Arch Linux Installation Instructions

NOTE: Installation on Arch does NOT work. Feel free to follow these instructions, picking up where they leave off. If you manage to get a successful install, update this Wiki.

SVN Based Install (download-and-compile)

Setup

First, install and configure sudo. ROS does not seem to support installation on Arch without it. Then, execute

sudo pacman -Sy python2 cmake wget python-yaml python2-distribute

rosinstall

The following lines will download the ROS source code using the rosinstall tool, and bootstrap the installation.

ROS is poorly supported on Arch, so please carefully follow these instructions, and if you run into problems, solve them and then update this wiki page.

Before running rosinstall, install the package log4cxx from the AUR. You can also try installing yaourt instead, since the rosinstall will attempt to automatically install log4cxx with yaourt if it is not installed. However, yaourt is a very slow AUR helper (Clyde is much better); besides, the code that executes yaourt appears incorrect, since yaourt is interactive and the code doesn't appear to accommodate this. Again, I haven't installed yaourt, so I can't test this for sure.

You will necessarily encounter errors when running the rosinstall command. To fix some of these problems, run

find ~/ros -type f -exec sed -ri 's|#! ?/usr/bin/(env )?python$|#! /usr/bin/env python2' '{}' \;

to fix errors related to scripts using the wrong version of the Python interpreter, and

sed -ri 's|pacman -Sy?|pacman -Sy --noconfirm|g' ~/ros/ros/tools/rosdep/src/rosdep/arch.py

to fix hanging when the scripts invoke pacman. Then, rerun the relevant rosinstall command. There are will be further errors; I'm not sure how to fix them.

The installation downloads all ROS stacks in subdirectories inside the ~/ros directory, one subdirectory for each stack in the rosinstall file.

First install rosinstall:

  • sudo easy_install-2.7 -U rosinstall

Then use rosinstall to download your preferred C-Turtle variant:

  • ROS-only: Includes basic ROS and tutorials.

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

    Base Install: ROS plus robot-generic stacks (e.g. navigation, visualization)

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

    PR2 Install: ROS plus PR2-specific stacks, including PR2 simulator.

    • rosinstall ~/ros "http://packages.ros.org/cgi-bin/gen_rosinstall.py?rosdistro=cturtle&variant=pr2&overlay=no"

    PR2 All Install: ROS plus PR2 and bleeding edge research/experimental stacks.

    • rosinstall ~/ros "http://packages.ros.org/cgi-bin/gen_rosinstall.py?rosdistro=cturtle&variant=pr2all&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.

Tutorials

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

Wiki: cturtle/Installation/Arch (last edited 2011-03-01 22:49:48 by KerrickStaley)