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

Learn how to install ros-jazzy-desktop on your PC running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS OS

Setting up a ROS2 development environment is crucial for building advanced robotics applications. This tutorial will walk you through the complete process of installing ROS2 Jazzy Desktop on a PC running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or via WSL in Windows 11 or 10. 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.

NOTE: This tutorial is based on the official ROS Jazzy Documentation here

Prerequisite

• Ensure you have the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS installed on your PC

• OR running Ubuntu 24.04 LTS via WSL in Windows 11 or 10 (or with virtual box)

Installing ROS Jazzy Desktop

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

• 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 and required repositories

  sudo apt install software-properties-common

  sudo add-apt-repository universe

  sudo apt update && sudo apt install curl -y

  export ROS_APT_SOURCE_VERSION=$(curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/ros-infrastructure/ros-apt-source/releases/latest | grep -F "tag_name" | awk -F\" '{print $4}')

  curl -L -o /tmp/ros2-apt-source.deb "https://github.com/ros-infrastructure/ros-apt-source/releases/download/${ROS_APT_SOURCE_VERSION}/ros2-apt-source_${ROS_APT_SOURCE_VERSION}.$(. /etc/os-release && echo ${UBUNTU_CODENAME:-${VERSION_CODENAME}})_all.deb"

  sudo dpkg -i /tmp/ros2-apt-source.deb

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

  sudo apt update && sudo apt install ros-dev-tools

• Install ros-jazzy-desktop

  sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

  sudo apt install ros-jazzy-desktop

• Source the ros jazzy environment with this command

  source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash

Quick Example Tests

• In your current terminal or a new terminal, source the ros-jazzy setup file and run the CPP talker example

  source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash

  ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

• In another terminal, source the ros-jazzy setup file and run the PYTHON listener example

  source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash

  ros2 run demo_nodes_py listener

You should see both communicating together. This means all is working well.

Add ROS Setup File To .bashrc For Auto Sourcing

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

Now the ros jazzy environment setup file will be automatically sourced whenever you open a new terminal.

Setting up colcon for Building ROS2 packages

colcon is a build tool required to build your ROS2 packages created in your ros workspace. You have already installed it when you ran the sudo apt install ros-dev-tools command previously. But we need to set it up for things like tab completion, etc. during builds. 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/jazzy/" >> ~/.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

Intialize and Update 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.

To learn more about rosdep check out its documentation here

Follow the instructions below to instialize and update rosdep:

sudo apt update

sudo rosdep init

rosdep update

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-jazzy-rmw-cyclonedds-cpp

export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp

echo "export RMW_IMPLEMENTATION=rmw_cyclonedds_cpp" >> ~/.bashrc

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Creating A ROS2 Workspace

---

• 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 (optional) 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 helloworld_ros2 package in the src folder

  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 nessary package 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 the c++ talker node:

  ros2 run helloworld_cpp talker

• In the other terminal, run a python listener node:

  ros2 run helloworld_py listener