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Installing ROS 2 on Ubuntu Linux

This page explains how to install ROS 2 on Ubuntu Linux from a pre-built binary package.

Note

The pre-built binary does not include all ROS 2 packages. All packages in the ROS base variant are included, and only a subset of packages in the ROS desktop variant are included. The exact list of packages are described by the repositories listed in this ros2.repos file.

There are also Debian packages available.

System Requirements

We support Ubuntu Linux Bionic Beaver (18.04) and Ubuntu Xenial Xerus (16.04) on 64-bit x86 and 64-bit ARM.

Note: Ardent and beta versions supported Ubuntu Xenial Xerus 16.04.

Add the ROS 2 apt repository

You will need to add the ROS 2 apt repositories to your system. To do so, first authorize our GPG key with apt like this:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl gnupg2 lsb-release
sudo curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key  -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg

And then add the repository to your sources list:

echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null

Downloading ROS 2

  • Go to the releases page

  • Download the latest package for Ubuntu; let’s assume that it ends up at ~/Downloads/ros2-dashing-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2.

    • Note: there may be more than one binary download option which might cause the file name to differ.

  • Unpack it:

    mkdir -p ~/ros2_dashing
cd ~/ros2_dashing
tar xf ~/Downloads/ros2-dashing-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

Installing and initializing rosdep

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y python-rosdep
sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

Installing the missing dependencies

Set your rosdistro according to the release you downloaded.

rosdep install --from-paths ~/ros2_dashing/ros2-linux/share --ignore-src --rosdistro dashing -y --skip-keys "console_bridge fastcdr fastrtps libopensplice67 libopensplice69 osrf_testing_tools_cpp poco_vendor rmw_connext_cpp rosidl_typesupport_connext_c rosidl_typesupport_connext_cpp rti-connext-dds-5.3.1 tinyxml_vendor tinyxml2_vendor urdfdom urdfdom_headers"

  1. Optional: if you want to use the ROS 1<->2 bridge, then you must also install ROS 1. Follow the normal install instructions: https://wiki.ros.org/melodic/Installation/Ubuntu

Installing the python3 libraries

sudo apt install -y libpython3-dev python3-pip
pip3 install -U argcomplete

Install additional DDS implementations (optional)

If you would like to use another DDS or RTPS vendor besides the default, eProsima’s Fast RTPS, you can find instructions here.

Environment setup

Sourcing the setup script

Set up your environment by sourcing the following file.

. ~/ros2_dashing/ros2-linux/setup.bash

Try some examples

In one terminal, source the setup file and then run a C++ talker:

. ~/ros2_dashing/ros2-linux/setup.bash
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

In another terminal source the setup file and then run a Python listener:

. ~/ros2_dashing/ros2-linux/setup.bash
ros2 run demo_nodes_py listener

You should see the talker saying that it’s Publishing messages and the listener saying I heard those messages. This verifies both the C++ and Python APIs are working properly. Hooray!

Next steps after installing

Continue with the tutorials and demos to configure your environment, create your own workspace and packages, and learn ROS 2 core concepts.

Using the ROS 1 bridge

The ROS 1 bridge can connect topics from ROS 1 to ROS 2 and vice-versa. See the dedicated documentation on how to build and use the ROS 1 bridge.

Additional RMW implementations (optional)

The default middleware that ROS 2 uses is Fast-RTPS, but the middleware (RMW) can be replaced at runtime. See the guide on how to work with multiple RMWs.

Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting techniques can be found here.

Uninstall

  1. If you installed your workspace with colcon as instructed above, “uninstalling” could be just a matter of opening a new terminal and not sourcing the workspace’s setup file. This way, your environment will behave as though there is no Dashing install on your system.

  2. If you’re also trying to free up space, you can delete the entire workspace directory with:

    rm -rf ~/ros2_dashing