Setup notes for NVIDIA Jetson TX2 with ROS 2

Note: These are currently rather my personal notes on setting up an NVIDIA Jetson TX2 from scratch.

Setup

Set custom hostname

Note! Before changing hostname in Settings > About, ensure that /etc/hosts contains the entry 127.0.1.1 some-new-hostname. Otherwise, a lot of commands will stop working (incl. sudo).

ensure /etc/hosts contains the entry with the new hostname
- type sudo nano /etc/hosts
- add 127.0.1.1 tx2-ros2
- save and exit (Ctrl-O Ctrl-X)
change hostname to tx2-ros2 in Settings > About
sudo reboot

Setup SSH connection from your local machine

add the following Host specific config to ~/.ssh/config (with useful settings)

# NVIDIA Jetson TX2
Host tx2-ros2
    User nvidia
    # no need to define IP address here
    # as tx2-ros2 is defined in /etc/hosts
    # BUT when there is no internet access tx2-ros2 in /etc/hosts does not work for ssh
    HostName 192.168.1.42
    AddKeysToAgent yes
    UseKeychain yes
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/tx2-ros2
    ForwardAgent yes
    # DISPLAY=:1 is for running GUI on the remote display
    # for mutplie env vars use
    # SetEnv ENV1=val1 ENV2=val2 ENV3=val3 ...
    SetEnv DISPLAY=:1 POWERLINE_UPDATE_TERMINAL_CWD=1

generate a new SSH key

ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096 -C "nvidia@tx2-ros2"

transfer the key to the remote machine (will prompt for the login password)
```
ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/tx2-ros2.pub tx2-ros2
```

Install HSTR

HSTR is great replacement for standard Bash Ctrl-R reverse search feature.

Install from sources (as there are currently no builds for ARMv8):

# install missing needed dependencies
sudo apt install libncursesw5-dev libreadline-dev

# hstr
cd ~/code
git clone https://github.com/dvorka/hstr.git
cd hstr
cd ./build/tarball && ./tarball-automake.sh && cd ../..
./configure && make
sudo make install

No-need for configuration now. It will be done in the next steps. Read below.

Install tmux

tmux is a great terminal multiplexer.

Install from sources (as the builds for ARMv8 are outdated):

# install missing needed dependencies
sudo apt install libevent-dev libncurses5-dev

# tmux
cd ~/code
git clone https://github.com/tmux/tmux.git
cd tmux
git checkout 3.3a
sh autogen.sh
./configure && make
sudo make install

No-need for configuration now. It will be done in the next steps. Read below.

htop

htop is an interactive process viewer.

Install from sources (as the builds for ARMv8 are outdated):

# htop README states: Running htop requires ncurses libraries (typically named libncursesw*).
# install missing needed dependencies
sudo apt install libncursesw5-dev

# htop
cd ~/code
git clone https://github.com/htop-dev/htop.git
cd htop
git checkout 3.2.1
./autogen.sh && ./configure && make
sudo make install

# TODO: missing bins: lsof, strace
# TODO: consider https://packages.debian.org/sid/libsensors-dev

No-need for configuration now. It will be done in the next steps. Read below.

Install jetson-stats

jetson-stats is a package for monitoring and control your NVIDIA Jetson [Xavier NX, Nano, AGX Xavier, TX1, TX2]. Works with all NVIDIA Jetson ecosystem.

sudo -H python3 -m pip install -U jetson-stats

See [jetson-stats Wiki] to learn more about all its features.

jetson-stats install a service jetson_stats.service which run automatically in background upon system startup (4 processes in total). It can be controlled via systemctl. To see current status, use:

sudo systemctl status jetson_stats.service

Install other useful utils

sudo apt install nano

Upgrade CMake

Ubuntu 18 ships CMake 3.10. However, during the ROS 2 build, at least one package (foonathan_memory_vendor) requires CMake 3.11. So we install the latest CMake from the Kitware APT repository:

# 1. uninstall the default version shipped from Ubuntu repos
sudo apt remove --purge --auto-remove cmake
# 2. obtain a copy of Kitware's signing key
wget -O - https://apt.kitware.com/keys/kitware-archive-latest.asc 2>/dev/null | gpg --dearmor - | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/kitware-archive-keyring.gpg >/dev/null
# 3. add the repository to the sources list and update
echo 'deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/kitware-archive-keyring.gpg] https://apt.kitware.com/ubuntu/ bionic main' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/kitware.list >/dev/null
sudo apt-get update
# 4. install the kitware-archive-keyring package to ensure that the keyring stays up to date as Kitware rotate their keys
sudo rm /usr/share/keyrings/kitware-archive-keyring.gpg
sudo apt-get install kitware-archive-keyring
# 5. install the latest CMake from the Kitware APT repository
sudo apt-get install cmake
# 6. verify the version (cmake version 3.21.3 is the latest as of November 15, 2021)
cmake --version

Useful info:

Kitware APT repository usage guide
StackOverflow: How do I install the latest version of cmake from the command line?

Install ROS 2

ROS 2 Galactic targets Ubuntu Focal Fossa (20.04) and prebuilt binaries are available only for Ubuntu 20.04.

