Installing ROS 2 on RHEL

Table of Contents

System Requirements
Enable required repositories
Installing prerequisites
Downloading ROS 2
Installing and initializing rosdep
Installing the missing dependencies
- Install additional DDS implementations (optional)
Environment setup
- Sourcing the setup script
Try some examples
Next steps after installing
Additional RMW implementations (optional)
Troubleshooting
Uninstall

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

注解

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 RPM packages available.

System Requirements 

We currently support RHEL 8 64-bit.

Enable required repositories 

The rosdep database contains packages from the EPEL and PowerTools repositories, which are not enabled by default. They can be enabled by running:

sudo dnf install 'dnf-command(config-manager)' epel-release -y
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools

Installing prerequisites 

There are a few packages that must be installed in order to get and unpack the binary release.

sudo dnf install tar bzip2 wget -y

Downloading ROS 2 

Go to the releases page
Download the latest package for RHEL; let’s assume that it ends up at ~/Downloads/ros2-package-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_galactic
cd ~/ros2_galactic
tar xf ~/Downloads/ros2-package-linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

Installing and initializing rosdep 

sudo dnf install -y python3-rosdep
sudo rosdep init
rosdep update

Installing the missing dependencies 

Set your rosdistro according to the release you downloaded.

rosdep install --from-paths ~/ros2_galactic/ros2-linux/share --ignore-src -y --skip-keys "cyclonedds fastcdr fastrtps rti-connext-dds-5.3.1 urdfdom_headers pydocstyle python3-mypy python3-babeltrace python3-lttng"

Install additional DDS implementations (optional)

If you would like to use another DDS or RTPS vendor besides the default, Eclipse Cyclone DDS, you can find instructions here.

Environment setup 

Sourcing the setup script 

Set up your environment by sourcing the following file.

. ~/ros2_galactic/ros2-linux/setup.bash

Try some examples 

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

. ~/ros2_galactic/ros2-linux/setup.bash
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

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

. ~/ros2_galactic/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.

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 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 Galactic install on your system.
If you’re also trying to free up space, you can delete the entire workspace directory with:
```
rm -rf ~/ros2_galactic
```