5.1.3. RHEL (RPM packages)¶

Table of Contents

Resources
System setup
Install ROS 2
- Install additional RMW implementations (optional)
Setup environment
Try some examples
Next steps after installing
Troubleshoot
Uninstall

RPM packages for ROS 2 Iron Irwini are currently available for RHEL 9. The Rolling Ridley distribution will change target platforms from time to time as new platforms are selected for development. The target platforms are defined in REP 2000 Most people will want to use a stable ROS distribution.

5.1.3.1. Resources ¶

Status Page:
- ROS 2 Iron (RHEL 9): amd64
Jenkins Instance
Repositories

5.1.3.2. System setup ¶

5.1.3.2.1. Set locale ¶

Make sure you have a locale which supports UTF-8. If you are in a minimal environment (such as a docker container), the locale may be something minimal like C. We test with the following settings. However, it should be fine if you’re using a different UTF-8 supported locale.

locale  # check for UTF-8

sudo dnf install langpacks-en glibc-langpack-en
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

locale  # verify settings

5.1.3.2.2. Enable required repositories ¶

You will need to enable the EPEL repositories and the PowerTools repository:

sudo dnf install 'dnf-command(config-manager)' epel-release -y
sudo dnf config-manager --set-enabled crb

Note

This step may be slightly different depending on the distribution you are using. Check the EPEL documentation: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/epel/#_quickstart

Next, download the ROS 2 .repo file:

sudo dnf install curl
sudo curl --output /etc/yum.repos.d/ros2.repo http://packages.ros.org/ros2/rhel/ros2.repo

Then, update your metadata cache. DNF may prompt you to verify the GPG key, which should match the location https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.asc.

sudo dnf makecache

5.1.3.2.3. Install development tools (optional)¶

If you are going to build ROS packages or otherwise do development, you can also install the development tools:

sudo dnf install -y \
  cmake \
  gcc-c++ \
  git \
  make \
  patch \
  python3-colcon-common-extensions \
  python3-flake8-builtins \
  python3-flake8-comprehensions \
  python3-flake8-docstrings \
  python3-flake8-import-order \
  python3-flake8-quotes \
  python3-mypy \
  python3-pip \
  python3-pydocstyle \
  python3-pytest \
  python3-pytest-repeat \
  python3-pytest-rerunfailures \
  python3-rosdep \
  python3-setuptools \
  python3-vcstool \
  wget

# install some pip packages needed for testing and
# not available as RPMs
python3 -m pip install -U --user \
  flake8-blind-except==0.1.1 \
  flake8-class-newline \
  flake8-deprecated

5.1.3.3. Install ROS 2 ¶

ROS 2 packages are built on frequently updated RHEL systems. It is always recommended that you ensure your system is up to date before installing new packages.

sudo dnf update

Desktop Install (Recommended): ROS, RViz, demos, tutorials.

sudo dnf install ros-iron-desktop

ROS-Base Install (Bare Bones): Communication libraries, message packages, command line tools. No GUI tools.

sudo dnf install ros-iron-ros-base

5.1.3.3.1. Install additional RMW implementations (optional)¶

The default middleware that ROS 2 uses is Fast DDS, but the middleware (RMW) can be replaced at runtime. See the guide on how to work with multiple RMWs.

5.1.3.4. Setup environment ¶

Set up your environment by sourcing the following file.

# Replace ".bash" with your shell if you're not using bash
# Possible values are: setup.bash, setup.sh, setup.zsh
source /opt/ros/iron/setup.bash

5.1.3.5. Try some examples ¶

If you installed ros-iron-desktop above you can try some examples.

In one terminal, source the setup file and then run a C++ talker:

source /opt/ros/iron/setup.bash
ros2 run demo_nodes_cpp talker

In another terminal source the setup file and then run a Python listener:

source /opt/ros/iron/setup.bash
ros2 run demo_nodes_py listener

You should see the talker saying that it’s Publishing messages and the listener saying I heard those messages. This verifies both the C++ and Python APIs are working properly. Hooray!

sudo dnf remove ros-iron-*