JetPack 4.x is based on Ubuntu Bionic Beaver 18.04. According to the official NVIDIA Jetson Roadmap, JetPack 5.x (which is scheduled as Developer Preview for Q1 2022) will be based on Ubuntu 20.

As there are currently no ROS 2 Galactic binaries for Ubuntu 18, we have to build ROS 2 Galactic from sources (and maybe face some minor incompatibility issues) or we can run ROS 2 Galactic in Docker containers.

Resources:

Building ROS 2 Galactic on Ubuntu Linux (official ROS 2 Galactic docs)
ROS 2 Galactic base Docker image for L4T: Dockerfile.ros.galactic from dusty-nv/jetson-containers

Building ROS 2 from sources

# Add ROS 2 apt repository
# see https://docs.ros.org/en/galactic/Installation/Ubuntu-Development-Setup.html#add-the-ros-2-apt-repository
sudo apt install curl gnupg2
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 $(lsb_release -cs) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update

# Install development tools and ROS tools
# see https://docs.ros.org/en/galactic/Installation/Ubuntu-Development-Setup.html#install-development-tools-and-ros-tools
# see https://github.com/dusty-nv/jetson-containers/blob/master/Dockerfile.ros.galactic#L44
sudo apt install \
	build-essential \
	cmake \
	git \
	libbullet-dev \
	libpython3-dev \
	python3-colcon-common-extensions \
	python3-flake8 \
	python3-pip \
	python3-pytest-cov \
	python3-rosdep \
	python3-setuptools \
	python3-vcstool \
	python3-rosinstall-generator \
	libasio-dev \
	libtinyxml2-dev \
	libcunit1-dev
python3 -m pip install -U \
	argcomplete \
	flake8-blind-except \
	flake8-builtins \
	flake8-class-newline \
	flake8-comprehensions \
	flake8-deprecated \
	flake8-docstrings \
	flake8-import-order \
	flake8-quotes \
	pytest-repeat \
	pytest-rerunfailures \
	pytest

# Get ROS 2 code
# see https://docs.ros.org/en/galactic/Installation/Ubuntu-Development-Setup.html#get-ros-2-code
# see also https://github.com/dusty-nv/jetson-containers/blob/master/Dockerfile.ros.galactic#L78
mkdir -p ~/ros/galactic/src
cd ~/ros/galactic
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros2/ros2/galactic/ros2.repos
vcs import src < ros2.repos

# Install dependencies using rosdep
# see https://docs.ros.org/en/galactic/Installation/Ubuntu-Development-Setup.html#install-dependencies-using-rosdep
# see https://github.com/dusty-nv/jetson-containers/blob/master/Dockerfile.ros.galactic#L96
sudo rosdep init
rosdep update
rosdep install -y \
	--ignore-src \
	--from-paths src \
	--rosdistro galactic \
	--skip-keys "fastcdr rti-connext-dds-5.3.1 urdfdom_headers"

# Build the code in the workspace
# see https://docs.ros.org/en/galactic/Installation/Ubuntu-Development-Setup.html#build-the-code-in-the-workspace
# see https://github.com/dusty-nv/jetson-containers/blob/master/Dockerfile.ros.galactic#L152
colcon build --merge-install

Copy my custom scripts and configs

It copies and configures:

rh.sh – a simple helper to make working with ROS easier
(TODO: fix add link once published) pokusew-bash-powerline.sh
~/.bashrc (fully setup ROS, rh, HSTR and more)
~/.tmux.conf
/etc/ssh/sshd_config (only when upload.sh --all option is used, see below)
see contents of upload.sh script for more info

Run in the root of this project (ros-setup) on your local machine:

./scripts/upload.sh nvidia-jetson-tx2 tx2-ros2 --all

You will be prompted to enter your sudo password on the remote machine (only if using --all option that attempts to change /etc/ssh/sshd_config).

Then, restart SSH service on the remote machine (so the /etc/ssh/sshd_config takes effect):

ssh tx2-ros2 "sudo -S systemctl restart ssh"

Add udev rules for USB devices

See UDEV.

Configure the network

See NETWORK.

Create a bootable SD card

See these notes.

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SETUP.md

SETUP.md

Setup notes for NVIDIA Jetson TX2 with ROS 2

Setup

Set custom hostname

Setup SSH connection from your local machine

Install HSTR

Install tmux

htop

Install jetson-stats

Install other useful utils

Upgrade CMake

Install ROS 2

Building ROS 2 from sources

Copy my custom scripts and configs

Add udev rules for USB devices

Configure the network

Create a bootable SD card

Files

SETUP.md

Latest commit

History

SETUP.md

File metadata and controls

Setup notes for NVIDIA Jetson TX2 with ROS 2

Setup

Set custom hostname

Setup SSH connection from your local machine

Install HSTR

Install tmux

htop

Install jetson-stats

Install other useful utils

Upgrade CMake

Install ROS 2

Building ROS 2 from sources

Copy my custom scripts and configs

Add udev rules for USB devices

Configure the network

Create a bootable SD card