AMR-IF-UI: Setting Up Environment

1. Setting Up

1.1. Requirements

The following packages and OS are required to run this package.

1.2. Installing Google Chrome

As with other operating systems, Google Chrome for Ubuntu Linux is a shortcut to search for “chrome” in your browser (using Firefox, which is installed by default on Ubuntu), and follow the on-screen instructions to install it.

In the case of Ubuntu, the deb package version of chrome is downloaded, and installation with the package manager is almost automatic.

After installation, select Google Chrome from “Show applications” at the bottom left to start it.

Google Chrome can be launched also by the following.

$ /opt/google/chrome/chrome &

1.3. Installing Node.js

Please install nodejs and npm as follows.

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt upgrade
$ sudo apt install nodejs npm

In addition, install n-package with npm and use n-package to install a new node.

$ sudo npm install n -g
/usr/local/bin/n -> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/n/bin/n
/usr/local/lib
└── n@7.4.1 

$ sudo n stable
  installing : node-v14.17.6
       mkdir : /usr/local/n/versions/node/14.17.6
       fetch : https://nodejs.org/dist/v14.17.6/node-v14.17.6-linux-x64.tar.xz
   installed : v14.17.6 (with npm 6.14.15)

Note: the node command changed location and the old location may be remembered in your current shell.
         old : /usr/bin/node
         new : /usr/local/bin/node
To reset the command location hash either start a new shell, or execute PATH="$PATH"

# n package installs and manages various versions of nodejs under 
# /usr/local/n, and these symbolic linked in /usrlocal/bin commands
# are used. The PATH have to include /usr/local/bin as command search path

The nodejs/npm that are installed by apt are old and no longer needed. So please delete them. Here, .bashrc is sourced (re-loaded) because PATH have to be refreshed after deleing packages.

$ sudo apt purge nodejs npm
$ source ~/.bashrc
$ node -v
v14.17.6
$ npm -v
6.14.15
$ which node
/usr/local/bin/node
$ which npm
/usr/local/bin/npm

In addition, algular CLI is installed.

$ npm install -g @angular/cli

1.3.1. In case of Ubuntu 18.04/ros melodic

If you try to install npm into a environment installed ROS, the libssl1.0-dev dependency will not be resolved and you will not be able to install it. Please note that forcibly installing libssl1.0-dev will remove a large number of ROS related packages.

Installing libssl and saving a log

Please follow the steps below to install the libssl1.0-dev/npm package. After that update npm to the latest version by n-package, and then reinstall ROS packages.

# Saving apt log
$ sudo mv /var/log/apt/history.log /var/log/apt/history.log.org
$ sudo touch /var/log/apt/history.log

# Installing npm
$ sudo apt install libssl1.0-dev npm nodejs
$ node -v
v8.10.0
$ npm -v
v3.5.2

# Coping apt history log and merge them
$ cp /var/log/apt/history.log .
$ sudo mv /var/log/apt/history.log.org /var/log/apt/history.log
$ sudo cat history.log >> /var/log/apt/history.log
Installing n pakcage

In addition, as above, install node with npm using n package.

$ sudo npm install n -g
$ sudo n stable
Deleting deb packaged nodejs/npm

The nodejs/npm that are installed by apt are old and no longer needed. So please delete them. Here, .bashrc is sourced (re-loaded) because PATH have to be refreshed after deleing packages.

$ sudo apt purge nodejs npm
$ source ~/.bashrc
$ node -v
v14.17.6
$ npm -v
6.14.15
$ which node
/usr/local/bin/node
$ which npm
/usr/local/bin/npm

# Installing angular CLI
$ npm install -g @angular/cli
Recovering ros packages

The ROS packages were removed when you installed libssl1.0-dev, so reinstall the removed packages from the history.log you saved first.

$ ls history.log
$ cat history.log

Start-Date: 2021-09-23  16:05:34
Commandline: apt install libssl1.0-dev npm
Requested-By: n-ando (1000)
 :
 :
Remove: ros-melodic-image-proc:amd64 (1.15.0-1bionic.20210505.035446), ros-melod

The lines starting with “Remove:” in history.log list the removed package names. These entries have the following format.

<package_name>:<arch> (<version string>), ...

Please re-install packages extracting the package name from the log as follows.

$ grep Remove history.log | awk 'BEGIN{RS=",";}!/Remove/{sub("\:.*",""); print $1;}' |xargs sudo apt install --yes

1.3.2. Home Brew (macOS)

In macOS, you can easily build an environment by using Home Brew.

$ brew update
$ brew install nodejs npm
$ npm install -g @angular/cli