ROS2 Installation

Note

This tutorial is an abridged version of the original ROS 2 Documentation. This tutorial considers a fresh Ubuntu Desktop (not Server) 22.04 LTS x64 (not arm64) installation, that you have super user access and common sense. It might work in other cases, but those have not been tested in this tutorial.

Warning

All commands must be followed to the letter, in the precise order described herein. Any deviation from what is described might cause unspecified problems and not all of them are easily solvable.

Update apt packages

Hint

You can quickly open a new terminal window by pressing CTRL+ATL+T.

After a fresh install, update and upgrade all apt packages.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Install a few pre-requisites

sudo apt install -y software-properties-common curl terminator git

Namely:

software-properties-common	Allows us to access the ROS2 packages using apt.
curl	Helps download installation/configuration files from the terminal.
terminator	ROS uses plenty of terminals, so this helps keep one’s sanity intact by enabling the management of several terminals in a single window. Despite what some might say, this particular terminator has no interest whatsoever in Sarah Connor.
git	The trendy source control program everyone mentions in their CV. You might be interested in knowing why it’s called `git`.

Add ROS2 sources

Your apt needs to know where the ROS2 packages can be found and to be able to verify their authenticity. After setting up the apt sources, the local package list must be updated. The following commands will do all that magic.

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

Install ROS2 packages

There are plenty of ways to install ROS2, the following will suffice for now.

sudo apt install -y ros-humble-desktop ros-dev-tools

Set up system environment to find ROS2

ROS2 packages are implemented in such a way that they live peacefully in the /opt/ros/{ROS_DISTRO} folder in your Ubuntu. A given terminal window or program will only know that ROS2 exists, and which version you want to use, if you run a setup file for each terminal, every time you open a new one.

The ~/.bashrc file can be used for that exact purpose as, in Ubuntu, that is the file that configures each terminal window for a given user.

TL;DR just run this ONCE AND ONLY ONCE

echo "# Source ROS2 Humble, as instructed in https://ros2-tutorial.readthedocs.io" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

Check if it works

If the following command

ros2

outputs something similar to what is shown below, then it worked! Otherwise, it didn’t!

   usage: ros2 [-h] [--use-python-default-buffering]
            Call `ros2 <command> -h` for more detailed usage. ...

ros2 is an extensible command-line tool for ROS 2.

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --use-python-default-buffering
                        Do not force line buffering in stdout and instead use
                        the python default buffering, which might be affected
                        by PYTHONUNBUFFERED/-u and depends on whatever stdout
                        is interactive or not

Commands:
  action     Various action related sub-commands
  bag        Various rosbag related sub-commands
  component  Various component related sub-commands
  daemon     Various daemon related sub-commands
  doctor     Check ROS setup and other potential issues
  interface  Show information about ROS interfaces
  launch     Run a launch file
  lifecycle  Various lifecycle related sub-commands
  multicast  Various multicast related sub-commands
  node       Various node related sub-commands
  param      Various param related sub-commands
  pkg        Various package related sub-commands
  run        Run a package specific executable
  security   Various security related sub-commands
  service    Various service related sub-commands
  topic      Various topic related sub-commands
  wtf        Use `wtf` as alias to `doctor`

  Call `ros2 <command> -h` for more detailed usage.