontent.com port 443 after 43 ms: Connection refused Solution: Visit https://www.ipaddress.com/ and search for raw.githubusercontent.com, then add the IP address to your /etc/hosts file.

radxa@docker$
vi /etc/hosts

Add the following line:

185.199.110.133 raw.githubusercontent.com

Then run the ROS2 key addition command again:

radxa@docker$
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg

Add the repository to your sources list:

radxa@docker$
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo $UBUNTU_CODENAME) main" | tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null

Install Humble​

Use the following command to install the full desktop version of Humble:

radxa@docker$
apt update && apt upgrade
apt install ros-humble-desktop-full -y

Install ROS2 Development Tools​

Use the following command to install ROS2 development tools:

radxa@docker$
apt install ros-dev-tools -y

Set Environment Variables​

Set up the environment variables with the following commands:

radxa@docker$
echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Save Docker Image​

Currently, our modifications are based on the Ubuntu22.04 Docker container. We need to save this modified container as an image for future use.

Note: If you don't save it as an image, you'll need to reinstall the ROS environment the next time you start a container.

View Running Containers​

In a new terminal on Cubie A7A (not inside the Docker container), run the following command to view running containers:

radxa@device$
docker ps

Commit Container as Image​

In a new terminal on Cubie A7A (not inside the Docker container), run the following command to commit the container as a new image.

tip

You'll need to modify the command based on the container ID from the docker ps output.

radxa@device$
docker commit [CONTAINER ID] [NEW NAME]

# Example

docker commit 937a98f8ad9e ros_humble:1.0

After the commit is complete, it will output similar information:

sha256:32288d439ffab73505d0754d4c43d8aad83210441b41553118e81ff6ab2887af

Modify Start Script​

Modify the ros_humble.sh script to use the saved image name:

ros_humble.sh
#!/bin/bash

xhost +

docker run -it \
--net=host \
--env="DISPLAY" \
--env="QT_X11_NO_MITSHM=1" \
-v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
ros_humble:1.0 /bin/bash