Developer Setup

Developer Setup for IRIS

Update: Download our dropbox vm with everything pre-installed if you want to skip most of these steps

Installing Linux

• Option 1(simplest): Use Virtualbox or VMWare
  • Download VM Software for your OS:
    • VMWare (Recommended)
    • Oracle VM VirtualBox
  • Install with default settings
    • Use atleast 20gb
  • Download the Ubuntu 20.04 ISO
  • Create a new virtual machine with 64-bit Ubuntu Linux
• Option 2(tricky): Dual boot into Ubuntu

Installing required software

• ROS2 Galactic for Ubuntu: Install ROS 2 via Debian Packages

• git, a version control system: Install Git

  • Use a Personal Access Token(PAT) for Authorization
    • git config --global credential.helper cache
    • Go to Github->Settings->Developer Settings->Personal Access Tokens
    • When you git push/clone/pull on private repo, type in your github username then paste your PAT for the paswword
  • OR Create and add SSH Key

• colcon, the ROS2 build tool: sudo apt install python3-colcon-common-extensions

• rosdep, the ROS dependency management tool:

  • Install: sudo apt-get install python3-rosdep
  • Initialize with: sudo rosdep init && rosdep update

• (Optional) VSCode

  • Download .deb file
  • Double click on the downloaded file and select install from the ubuntu software pop up window
  • Typing code . in the terminal will open vscode in your current folder directory

Environment Setup

• ~/.bashrc Updates so you don't have to source setup files each time
  • Adding setup script for apt-installed ROS packages:
    echo 'source /opt/ros/galactic/setup.bash' >> ~/.bashrc
  • Adding setup script for custom ROS packages in your colcon workspace:
    echo 'source ~/colcon_ws/install/setup.bash' >> ~/.bashrc
    Note: You will still have to source the install/setup.bash script each time you build to ensure the package is updated
  • Making it easier to colcon build and source ./install/setup.bash with a custom bash function

    function build() {
    if [ $# == 0 ]; then
      echo "colcon build"
      colcon build
    else 
       echo "colcon build --packages-select" $@
      colcon build --packages-select $@
    fi
    echo "Sourcing install/setup.bash"
    source ./install/setup.bash
    }
    

    • Usage when inside a colcon workspace
      • build → colcon build
      • build <pkg_names> → colcon build --packages_select <pkg_names>