1. Install Ubuntu 14.04 64bit

Download and install the ISO from here.

2. Install ROS Indigo

2.1 Download

Download the Installation script: ros_install.sh

2.2 Installation

Run the Installation script

cd ~/Downloads
./ros_install.sh

3. System Setup

3.1 Set USB permits

sudo groupadd lego
sudo usermod -a -G lego `id -u -n`
echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="0694", GROUP="lego", MODE="0660"
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1962", GROUP="lego", MODE="0660"' \
| sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-lego.rules
sudo restart udev

Now log out and log back in to finish. A more detailed version of these instructions are at NXT-Python.

3.2 Setup OpenNI + NITE

The OpenNI framework is an open source SDK used for the development of 3D sensing middleware libraries and applications. In order to setup this library type

cd ~/Downloads
wget http://robotics.dei.unipd.it/images/teaching/NITE-Bin-Linux-x64-v1.5.2.21.tar.zip
unzip NITE-Bin-Linux-x64-v1.5.2.21.tar.zip
tar -xjvf NITE-Bin-Linux-x64-v1.5.2.21.tar.bz2
cd NITE-Bin-Dev-Linux-x64-v1.5.2.21
sudo ./uninstall.sh
sudo ./install.sh

3.3 Setup libhid

libhid is a user-space HID access library written in C. We use it to control a connected Robovie-X. In order to setup this library install the deb packages you can find here or type

sudo apt-get install libusb-dev
cd ~/Downloads
wget --tries=10 http://alioth.debian.org/frs/download.php/1958/libhid-0.2.16.tar.gz
tar xzf libhid-0.2.16.tar.gz
cd libhid-0.2.16
./configure --enable-werror=no
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

3.4 Setup ROS

Now we create two separate workspaces to use both catkin and rosbuild. See this tutorial for a more complete explanation.

source /opt/ros/hydro/setup.bash
mkdir -p ~/workspace/ros/catkin/src
cd ~/workspace/ros/catkin
catkin_make --force-cmake
echo "source ~/workspace/ros/catkin/devel/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc

4. Programming tools

4.1 Eclipse

The Eclipse package we're going to install is an IDE for C/C++ developers with Mylyn integration.

Download Eclipse from this link or check for the latest version (Luna) at www.eclipse.org/downloads.

We first need Java (Oracle or OpenJDK is the same).

If it is not installed, i.e

java -version

raises some errors, type

sudo apt-get purge openjdk*
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-jdk7-installer

Then, you install Eclipse

cd ~/Downloads
tar -xzf eclipse-cpp-*
sudo mv eclipse /opt
sudo chown -R root:root /opt/eclipse

Finally setup Ubuntu/Unity.

sudo ln -s /opt/eclipse/eclipse /usr/local/bin
echo '[Desktop Entry]
Name=Eclipse
Type=Application
Exec=bash -i -c "eclipse"
Terminal=false
Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
Comment=Integrated Development Environment
NoDisplay=false
Categories=Development;IDE' | sudo tee /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

To completely remove Eclipse use the following commands.

sudo rm -rf /opt/eclipse
sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/eclipse
sudo rm -f /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop