Native installation¶

Documentation / Installation / Native

Use the native path when you want the toolkit installed directly on the workstation for development, simulation, or physical-platform work.

Supported host¶

These installation instructions target:

Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble)
ROS 2 Jazzy
Gazebo Harmonic / Gazebo Sim 8 series; the documented version is recorded in config/versions.env

Other hosts are not currently covered by these installation instructions.

Clone¶

git clone https://github.com/ANCL/px4-dev-toolkit.git
cd px4-dev-toolkit

Choose an installation profile¶

The installer exposes four profiles:

./setup/install.sh common
./setup/install.sh sitl
./setup/install.sh experiment
./setup/install.sh all

Profile	Use it for	Adds
`common`	shared ROS/toolkit development	ROS 2 Jazzy, common tools, common pinned sources, ROS workspace build
`sitl`	PX4 + Gazebo simulation	common + SITL PX4 dependencies + MAVProxy + SITL sources
`experiment`	companion-computer physical stack	common + experiment PX4 dependencies + Vicon source
`all`	workstation that needs both environments	SITL + hardware sources and dependencies + MAVProxy + QGroundControl

GCS=qgc is a valid SITL runtime choice, but the sitl installer profile installs MAVProxy, not QGroundControl. Use all or run ./setup/install_qgroundcontrol.sh if you want QGroundControl managed by the toolkit.

The setup scripts may use sudo to install host packages.

Source pin behavior¶

External repositories are declared in:

config/sources/common.repos
config/sources/sitl.repos
config/sources/experiment.repos

setup/fetch_sources.sh does not reset already-present external repositories. If a source scope is partially populated, it refuses to modify it automatically rather than creating a mixed checkout.

Build¶

The top-level installer builds the ROS 2 workspace automatically. To rebuild later:

./ros2/build.sh

The build helper deliberately uses a small clean environment so previously sourced ROS/PX4 paths do not leak into colcon build.

Test¶

Run toolkit-maintained Python and ROS package tests with:

./ros2/test.sh

The test helper covers the toolkit-maintained ROS packages and analysis regression tests; fetched third-party repositories retain their upstream test suites.

Runtime shell¶

Before invoking ROS 2 commands manually:

source ros2/runtime_env.sh

The user-facing tools/sitl and tools/experiment wrappers source the repository runtime environment inside the tmux processes they create.

Verification¶

For a SITL installation:

./tools/sitl status

Then start it:

./tools/sitl start headless

For the experiment installation profile, review config/runtime/experiment.env, verify the serial device, then use:

./tools/experiment status

For physical hardware, continue with the Hardware environment checklist before flight.