Skip to main content

Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/xXThanatosXx/MobileRobot/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

The MobileRobot Docker workflow lets you persist your entire ROS2 Humble environment as a portable Docker image and share it with teammates or students via Docker Hub. Rather than reinstalling ROS2 from scratch on every machine, you pull a pre-built image, run it as a container, customise it, and commit the result back to a new image — all without touching the host operating system. This page covers the day-to-day container operations you will use throughout the course.

​
Container Lifecycle

1

Pull the pre-built image

Open a terminal (cmd on Windows or a shell on Linux/macOS) and download the course image from Docker Hub:
docker pull xxthanatosxx/ros2-humble:1.0.0
2

Verify the image is available

Confirm the image was downloaded successfully by listing all local images:
docker images
You should see xxthanatosxx/ros2-humble with tag 1.0.0 in the output.
3

Create a container from the image

Instantiate a new interactive container named ros2-humble-container:
docker run -it --name ros2-humble-container xxthanatosxx/ros2-humble:1.0.0 /bin/bash
This drops you directly into a bash shell inside the container.
4

Start a stopped container

If the container already exists but is not running, start it again without creating a new one:
docker start ros2-humble-container
5

Stop a running container

Gracefully stop the container when you are done working:
docker stop ros2-humble-container
Use docker ps -a to list all containers, including stopped ones, and retrieve their container IDs and names at any time.

​
Container with Display Forwarding

GUI tools such as rviz2 and rqt require the container to forward its display output to the host. The command below launches the container in detached mode with the DISPLAY environment variable pointed at the host’s X server (provided by XLaunch / Xming on Windows): 
docker run --name ros2-humble --user=user --env=DISPLAY=host.docker.internal:0 --volume="C:\\:/mnt/c" --restart=no --runtime=runc --network=host -t -d ros2-humble-img
FlagPurpose
--user=userRuns the session as the non-root user account created in the Dockerfile
--env=DISPLAY=host.docker.internal:0Forwards display output to the host X server
--volume="C:\\:/mnt/c"Mounts the Windows C:\ drive inside the container at /mnt/c
--network=hostShares the host network stack, required for ROS2 DDS discovery
-t -dAllocates a pseudo-TTY and runs in detached (background) mode

​
Optional: Shared Folder Mount

To make a specific Windows folder accessible inside the container, add a second --volume binding: 
docker run --name ros2-humble --user=user --env=DISPLAY=host.docker.internal:0 --volume="C:\\:/mnt/c" --volume="C:\\Users\\UNIMAR\\Documents\\Docker\\shared_folder:/mnt/shared_folder" --restart=no --runtime=runc --network=host -t -d ros2-humble-img
After the container starts, verify the shared folder is reachable from inside the container: 
cd /mnt/shared_folder

​
File Transfer Between Host and Container

You can copy files or entire directories in both directions using docker cp without needing a shared volume. Host → Container 
docker cp "C:\Users\UNIMAR\Documents\Docker\shared_folder" ros2-humble:/home/user/test
Container → Host 
docker cp ros2-humble:/ruta/dentro/del/contenedor "C:\Users\UNIMAR\Documents\Docker\local_folder"

​
Creating a New Image from a Running Container

After installing packages or making configuration changes inside a container, you can snapshot those changes into a new image and push it to Docker Hub so others can pull your exact environment.
1

List all containers to find the container ID

docker ps -a
Note the CONTAINER ID of the container you want to snapshot (for example 6485864c931d).
2

Commit the container to a new image

Replace 6485864c931d with your actual container ID:
docker commit 6485864c931d xxthanatosxx/ros2-humble:1.0.0
This creates a new local image tagged xxthanatosxx/ros2-humble:1.0.0 from the container’s current filesystem state.
3

Verify the new image

docker images
The updated image should appear at the top of the list with a fresh CREATED timestamp.
4

Push the image to Docker Hub

docker push xxthanatosxx/ros2-humble:1.0.0
Once the push completes, anyone can pull this image with docker pull xxthanatosxx/ros2-humble:1.0.0.
You must be logged in to Docker Hub before pushing images. Run docker login and enter your Docker Hub credentials if you have not done so already in the current session.
docker commit captures the container filesystem at the time of the commit. Any changes made inside the container after the commit — and before the container is next committed — are not saved. Uncommitted changes are permanently lost when the container is removed.

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Get started for freeTalk to us