Installing ROS 2 via Debian Packages
Table of Contents
Debian packages for ROS 2 Galactic Geochelone are currently available for Ubuntu Focal. 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 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
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.