What is this?

Template for Dockerized ROS2 (Humble) (base image: humble-desktop-full, which is on Ubuntu 22.04).

Container runs XFCE lightweight desktop env and can interact from host machine via Xvfb virtual server and x11vnc.

Preinstalled:

• everything in humble-desktop-full, so ros2
  • Gazebo is part of this, but it's the "Ignition" version! The command to open is ign gazebo (without ROS) or ros2 launch ros_gz_sim gz_sim_launch.py (with ROS).
  • I believe gazebo or gzclient commands are for older versions (Gazebo Classic), while gz sim is for newer versions (Gazebo Harmonic +?).
• code (start with code &, or in Applications > Development)

Inspired(?) by:

• https://medium.com/@oelmofty/ros2-in-docker-why-and-how-b72b3880dc97
• https://github.com/jbnunn/ROSGazeboDesktop

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Quick Start

1. docker build -t ros-humble-template .

2. docker run --name ros-humble -d -p 5900:5900 ros-humble-template

   • All servers (Xvfb, x11vnc) will automatically run in the background.
   • How to pause: docker stop ros-humble
   • How to restart: docker start ros-humble
     • you might have to wait a few secs to reconnect

3. View on host machine with one of these methods:

   • RealVNC (localhost:5900)
   • OR (vnc://localhost:5900) Mac's Screen Sharing application, as of Ventura 13.5.2 on 2019 Macbook Pro. Any of these methods:
     • Browser --> redirect to Screen Sharing
     • Finder, Go > Connect to server
     • Open app directly in System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Screen Sharing

4. Follow this to set up ROS2 env.

5. Profit 📈

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Notes

• Restarting container runs start.sh again, and this will clean up any old X files if server didn't properly end. Then spins up all servers again, and you can reconnect!
• x11vnc was chosen instead of TigerVNC because TigerVNC starts its own X server (Xtigervnc) by default.
• x11vnc's -nopw flag means there's no password, so...it's insecure :)
• Unsure exactly why port 5900 is chosen by default, since I thought having the display to :1 would mean default port becomes 5901. But it's working fine so far, so I haven't looked into it.
• stdout and stderr of Xvfb, x11vnc, and XFCE are redirected to log files in /tmp.
• net-tools installation is just there for debugging.
• xdg-utils for VS Code installation, for some reason
• dbus-x11 x11-xserver-utils libgl1-mesa-glx libgl1-mesa-dri are extra utils for the X server and for rendering Gazebo's Qt GUI.
  • (libgl1-mesa-glx is replaced with libgl1 for newer Ubuntu versions (24.04))
• GPG Keyring issues?!?!??!! I can't apt install any packages???
  • Look here: https://discourse.ros.org/t/ros-signing-key-migration-guide/43937/7
  • key expires June 1..........which I found out on June 1...