The Innex1 Rover requires ROS 2 Humble and Gazebo Fortress. This guide covers installation on Ubuntu 22.04, either natively or using OrbStack for macOS users.
System requirements
Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish)
8GB RAM minimum (16GB recommended)
20GB free disk space
Internet connection for initial model downloads
Ubuntu 22.04 installation These instructions work for both native Ubuntu installations and OrbStack virtual machines on macOS.
Configure locales
Set up locale settings for ROS 2: sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y locales curl gnupg2 lsb-release sudo locale-gen en_GB en_GB.UTF-8 sudo update-locale LC_ALL=en_GB.UTF-8 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 export LANG = en_GB . UTF-8 sudo add-apt-repository -y universe
Add ROS 2 repository
Add the official ROS 2 package repository: curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ros/rosdistro/master/ros.key -o /usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg echo "deb [arch=$( dpkg --print-architecture ) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/ros-archive-keyring.gpg] http://packages.ros.org/ros2/ubuntu $( lsb_release -cs ) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ros2.list > /dev/null
Add Gazebo repository
Add the OSRF repository for Gazebo Fortress: sudo curl https://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo.gpg --output /usr/share/keyrings/pkgs-osrf-archive-keyring.gpg echo "deb [arch=$( dpkg --print-architecture ) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/pkgs-osrf-archive-keyring.gpg] https://packages.osrfoundation.org/gazebo/ubuntu-stable $( lsb_release -cs ) main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/gazebo-stable.list > /dev/null
Install packages
Install ROS 2 Humble, Gazebo Fortress, and required tools: sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y \ ros-humble-desktop \ ros-dev-tools \ python3-rosdep \ ros-humble-ros-gz \ ros-humble-teleop-twist-keyboard \ ignition-fortress \ ignition-launch-cli
This installation includes RViz, RQt, and the full ROS 2 desktop toolset.
Initialize rosdep
Set up rosdep for dependency management: sudo rosdep init || true rosdep update
Configure shell environment
Add ROS 2 to your shell startup: echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc source ~/.bashrc
OrbStack setup (macOS) OrbStack provides better performance than traditional VMs for macOS users.
Create Ubuntu machine
Create an Ubuntu 22.04 machine: orb create ubuntu:22.04 rover-sim
Enter the machine
Access the virtual machine shell:
Follow Ubuntu installation
Execute the Ubuntu 22.04 installation steps above inside the OrbStack machine.
Optional: Foxglove Bridge For advanced visualization and debugging, install the Foxglove Bridge:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y ros-humble-foxglove-bridge
Foxglove Studio provides:
Real-time sensor data visualization
3D robot state rendering
Topic message inspection
Custom dashboard layouts
Foxglove Bridge is particularly useful when running headless simulations on remote machines or OrbStack VMs.
Verify installation Confirm ROS 2 is installed correctly:
Expected output:
Check Gazebo installation:
Expected output:
Ignition Gazebo, version 6.x.x
Troubleshooting If you encounter GPG key errors during installation, re-run the repository setup commands and ensure your system clock is synchronized.
Package not found errors: Run sudo apt update before installing packages to refresh the package index.
Locale warnings: Ensure LANG=en_GB.UTF-8 is set in your current shell:
Permission denied errors: Add your user to the dialout group for serial device access:
sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER
Log out and back in for group changes to take effect.
Next steps
Quick start Clone the repository and build the workspace