ROS 2 Humble Setup in Docker


Prerequisites

To follow this tutorial, you need:

  • Docker installed
  • Docker Compose installed
  • Intel hardware with access to /dev
  • X11 installed on your machine for GUI forwarding (Gazebo)

Step 1: Create the Dockerfile

Create a file named dockerfile.dev with the following contents:

FROM osrf/ros:humble-desktop AS base
 
ARG USERNAME=ROD
ARG USER_UID=1000
ARG USER_GID=$USER_UID
ARG DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
 
 
# Set default shell to bash
SHELL ["/bin/bash", "-c"]
 
# Graphics and compilation packages and env for dev only
# Set up X11
ENV export DISPLAY=:0.0
ENV export QT_QUICK_BACKEND=software
ENV QT_X11_NO_MITSHM 1
 
 
ENV PATH /usr/lib/ccache:$QT_DESKTOP/bin:$PATH
RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y install  libnss3 \
	libxcomposite1 libxdamage1 libxrandr2 libxtst6 \
	&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
# libxss1 libasound2 libatk-bridge2.0-0 libatspi2.0-0  libvpx5 libevent-2.1-6 libicu60 -y
 
RUN apt-get update && apt-get -y --quiet --no-install-recommends install \
		apt-utils \
		binutils \
		build-essential \
		ca-certificates \
		ccache \
		checkinstall \
		cmake \
		curl \
		espeak \
		fuse \
		g++ \
		gcc \
		git \
		gosu \
		kmod \
		libespeak-dev \
		libfontconfig1 \
		libfuse2 \
		libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev \
		libgstreamer1.0-0 \
		libgstreamer1.0-dev \
		libsdl2-dev \
		libssl-dev \
		libudev-dev \
		locales \
		make \
		ninja-build \
		openssh-client \
		openssl \
		patchelf \
		pkg-config \
		rsync \
		speech-dispatcher \
		wget \
		xvfb \
		zlib1g-dev \
	&& apt-get -y autoremove \
	&& apt-get clean autoclean \
	&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/{apt,dpkg,cache,log} /tmp/* /var/tmp/*
 
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \ 
    '^libxcb.*-dev' libx11-xcb-dev \
    libglu1-mesa-dev libxrender-dev \
    libxi-dev libxkbcommon-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev \
    libxkbcommon-x11-0 libxcb-xinerama0 libxcb-* \
    libxcb-xinerama0-dev libxkbcommon-x11-dev \
	&& rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
# Install necessary packages for hardware access
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y \
    apt-utils \
    build-essential \
	ros-humble-gazebo-* \
    ros-humble-micro-ros-msgs \
    cmake \
    python3-serial \
    python3-pip \
    libusb-1.0-0-dev \
    libxml2-dev \
    libxslt-dev \
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 
RUN groupadd --gid "$USER_GID" "$USERNAME" \
  && useradd -s /bin/bash --uid "$USER_UID" --gid "$USER_GID" -m "$USERNAME" \
  && echo "$USERNAME" ALL=\(root\) NOPASSWD:ALL > /etc/sudoers.d/"$USERNAME" \
  && chmod 0440 /etc/sudoers.d/"$USERNAME" \
  && echo "\n# Added by ROD Dockerfile:" >> /home/"$USERNAME"/.bashrc \
  && echo "source /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/git" >> /home/"$USERNAME"/.bashrc
RUN usermod -a -G dialout "$USERNAME"
# Switch to our new user
USER $USERNAME
ENV USER=$USERNAME
 
 
 
# Create a workspace directory
RUN mkdir -p /home/"$USERNAME"/ros2_ws/src
RUN source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
 
RUN echo "source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash" >> /home/"$USERNAME"/.bashrc
RUN echo "source /home/ROD/ros2_ws/install/setup.bash" >> /home/"$USERNAME"/.bashrc
# Copy your ROS 2 packages into the container
#COPY ./src /$USERNAME/ros2_ws/src
 
# Install dependencies and build the ROS 2 workspace
WORKDIR /home/$USERNAME/ros2_ws
RUN source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash && \
    rosdep update && \
    rosdep install --from-paths src --ignore-src -y && \
    colcon build --symlink-install
 
 
RUN source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash
RUN source /home/ROD/ros2_ws/install/setup.bash

Step 2: Create Docker Compose File

Create a file named docker-compose_dev.yml with the following contents:

services:
  ros2_dev:
    container_name: rod
    build:
      context: .
      dockerfile: Dockerfile.dev
    privileged: true
    network_mode: "host" 
    tty: true
    environment:
    - DISPLAY=$DISPLAY
    user: 1000:1000
    # command to get the right group number: getent group render | cut -d: -f3
    group_add:
      - "${RENDER_GROUP_ID}"
    volumes:
      - /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix
      - /dev:/dev
      - /sys:/sys
      - /etc/udev:/etc/udev
      - ./src:/home/ros2-on-intel/ros2_ws/src
      - ./build:/home/ros2-on-intel/ros2_ws/build
      - ./install:/home/ros2-on-intel/ros2_ws/install
      - ./log:/home/ros2-on-intel/ros2_ws/log
    devices:
      - /dev/dri/renderD128:/dev/dri/renderD128
 
    command: bash -c " source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash  && /bin/bash "

Step 3: Script to Launch Docker

Create a script named start_ros2_dev.sh to automate launching the container:

#!/bin/bash
 
# Enable X11 access
xhost +local:docker
 
# Launch the Docker container
docker-compose -f docker-compose_dev.yml up --build

Make the script executable:

chmod +x start_ros2_dev.sh

Step 4: Building and Running the Container

  1. Build the container:
    Run the script ./start_ros2_dev.sh to build and run the container. It will automatically build the Docker image and start the container with access to your system’s /dev and X11 forwarding enabled.

  2. Access the container:

docker exec -it {docker container name} /bin/bash

Once inside the container, your ROS 2 Humble environment is fully set up. You can now run ROS 2 nodes, work with Gazebo, and use any hardware connected to /dev.


Step 5: Testing Gazebo

  1. Launch Gazebo to test if X11 forwarding works:
gazebo
  1. If everything is set up correctly, Gazebo should open in your host’s GUI.

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