Installing ROS 2 via RPM Packages
Table of Contents
RPM packages for ROS 2 Galactic Geochelone are currently available for RHEL 8. The target platforms are defined in REP 2000
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 C.
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 dnf install langpacks-en glibc-langpack-en
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
locale # verify settings
Setup Sources
You will need to enable the EPEL repositories and the PowerTools repository:
sudo dnf install 'dnf-command(config-manager)' epel-release -y
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled powertools
Next, download the ROS 2 .repo file:
sudo dnf install curl
sudo curl --output /etc/yum.repos.d/ros2.repo http://packages.ros.org/ros2/rhel/ros2.repo
Then, update your metadata cache.
DNF may prompt you to verify the GPG key, which should match the location https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc.
sudo dnf makecache
Install ROS 2 packages
Desktop Install (Recommended): ROS, RViz, demos, tutorials.
sudo dnf install ros-galactic-desktop
ROS-Base Install (Bare Bones): Communication libraries, message packages, command line tools. No GUI tools.
sudo dnf 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.
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.