Installation#

ROS2 installation#

This script does the main installation of ROS2 Foxy Fitzroy. For more details, see the official installation doc.

# set up sources
sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl gnupg2 lsb-release
curl -s https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc | sudo apt-key add -
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2-latest.list'

# install ros package
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ros-foxy-desktop
sudo apt install ros-foxy-ros-base

# source the environment
source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.zsh
echo "source /opt/ros/foxy/setup.zsh" >> ~/.zshrc

# autocompletion tool
sudo apt install -y python3-pip
pip3 install -U argcomplete

# install rosdep
sudo apt install -y python3-rosdep
sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

# install colcon
sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions

# tests : run in two consoles
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp listener

ROS2 workspace#

This section describes how to create the workspace where your code will be. For more details, see the official doc.

source ROS2 environment (if not already done when the terminal is launched).

create the workspace and source folders :

mkdir -p ~/ros_workspace/src
cd ~/ros_workspace/src

clone a tutorial repo :

git clone https://github.com/ros/ros_tutorials.git -b foxy-devel

make sure all dependencies are fine (make sure to run it from the workspace folder) :
```
cd ~/ros_workspace
rosdep install -i --from-path src --rosdistro foxy -y
```
build the repo (make sure to run it from the workspace folder)
```
colcon run
```

ROS2 : building and navigating from underlay to overlay#

While I still haven’t figured everything out of this concept (I’ll come back to that later…), here is a procedure to follow and you won’t have too much problem with that concept. But if you start to do it on your own, especially using the same terminal for building and running, well, I’ll just say this sentence from one of my teacher :

> tu vas te faire manger comme le diable…

So here are some tricks :

sourcing the underlay means sourcing the source opt/ros/foxy/setup.zsh
sourcing the overlay means . install/local_setup.zsh

Editing and building existing packages#

Usually, try to have these two tabs when it comes to editing and building an existing package :

build tab : only the underlay is sourced, currently in ~/ros_workspace, make use only of building commands, such as colcon build
run tab : both the underlay and overlay are sourced, currently wherever you want, make use of run commands, such as ros2 run <my_package> <my_node>

Warning

DO NEVER run a build command from the run tab, or a run command from the build tab.

Trust me, I tried, and this did not work. I had to delete my whole workspace and start a new one from scratch… So unless you totally master this underlay - overlay thing, just don’t ;-)

For more details, see the official doc for creating the workspace and building a node.

Creating a new package#

You can do that from the build tab.

Create the package with ros2 pkg create --build-type ament_cmake --node-name my_node my_package.
Build it from the build tab
Open a new tab, source the underlay as usual, but this time source the overlay like this : . install/setup.zsh
Run your node from the new tab.

For more details, see the official doc for creating a new package.

ROS2 Installation