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ROS 2 install hands-on workshop

This document will guide you through the installation process of ROS 2.

This document also served as small overview of the Bavarian-Hungarian Self-driving vehicles workshop. Date: 2024.06.08, place: Győr, Hungary.

Install ROS 2 video

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Windows WSL2

Windows Subsystem for Linux is a compatibility layer for native running of Linux-based elements on Windows 10 or Windows 11-based systems. You should choose to use WSL if you do not want to install native Ubuntu (e.g. 18.04 / 22.04) on your computers.

Steps to install:

  • Run as administrator, open a PowerShell window.
  • Copy the command below. You hereby authorize the use of WSL. 
    Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux
  • Restart the computer by entering the letter Y. (optional)
  • Open the Microsoft Store and search for Windows Subsystem for Linux Preview. Install it.
  • Also search for Ubuntu 22.04 in the Microsoft Store and install or PowerShell (Admin): 
    wsl --install -d Ubuntu-22.04
  • For easier handling, it is worth installing the Windows Terminal program as well. Also search for Windows Terminal in the Microsoft Store and install it.
  • Start the Windows Terminal program and open the settings with the Ctrl+, (Control and comma) key combination. Select Ubuntu 22.04 from the drop-down list of the Default Profile setting line.
  • Restart the Windows Terminal. When starting for the first time, enter a user name and password of your choice.
  • We recommend the VS Code editor to develop the solution. Install from: code.visualstudio.com/download
  • Finally, install the VS Code Remote Development add-on to be available using WSL: marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode-remote.vscode-remote-extensionpack

Installation (after you have Ubuntu)

ROS 2

ROS 1 versions are only discussed for historical reasons, ROS 2 is recommended for current developments.

ROS 1 is basically supported on Linux systems, although there have been attempts for other operating systems as well. On the other hand, ROS 2 already supports running on native Windows, Mac OS or other Real-Time operating systems. So basically there are four options:

  1. Dual boot, native Linux installed alongside Windows (mostly Ubuntu) ✅ description
  2. Windows WSL2, lightweight Linux virtual machine ✅ description
  3. Virtual machine for Windows 🟠
  4. Windows build 🟠

We recommend the first two of these 4 options, but of course the others are not prohibited either. Dual boot provides an insight into the Linux world, which is useful knowledge for an engineer today. Care must be taken during installation, as a wrong setting causes data loss, so a backup is also recommended. WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) is a lightweight compatibility layer for running Linux-based components on Windows 10 or Windows 11-based systems. As you can see in the following figure, the Linux kernel can access the hardware elements (CPU, memory, GPU) just as easily as the Windows kernel. Compared to this, the virtual machine (option 3) is a much slower solution that uses more abstraction layers, and is recommended for those who either have a very modern, fast machine or have already installed such systems. The native Windows build (option 4) is a given in principle, but since the majority of the documentation is available for Linux, it will mean a lot of extra work.

Illustration of the first three options:

wsl overview

The following description applies to Ubuntu 22.04 Jammy. Note that other versions are also supported, their installation and descriptions are available here: docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation/Alternatives.html

The following description is based on docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation.html.

Set language

Note

This step can usually be skipped

Make sure you have a locale that supports UTF-8.

locale # Check for UTF-8

sudo apt update && sudo apt install locales
sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
sudo update-locale LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

check locale # settings

Set resources

You need to add the ROS 2 apt repository to your system.

First, make sure the Ubuntu Universe repository is enabled.

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository universe

Add ROS 2 GPG key with apt.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl -y
sudo curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg

Next comes the addition of the container to the source list.

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" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null

Install ROS 2 packages

Update:

sudo apt update

ROS 2 packages are often built on updated Ubuntu systems. It is always recommended to make sure your system is up-to-date before installing new packages. 

sudo apt upgrade

Desktop installation: Installation of ROS, RViz, demos, tutorials: 

sudo apt install ros-humble-desktop

Development tools, compilers, and other tools for building ROS packages: 

sudo apt install ros-dev-tools

Source

Set up your environment by sourcing the following file:

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash

Tip: this can also be done in the .bashrc file echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc.

Check installation

We check the correctness of the installation with the ros2 topic list command.

$ ros2 topic list

/parameter_events
/rosout

If everything is fine, the above two topics should appear. Then you can learn how to use simple example nodes: docs.ros.org/en/humble/Tutorials/Beginner-CLI-Tools.html

Recommended settings after installation

Console colors

By default, the console output is not colored, but it is advisable to set this with the RCUTILS_COLORIZED_OUTPUT environment variable (even written in bashrc). For example:

export RCUTILS_COLORIZED_OUTPUT=1

RCUTILS_COLORIZED_OUTPUT

Details: docs.ros.org/en/humble/Tutorials/Demos/Logging-and-logger-configuration.html#id14

colcon_cd

It is also advisable to set the colcon_cd command so that you can quickly change your working directory to the directory of a package. As an example, the command colcon_cd some_ros_package can quickly jump to the directory ~/ros2_ws/src/some_ros_package.

Details: docs.ros.org/en/humble/Tutorials/Beginner-Client-Libraries/Colcon-Tutorial.html#setup-colcon-cd

Home / laboratory room installation

In the lab, we run the following install_humble.sh file (shell script) on each machine.

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sze-info/arj/main/docs/telepites/install_humble.sh

sudo chmod +x install_humble.sh

At home: 

./install_humble.sh
In the laboratory room (campus): 
./install_humble.sh campus

Workspace reset

If we want to delete the entire ros2_ws, then clone and build it again (~5 minutes), we can do it with the following single long command:

cd ~ ; rm ws_reset.sh; wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sze-info/arj/main/docs/telepites/ws_reset.sh; sudo chmod +x ws_reset.sh; ./ws_reset.sh