Arch Linux Installation Instructions

Contents

Arch Linux Installation Instructions
1. SVN Based Install (download-and-compile)
2. Tutorials

SVN Based Install (download-and-compile)

Setup

sudo pacman -S cmake wget mercurial subversion git python2-distribute python2-yaml python-distribute python-yaml

For the next step, you might need to use something like "easy_install-2.7" instead of just "easy_install"

Running "find /usr/bin -name easy_install*" will show you a list of installed versions of easy-install.

Workaround Install

At this time (20 Feb 2012) ros has not integrated community supplied patches to make the ros installer work with archlinux. Useful links:

https://code.ros.org/trac/ros/ticket/3700

https://github.com/lubosz/rosstacks/commits/arch_support

The following sequence of bash commands worked for me.

sudo easy_install-2.7 -U rosinstall
rosinstall ~/ros 'http://packages.ros.org/cgi-bin/gen_rosinstall.py?rosdistro=electric&variant=desktop-full&overlay=no'
git clone https://github.com/lubosz/rosstacks.git
cd rosstacks
git diff 67ca3..HEAD > arch.patch
cp arch.patch ~/ros/ros
cd ~/ros/ros
patch -p1 < arch.patch
#I use pacaur instead of yaourt for AUR installs. 
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/pacaur /usr/bin/yaourt
source ~/ros/setup.sh && rosmake ros ros_comm --rosdep-install

$/!\$ If you get an error not a recognized archive type: rosinstall: you have a file somewhere called 'rosinstall' in your current working directory. Delete this file and repeat the instructions above, or change to a different directory.

rosinstall

The following lines will download the ROS source code using the rosinstall tool, and bootstrap the installation. The installation downloads all ROS stacks in subdirectories inside the ~/ros directory, one subdirectory for each stack in the rosinstall file.

First install rosinstall using pip (advanced options for pip):

```
sudo pip install -U rosinstall vcstools
```

There are many different libraries and tools in ROS. We provided four default configurations to get you started.

Desktop-Full Install: (Recommended): ROS Full, rviz, robot-generic libraries, 2D/3D simulators, navigation and 2D/3D perception

rosinstall ~/ros "http://packages.ros.org/cgi-bin/gen_rosinstall.py?rosdistro=electric&variant=desktop-full&overlay=no"

Desktop Install: : ROS Full, rviz, and robot-generic libraries

rosinstall ~/ros "http://packages.ros.org/cgi-bin/gen_rosinstall.py?rosdistro=electric&variant=desktop&overlay=no"

ROS-Full: ROS package, build, communication, and graphical tools.

rosinstall ~/ros "http://packages.ros.org/cgi-bin/gen_rosinstall.py?rosdistro=electric&variant=ros-full&overlay=no"

ROS-Base: (Bare Bones) ROS package, build, and communication libraries.

rosinstall ~/ros "http://packages.ros.org/cgi-bin/gen_rosinstall.py?rosdistro=electric&variant=ros-base&overlay=no"

NOTE: the instructions above download all stacks inside the ~/ros folder. If you prefer a different location, simply change the ~/ros in the commands above.

Please reference REP 113 for description of other available configurations.

Environment Setup

Shell language: Bash Bash Zsh Zsh

You'll now need to update your environment. You can do this by typing:

source ~/ros/setup.bash

It's convenient if the ROS environment variables are automatically added to your bash session every time a new shell is launched, which you can do with the command below:

echo "source ~/ros/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
. ~/.bashrc

For Zsh users, change the last line of ~/ros/setup.zsh to

source $ROS_ROOT/tools/rosbash/roszsh

before running source ~/ros/setup.zsh Similarly, have the setup script called at the start of each new shell session with

echo "source ~/ros/setup.zsh" >> ~/.zshrc
. ~/.zshrc

Tutorials

Now, to test your installation, please proceed to the ROS Tutorials.