Setting Up an Ubuntu Virtual Machine (VM) with VirtualBox

Setup

To get started with an Ubuntu VM, you'll first need to download VirtualBox, an open-source virtualization program available on most major operating systems. You can download the appropriate version for your machine here, under "VirtualBox platform packages". Once downloaded, follow the installation wizard provided by VirtualBox.

Loading In the VM Files

Once VirtualBox is installed, you can now load in the Ubuntu VM we've created for this class. Follow these steps:

Download both the .vmdk and .ovf file from this link. Make sure both files are downloaded to the same directory.
Open the VirtualBox GUI. At the top menu bar, navigate to File > Import Appliance.
In the popup window, locate the directory where your .ovf file is saved and import it into the blank "File:" field. Press "Continue".
From here, proceed with all of the default configurations and select "Import".
You should now see the VM in the GUI. However, the VM will fail to start until the base RAM and Video Memory are sufficiently increased.
Go to Settings > System and increase "Base Memory" to 2048MB.
Then, go to Settings > Display and increase "Video Memory" to 40MB.

Note: In our experience, 2GB of RAM and 40MB of video memory causes Gazebo and RViz to run extremely slowly, especially when running simultaneously. We recommend upping the allocations to 4GB of RAM and 80MB of video memory, if possible. Even then, there is noticeable lag in operating Gazebo and RViz.

Your VM should now be ready to boot!

The default password for the VM is: ubuntu.

Note: If you are using a Mac and you get an error when starting your VM for the first time that says "Kernel driver not installed (rc=-1908)", we found this fix helpful to get around that error.
If you are using a Windows machine and you find that your machine is having trouble running the VM, try allocating 2 cores to the VM instead of 1 and increasing the display memory. This was especially helpful for a prior student using a Windows 11 Home laptop.

Once you open up your VM and log in successfully, you'll need to run the following commands in the terminal in order to ensure that your network settings will be set up correctly where your VM will have a unique IP address on the intro-robo network.

$ sudo rm /etc/machine-id
    $ sudo systemd-machine-id-setup
    $ sudo reboot

Shutting Down Your VM

When you want to power off the VM, simply close the window running the VM. You will be presented with three options:

"Save the machine state",
"Send the shutdown signal", and
"Power off the machine".

Do NOT select "Power off the machine"! This option has been known to cause many issues. Instead, select either "Save the machine state" (recommended option, as it saves the VM the way you leave it) or "Send the shutdown signal" (shuts down the VM).

Configuring Wireless Network on Your VM

In order to teleoperate the Turtlebot3, your machine and your Ubuntu VM will need to be connected to it via the same Wi-Fi network. This network will most likely be the router that is being used for the class (intro-robo). Follow the steps below:

Ensure that YOUR machine (not the VM) is connected to the intended router. (This will likely be specified in class.)
Open the VirtualBox GUI and check that your Ubuntu VM is in a shutdown state. If it is in a saved state (it will say "Saved" underneath the VM name), open the VM and close it again, this time sending it into the shutdown state.
Once you've ensured the Ubuntu VM is shut down, go to Settings > Network in the GUI.

Go to the Adapter 1 tab, which should be the default. In the Attached to: field, set the option to Bridged Adapter, if it isn't already.
Still under Adapter 1, set the Name: field to your wireless adapter. On a Mac, this will likely be en0: Wi-Fi (Wireless).
Now, in the advanced settings for Adapter 1, click the refresh button to the right of the MAC Address field to ensure that your virtual machine has a unique address.
Go to the Adapter 2 tab. Set Attached to: to Internal Network. The Name: field should already be set to intnet -- go ahead and change it if it's not.

Your VM should now be connected to your machine's WiFi network, enabling it to subsequently connect with the Turtlebot.

ROS on Your VM

ROS should already be installed on your VM, but you will not be able to use ROS commands from the terminal without running a setup script. If this is your first time launching the VM, run the following commands to ensure that the setup script is executed every time you open a new terminal.

$ echo "source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
        $ source ~/.bashrc

You can check that the setup script has been executed by running the roscore command in a terminal window. You should see an output that looks like the following:

... logging to ~/.ros/log/9cf88ce4-b14d-11df-8a75-00251148e8cf/roslaunch-machine_name-13039.log
        Checking log directory for disk usage. This may take awhile.
        Press Ctrl-C to interrupt
        Done checking log file disk usage. Usage is <1GB.

        started roslaunch server http://machine_name:33919/
        ros_comm version 1.15.8

        SUMMARY
        ======

        PARAMETERS
         * /rosdistro: noetic
         * /rosversion: 1.15.8

        NODES

        auto-starting new master
        process[master]: started with pid [13054]
        ROS_MASTER_URI=http://machine_name:11311/

        setting /run_id to 9cf88ce4-b14d-11df-8a75-00251148e8cf
        process[rosout-1]: started with pid [13067]
        started core service [/rosout]

You might see one of the following two errors:

```
bash: roscore: command not found
```

WARNING: unable to configure logging. No log files will be generated
        Checking log directory for disk usage. This may take awhile.
        Press Ctrl-C to interrupt
        Done checking log file disk usage. Usage is <1GB.

        Resource not found: roslaunch
        The traceback for the exception was written to the log file
        Traceback (most recent call last):
          File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/roslaunch/__init__.py", line 322, in main
            p.start()
          File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/roslaunch/parent.py", line 277, in start
            self._start_infrastructure()
          File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/roslaunch/parent.py", line 226, in _start_infrastructure
            self._load_config()
          File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/roslaunch/parent.py", line 137, in _load_config
            self.config = roslaunch.config.load_config_default(self.roslaunch_files, self.port,
          File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/roslaunch/config.py", line 447, in load_config_default
            load_roscore(loader, config, verbose=verbose)
          File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/roslaunch/config.py", line 92, in load_roscore
            f_roscore = get_roscore_filename()
          File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/roslaunch/config.py", line 84, in get_roscore_filename
            return os.path.join(r.get_path('roslaunch'), 'resources', 'roscore.xml')
          File "/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/rospkg/rospack.py", line 207, in get_path
            raise ResourceNotFound(name, ros_paths=self._ros_paths)
        rospkg.common.ResourceNotFound: roslaunch

If you do see one of these two errors or are otherwise unable to run roscore, re-run the commands to automatically execute the setup script:

$ echo "source /opt/ros/noetic/setup.bash" >> ~/.bashrc
        $ source ~/.bashrc

Now, you should be able to run roscore and it should show the correct output.

If you are still not seeing the correct output when you run roscore, please reach out to the teaching team for help by posting in the #computer-setup-help channel in our course Slack.