Ubuntu install of ROS Hydro

We are building Debian packages for several Ubuntu platforms, listed below. These packages are more efficient than source-based builds and are our preferred installation method for Ubuntu.

If you need to install from source (not recommended), please see source (download-and-compile) installation instructions.

Installation

Configure your Ubuntu repositories

Configure your Ubuntu repositories to allow "restricted", "universe", and "multiverse". Also make sure to have "recommended updates" enabled. You can follow the Ubuntu guide for instructions on doing this.

Setup your sources.list

Note that this is for installing the PR2 ROS debians and does not contain instructions for setting up the real PR2. Setup your computer to accept software from packages.ros.org and Clearpath Robotics. ROS Hydro ONLY supports Precise, Quantal, and Raring for debian packages.

Mirrors

You could also use a geographically closer mirror from the following page but you might want to check how up-to-date it is: ROS/Installation/UbuntuMirrors

Get released packages earlier

After a new version of a package has been released it takes some time until it gets synced into the public repositories referenced above. This is mostly to give it some soak time and check for regressions.

If you don't want to wait for the sync but want to use the latest-and-greatest version of ROS packages (even if that might sometime get you unstable packages) you can switch to a different apt repository. You need to change the above entry to use the following URL instead:

http://packages.ros.org/ros-shadow-fixed/ubuntu

Set up your keys

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -O - | sudo apt-key add -

Installation

First, make sure your Debian package index is up-to-date:

  • sudo apt-get update

There are many different libraries and tools in ROS. We provided four default configurations to get you started. You can also install ROS packages individually.

NOTE: You may get a prompt about hddtemp when you do the install below: you can safely answer no to the prompt if you are not installing on an actual PR2.

  • Desktop-Full Install: (Recommended) : ROS, rqt, rviz, robot-generic libraries, 2D/3D simulators, navigation and 2D/3D perception

    • sudo apt-get install ros-hydro-desktop-full
      or click here

    Desktop Install: ROS, rqt, rviz, and robot-generic libraries

    • sudo apt-get install ros-hydro-desktop
      or click here

    ROS-Base: (Bare Bones) ROS package, build, and communication libraries. No GUI tools.

    • sudo apt-get install ros-hydro-ros-base
      or click here

    Individual Package: You can also install a specific ROS package (replace underscores with dashes of the package name):

    • sudo apt-get install ros-hydro-PACKAGE
      • e.g.
      sudo apt-get install ros-hydro-slam-gmapping

To find available packages, use:

apt-cache search ros-hydro

Initialize rosdep

Before you can use ROS, you will need to initialize rosdep. rosdep enables you to easily install system dependencies for source you want to compile and is required to run some core components in ROS.

sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

Environment setup

It's convenient if the ROS environment variables are automatically added to your bash session every time a new shell is launched:

echo "source /opt/ros/hydro/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc

If you have more than one ROS distribution installed, ~/.bashrc must only source the setup.bash for the version you are currently using.

If you just want to change the environment of your current shell, you can type:

source /opt/ros/hydro/setup.bash

Getting rosinstall

rosinstall is a frequently used command-line tool in ROS that is distributed separately. It enables you to easily download many source trees for ROS packages with one command.

To install this tool on Ubuntu, run:

sudo apt-get install python-rosinstall

Tutorials

Now, to test your installation, please proceed to the ROS Tutorials.


CategoryCategory

Wiki: hydro/Installation/Ubuntu (last edited 2014-03-30 07:10:11 by TullyFoote)