Install Groovy on the KIPR Link

This guide shows the recommended way of installing ROS Groovy Galapagos on the KIPR Link robot controller. Check out this page if you would like to install everything from source.

Required Things

• USB flash drive with 8GB or more to extend the on board memory. Attention: The drive will get formatted during the installation process.

• A Linux PC
• Wireless LAN with connection to the internet

Prepare the USB Flash Drive

Execute the following steps on a Linux PC:

(1) Open a terminal application the Linux PC

• Log in and open a terminal application. You need root or superuser privileges.

(2) Insert an USB flash drive into your Linux PC

• Note: One easy way to figure out the device name of the drive is to use the dmesg command after inserting it. The device name of the following USB flash drive is '/dev/sdb':

  $ dmesg
  . . .
  [ 4296.452187] USB Mass Storage support registered.
  [ 4297.455985] scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SanDisk  Cruzer Blade     1.26 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
  [ 4297.458951] sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
  [ 4297.465954] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 15633408 512-byte logical blocks: (8.00 GB/7.45 GiB)
  [ 4297.473946] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
  [ 4297.473949] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 43 00 00 00
  [ 4297.481942] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
  [ 4297.522814]  sdb: sdb1 sdb2
  [ 4297.548747] sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk

(3) Format the USB flash drive

• Caution

  The following commands will erase all the data from the specified drive. Ensure that you specify the correct device!

  Execute the following commands on your terminal. Replace every occurrence of sdX with the device name of your USB flash drive.

  dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1 count=512
  parted /dev/sdX mklabel msdos
  parted --align=opt /dev/sdX mkpart primary ext3 1 6GB
  parted --align=opt /dev/sdX mkpart primary linux-swap 6GB 8GB
  mkfs.ext3 /dev/sdX1
  mkswap /dev/sdX2

  You can check the result with fdisk. It should display something like

  fdisk -l /dev/sdX
  
  Disk /dev/sdb: 8004 MB, 8004304896 bytes
  247 heads, 62 sectors/track, 1020 cylinders, total 15633408 sectors
  Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
  Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
  Disk identifier: 0x00064a16
  
     Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
  /dev/sdb1            2048    11718655     5858304   83  Linux
  /dev/sdb2        11718656    15632383     1956864   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Connect to the KIPR Link

(1) Switch the Link on

(2) Configure the wireless LAN

• Enable and configure the wireless LAN of the controller. The IP address is displayed at [Settings] -> [Network] once it is connected with the wireless LAN.

(3) Open a terminal session

• Now you can connect to the underlying Linux of the KIPR Link using SSH. Type the following command on your Linux PC. Replace every occurrence of xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx with the IP address of your controller.

  ssh root@xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 

  Something like the following should now appear:

  root@kovan:~# 

  Now you are connected with the KIPR Link via SSH. You can close the SSH connection by typing 'exit'.

(4) Set date and time

• Set date and time with the date command. It's usage is: date mmddhhmmyyyy.

For example sets date 030417442013 the current date to 03/04/2013 and the time to 5:44pm.

• date mmddhhmmyyyy

Download and Setup the USB drive payload

Type the following commands into the SSH shell opened at the previous section.

(1) Plugin the USB drive prepared in the previous sections

(2) Enable the swap partition

• swapon /dev/sda2

(3) Download the payload

• cd /kovan/media/sda1/
  wget http://usbpayload.ros4link.googlecode.com/git/opt.tar.bz2
  wget http://usbpayload.ros4link.googlecode.com/git/usr.tar.bz2

(4) Unpack them

• tar xf opt.tar.bz2
  tar xf usr.tar.bz2

(5) (Optional) Delete the archives

• rm opt.tar.bz2
  rm usr.tar.bz2

Enable the USB Content

Type the following commands into the SSH shell opened at the previous section.

• ln -s /kovan/media/sda1/opt /opt
  ln -s /kovan/meda/sda1/usr/local /usr/local

Next Steps

Please visit the ROS Start Guide to get started with ROS or the ros4link project wiki page for KIPR Link specific ROS tutorials.

Revert to the Delivery Status

Follow the instructions on the KIPR page how-to re-flash the KIPR Link firmware. Be aware that this will remove any change from the on-board memory.

In case you already have a fully configured USB flash drive, you can skip the first steps and start with the step Enable the USB Content.

Mailing List

Please use our mailing list for ros4link installation questions. For general ROS questions please use answers.ros.org.