You're reading the documentation for an older, but still supported, version of ROS 2. For information on the latest version, please have a look at Humble.

Ubuntu (Debian)

Debian packages for ROS 2 Galactic Geochelone are currently available for Ubuntu Focal. The target platforms are defined in REP 2000

Resources

Set locale

Make sure you have a locale which supports UTF-8. If you are in a minimal environment (such as a docker container), the locale may be something minimal like POSIX. We test with the following settings. However, it should be fine if you’re using a different UTF-8 supported locale.

locale  # check for UTF-8

sudo apt update && sudo apt install locales
sudo locale-gen en_US en_US.UTF-8
sudo update-locale LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

locale  # verify settings

Setup Sources

You will need to add the ROS 2 apt repository to your system. First, make sure that the Ubuntu Universe repository is enabled by checking the output of this command.

apt-cache policy | grep universe
 500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal/universe amd64 Packages
     release v=20.04,o=Ubuntu,a=focal,n=focal,l=Ubuntu,c=universe,b=amd64

If you don’t see an output line like the one above, then enable the Universe repository with these instructions.

sudo apt install software-properties-common
sudo add-apt-repository universe

Now add the ROS 2 apt repository to your system. First authorize our GPG key with apt.

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

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 $(source /etc/os-release && echo $UBUNTU_CODENAME) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null

Install ROS 2 packages

Update your apt repository caches after setting up the repositories.

sudo apt update

ROS 2 packages are built on frequently updated Ubuntu systems. It is always recommended that you ensure your system is up to date before installing new packages.

sudo apt upgrade

Desktop Install (Recommended): ROS, RViz, demos, tutorials.

sudo apt install ros-galactic-desktop

ROS-Base Install (Bare Bones): Communication libraries, message packages, command line tools. No GUI tools.

sudo apt install ros-galactic-ros-base

Environment setup

Sourcing the setup script

Set up your environment by sourcing the following file.

source /opt/ros/galactic/setup.bash

Try some examples

If you installed ros-galactic-desktop above you can try some examples.

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

source /opt/ros/galactic/setup.bash
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

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

source /opt/ros/galactic/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 Cyclone DDS, 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

If you need to uninstall ROS 2 or switch to a source-based install once you have already installed from binaries, run the following command:

sudo apt remove ~nros-galactic-* && sudo apt autoremove

You may also want to remove the repostiory:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list
sudo apt update
sudo apt autoremove
# Consider upgrading for packages previously shadowed.
sudo apt upgrade