ROS 2 Setup Guide

An exhaustive guide for installing a ROS 2 development environment

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ROS 2 inside dev Container

Table of Contents

This package will get you set up using ROS 2 with VSCode as your IDE.

Prerequisites

  • Ubuntu 22.04 (installed previously)
  • Docker (installed previously)
  • Visual Studio Code (installed previously)
  • Remote - Containers extension (installed previously)
  • Nvidia container toolkit (optionally installed previously)

1. Setup VSCode ROS 2 Workspace Template

Open VSCode and go to the Remote Explorer tab. Then, connect to Ubuntu 22.04 clicking on the arrow.

open_wsl_remote

If you have an Nvidia GPU, and Nvidia Docker skip the next steps and go to 1.2

1.1 Setup template for ROS 2 (No Nvidia GPU)

1.1.1 Clone the repository

Open a terminal inside VSCode and clone the following repository to your local machine:


cd ~ # Navigate to your home directory (or any other directory of your choice)
## Clone the repository to your local machine (humble branch)
git clone https://github.com/SESASR-Course/vscode_ros2_workspace.git -b humble

1.1.2 Modify the devcontainer.json

Usually using this package the GUI won’t show up because the DISPLAY environment variable is not set properly.

In your WSL2 Ubuntu instance

echo $DISPLAY

the output should be something like this:

:0

Open the vscode_ros2_workspace/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json in the repository and modify the following lines:

"containerEnv": {
    // "DISPLAY": "${localEnv:DISPLAY}", // Needed for GUI try ":0" for windows
    "DISPLAY": ":0", // <-- Paste the value here
   }

1.1.3 Modify the Dockerfile

Open the vscode_ros2_workspace/.devcontainer/Dockerfile in the repository and modify the first line:

FROM althack/ros2:humble-devel

into :

FROM althack/ros2:humble-gazebo

This will install ROS 2 with Gazebo and other dependencies.

After this step and go to 2. Open the workspace in VSCode using Dev Containers

1.2 Setup the template for ROS 2 (Nvidia GPU)

Clone the following repository to your local machine:


cd ~ # Navigate to your home directory (or any other directory of your choice)
## Clone the repository to your local machine (humble-nvidia branch)
git clone https://github.com/SESASR-Course/vscode_ros2_workspace.git -b humble-nvidia

1.2.2 Modify the devcontainer.json

Usually using this package the GUI won’t show up because the DISPLAY environment variable is not set properly.

In your WSL2 Ubuntu instance

echo $DISPLAY

the output should be something like this:

:0

Open the vscode_ros2_workspace/.devcontainer/devcontainer.json in the repository and modify the following lines:

"containerEnv": {
    // "DISPLAY": "${localEnv:DISPLAY}", // Needed for GUI try ":0" for windows
    "DISPLAY": ":0", // <-- Paste the value here
   }

1.2.3 Modify the Dockerfile

Open the vscode_ros2_workspace/.devcontainer/Dockerfile in the repository and modify the first line:

FROM althack/ros2:humble-cuda-dev

into :

FROM althack/ros2:humble-cuda-gazebo-nvidia

This will install ROS 2 with Gazebo and other dependencies.

2. Open the workspace in VSCode using Dev Containers

Open the vscode_ros2_workspace folder in VSCode (File -> Open Folder).

The first time you open the folder in VSCode, you will be prompted to reopen the folder in a container.

reopen_in_container

Click on Reopen in Container to open the folder in a container.

If you don’t see the pop-up, click on the little green square in the bottom left corner, which should bring up the container dialog

template_vscode_bottom

In the dialog, select “Remote Containers: Reopen in container” or press Ctrl + Shift + P and type “Remote Containers: Reopen in container”

VSCode will build the dockerfile inside of .devcontainer for you. If you open a terminal inside VSCode (Terminal->New Terminal), you should see that your username has been changed to ros, and the bottom left green corner should say “Dev Container” it may take a few minutes to build the first time.

template_container

Congratulations! You are now running ROS 2 inside a container!

2.1. Verify ROS 2 installation

To verify the installation, open a terminal inside VSCode (Terminal->New Terminal) and run the following command:

ros2 topic list

You should see the following output:

/parameter_events
/rosout