How To Install ROS2 Humble Desktop On PC (FULL INSTALL)

Learn how to install ros-humble-desktop on your PC running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS OS

Setting up a ROS development environment is crucial for building advanced robotics applications. In this tutorial will walk you through the complete process of installing ROS2 Humble Desktop on a PC running Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. From the initial setup to configuring essential development tools, you'll have everything you need to prototype, simulate, and deploy robotics solutions. Whether you're a robotics maker, student, or engineer, this guide will get your PC fully equipped for powerful robotics development with ROS2.

Prerequisite

• Ensure you have the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS installed on your PC (it could be with virtual box also)

Installing ROS Humble Desktop

Follow the instructions (step by step) to install ros-humble-desktop on your PC.

This tutorial follows the official ROS humble installation documentation which can be found here

• Set 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

  sudo apt install software-properties-common
  sudo add-apt-repository universe
  
  sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl -y
  sudo curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg
  echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $(. /etc/os-release && echo $UBUNTU_CODENAME) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null

• Install ros humble desktop

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt upgrade
  
  sudo apt install ros-humble-desktop

• Install all the necessary ROS2 development tools - rosdep, colcon, vcs-tool, etc.

  sudo apt install ros-dev-tools

• Next, add the following command to the .bashrcfile to enable automatic sourcing of the ros humble environment and installed whenever you open a new terminal.

  source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
  echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc

Setting up colcon for Building ROS2 packages

colcon is a build tool required to build your ROS2 packages created in your ros workspace. It was already installed when you ran the sudo apt install ros-dev-tools command prevoiusly. but you can also install it using sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions But we need to set it up for things like tab completion. Run the following command in your terminal.

• Setup colcon_cd

  echo "source /usr/share/colcon_cd/function/colcon_cd.sh" >> ~/.bashrc
  echo "export _colcon_cd_root=/opt/ros/humble/" >> ~/.bashrc

• Setup colcon tab completion

  echo "source /usr/share/colcon_argcomplete/hook/colcon-argcomplete.bash" >> ~/.bashrc

With all the above added to the .bashrc file, the colcon environment and functions will be automatically activated whenever you open a new terminal as well as automatic sourcing of the ros-humble environment.

To learn more about colcon check the link to its documentation here

you should see the following highlighted text (in the image below) at the bottom of your .bashrc file. Run this command: sudo nano ~/.bashrc

Intializing rosdep

rosdep is a dependency management utility that can work with packages and external libraries. It is a command line utility for identifying and installing dependencies to build or install a package.

It is most often invoked before before building a package with colcon. It will basiclally download and installing the necessary dependencies a specified in the package.xmlfile so you don't have to manually install each dependencies again.

rosdep was already installed when you ran the sudo apt install ros-dev-tools command previously. but you can also install it using sudo apt install python3-rosdep

To learn more about rosdep check out its documentation here

Follow the instructions below to instialize rosdep:

sudo apt update

sudo rosdep init #NOTE:this might give an error, do not worry, just continue
rosdep update

Install setuptools For Building ROS2 Python Packages

sudo apt install python3-pip

pip3 install setuptools==58.2.0

Creating A ROS2 Workspace

In the root folder of your PC (i.e the home directory)

• In the root folder of your PC (i.e the home directory), create a ros workspace folder. I would be using this workspace name - ros-ws.

  mkdir -p ~/ros-ws/src

• change directory into the root ros workspace folder

  cd ~/ros-ws

• build the ros workspace initially with colcon (while still in the root workspace folder)

  colcon build

  you should now see three other folders - build, install, and log - apart from the src folder already created earlier. Run ls to see them in terminal

• Let's setup automatic sourcing for the created workspace - ros-ws- in the .bashrc file so that it is automatically sourced whenever you open a new terminal. Run this in terminal:

  echo "source ~/ros-ws/install/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc

Test with helloworld package

• Open a new terminal (to auto source your ros2 environment and workspace) and cd into your ros workspace's src folder

  cd ~/ros-ws/src

• Clone this ros2 helloworld cpp and python package

  git clone https://github.com/samuko-things/helloworld_ros2.git

• Change directory into the root ros workspace folder

  cd ~/ros-ws

• Optionally, run rosdep to install the packge dependencies specified in the package's package.xmlfile

  rosdep install -i --from-path src --rosdistro humble -y

• Build the package with colcon

  colcon build --symlink-install

• Open two seperate terminals. In one of the terminals, run a c++ node:

  ros2 run helloworld_ros2 talker

• In the other terminal, run a python node:

  ros2 run helloworld_ros2 listener.py

Optional (Install Cyclone DDS)

If you would be using ROS2 for navigation and some other high speed data transfer, install and use the Cyclone DDS in place of the default Fast DDS.

sudo apt install ros-humble-rmw-cyclonedds-cpp
export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp
echo "export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp" >> ~/.bashrc