ROS2 Humble Development Container

Preface

ROS2 Humble Development Container. Unfortunately poor performance on macOS and Windows(AMD Graphics Card) due to hardware acceleration being unsupported.

Table of Contents TOC

• Preface
• Linux
  • Setup your shell
  • Running the container
• MacOS
  • Setup your shell
  • Running the containers
• Windows
  • Setup your shell
  • Running the containers
• Setting up VSCode (Optional)

Linux

Setup your shell

1. Find out what shell you are using by running the command echo $SHELL.
2. It will be either bash or zsh.
   1. If you are running bash add the next code block to ~/.bashrc
   2. If you are running zsh add the the next code block to ~/.zshrc
3. Clone this repository to your computer and add the full path to the location you cloned this repository and replacing the placeholder <STEP-3>.

export ROS2_DOCKER_ENV=<STEP-3>

ros_start() {
    export ROS_PROJECT_PATH=$(pwd)
    pushd $ROS2_DOCKER_ENV && docker compose -f docker-compose.linux.yml up -d --build && popd
}

ros_stop() {
    pushd $ROS2_DOCKER_ENV && docker compose down && popd
}

ros_shell() {
    echo "Launching ROS Shell, type 'exit' to exit the shell once you are done."
    docker exec -it ros2 /bin/zsh
}

[!INFO] You need to restart your shell to load the changes. (or just source it)

Running the container

You can type in ros_start to start the docker containers with the current directory being mounted into docker.

Type ros_shell in the current terminal to enter your ros environment. You can keep spawing new terminals and entering ros_shell to have multiple shells.

Important

You will need to run xhost + in your shell to allow the docker container to open windows in your environment. You can add this to your .bashrc / .zshrc or run it everytime you run ros_start.

If you are on wayland, make sure you have xwayland support and the xorg.xhost package installed.

When you are finished, type ros_stop to shutdown the containers.

MacOS

Docker Desktop doesn't support GPU acceleration on macOS :(

Setup your shell

1. Find out what shell you are using by running the command echo $SHELL.
2. It will be either bash or zsh.
   1. If you are running bash add the next code block to ~/.bashrc
   2. If you are running zsh add the the next code block to ~/.zshrc
3. Clone this repository to your computer and add the full path to the location you cloned this repository and replacing the placeholder <STEP-3>.

export ROS2_DOCKER_ENV=<STEP-3>

ros_start() {
    export ROS_PROJECT_PATH=$(pwd)
    pushd $ROS2_DOCKER_ENV && docker compose up -d --build && popd
}

ros_stop() {
    pushd $ROS2_DOCKER_ENV && docker compose down && popd
}

ros_shell() {
    echo "Launching ROS Shell, type 'exit' to exit the shell once you are done."
    docker exec -it ros2 /bin/zsh
}

Now restart your shell.

Running the containers

You can type in ros_start to start the docker containers with the current directory being mounted into docker.

Type ros_shell in the current terminal to enter your ros environment. You can keep spawing new terminals and entering ros_shell to have multiple shells.

Important

Any GUI window opened will have to be viewed using the noVNC viewer at http://localhost:8080/vnc.html

For a better VNC experience, in the settings toolbox, set the scaling mode to local.

When you are finished, type ros_stop to shutdown the containers.

Windows

Note

Docker Desktop doesn't support GPU acceleration properly.

The instructions here are a bit unclear at the moment due to not being able to test it on everysinglde different type of hardware.

Setup your shell

1. First clone this repository onto your computer to a location of your choice
2. Please update the windows.ps1 file in the download to have the the location to where you cloned the repository for ROS2_DOCKER_ENV
3. OPTIONAL: In windows.ps1, make sure the correct docker-compose file name is used in ROS2_DOCKER_COMPOSE_START_COMMAND if you have Intel or Nvidia graphics
4. Import the file using . .\windows.ps1. Then run ROS2 to see the command list

Warning

Intel and Nvidia variants of the windows docker-compose files are not tested. Please open an issue if you run into any errors.

Running the containers

Always make sure to import the windows.ps1 file (Step 4 from Setup your shell) before running any of the commands below.

1. Run ROS2 - if you get a list of ROS2 commands, you've imported the file correctly.
2. Start-ROS2: Run this command in your ROS2 project/workspace directory. It will be the folder you can edit from within the container
3. Enter-ROS2: Run this command to open the shell in the running ROS2 container
4. Stop-ROS2: Run this command to stop the ROS2 containers

Important

Any GUI window opened will have to be viewed using the noVNC viewer at http://localhost:8080/vnc.html

For a better VNC experience, in the settings toolbox, set the scaling mode to local.

Setting up VSCode (Optional)

This is optional since the only ability it grants is you is to open docker container terminals in an easier manner.

You can just write your code in your preferred code editor directly from your ros2 workspace, but if you work with VSCode you can install the Dev Containers extension to connect to the ros2 docker container, so you can open terminals directly from vscode without having to run ros_shell (or its equivalent for windows).