Prepare the Target System#

Install Canonical Ubuntu OS#

Intel recommends a fresh installation of the Ubuntu distribution of the Linux OS for your target system, but this is not mandatory.

Install Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish) or Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numat). Your choice of OS version determines the compatible ROS distribution (Humble Hawksbill or Jazzy Jalisco, respectively).

Depending on your processor type, select one of the following Canonical Ubuntu 24.04 LTS variants:

Processor type

Canonical Ubuntu 24.04 LTS variant

Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors

Ubuntu OS version 24.04 LTS (Noble Numat) Desktop image

Other Intel® processors, including:
11th/12th/13th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors,
Intel® Processor N-series (products formerly Alder Lake-N)

24.04 LTS image for Intel IoT platforms, available at Download Ubuntu image for Intel® IoT platforms

Depending on your processor type, select one of the following Canonical Ubuntu 22.04 LTS variants:

Processor type

Canonical Ubuntu 22.04 LTS variant

Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors

Ubuntu OS version 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) Desktop image

Other Intel® processors, including:
11th/12th/13th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors,
Intel® Processor N-series (products formerly Alder Lake-N)

22.04 LTS image for Intel IoT platforms, available at Download Ubuntu image for Intel® IoT platforms

Visit the Canonical Ubuntu website to see the detailed installation instructions: Install Ubuntu desktop.

Steps to Install Canonical Ubuntu#

  1. Download the ISO file from the official website, according to the table above.

  2. Create a bootable flash drive by using an imaging application, such as Startup Disk Creator, which is available in a standard Ubuntu* desktop installation.

  3. After flashing the USB drive, turn off the target system, insert the USB drive, and power it on. If the target system does not boot from the USB drive, change the BIOS settings to prioritize booting from the USB drive.

  4. Follow the prompts for installation with default configurations.

  5. After installation, power down the system, remove the USB drive and then power up.

  6. Verify Ubuntu* is successfully installed.

Verify that the appropriate Linux kernel is installed#

Run the following command to display the installed Linux kernel:

uname -r

Depending on the processor type, the expected result is as follows:

Processor type

Expected kernel version

Intel® Core™ Ultra Processors

6.5.0-44-generic

Other Intel® processors

5.15.0-1060-intel-iotg

Install ROS 2 Distribution#

To install ROS 2 on your system, follow the ROS 2 setup guide:

https://docs.ros.org/en/jazzy/Installation.html.

https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation.html.

ROS 2 Installation Overview#

When following the ROS 2 setup with Ubuntu Deb Packages, typically the installation includes the following steps:

  1. Set up APT sources

  2. Install ROS packages using APT

  3. Environment setup

You will find the respective setup guides for supported distributions here:

https://docs.ros.org/en/jazzy/Installation/Ubuntu-Install-Debians.html#ubuntu-debian-packages

https://docs.ros.org/en/humble/Installation/Ubuntu-Install-Debians.html#ubuntu-debian-packages

Prepare your ROS 2 Environment#

In order to execute any ROS 2 command in a new shell, you first have to source the ROS 2 setup.bash and set the individual ROS_DOMAIN_ID for your ROS 2 communication graph.

source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash
export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=42

source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=42

Note: The value 42 serves just as an example. Use an individual ID for every ROS 2 node that is expected to participate in a given ROS 2 graph in order to avoid conflicts in handling messages.

Get more information about The ROS_DOMAIN_ID in:

documentation

documentation

Set up a permanent ROS 2 environment#

To simplify the handling of your system, you may add these lines to ~/.bashrc file. In this way, the required settings are executed automatically if a new shell is launched.

echo "source /opt/ros/jazzy/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=42" >> ~/.bashrc

echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
echo "export ROS_DOMAIN_ID=42" >> ~/.bashrc

Important Notes#

  • If you miss to source the ROS 2 setup bash script, you will not be able to execute any ROS 2 command.

  • If you forget to set a dedicated ROS_DOMAIN_ID, the ROS 2 command will be executed and may partially behave as expected. But you have to expect a diversity of unexpected behaviors too.

    • Ensure you use the same ROS_DOMAIN_ID for every ROS 2 node that is expected to participate in a given ROS 2 graph.

    • Ensure you use an individual ROS_DOMAIN_ID for every ROS 2 communication graph, in order to avoid conflicts in message handling.