Installing Ubuntu Desktop

Downloading Ubuntu and making live USB

  1. Download the latest LTS (long-term support) version of Ubuntu from https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop. Save the ISO file on your computer (not on a flash memory).

  2. Download Rufus to make a live USB from https://rufus.ie/en/.

  3. Now, open Rufus and attach your flash memory. In Rufus, click on Select and choose the downloaded iso file. Also, select GPT for “Partition scheme” and UEFI for “Target system”. Then, click on START. If you see a window asking you how to write the image, click on “Write in ISO image mode (Recommended)”. NOTE: All the data on the flash memory will be deleted through this process.

  4. When you see “Ready” in Status section, you can click on “Close” and restart your computer to commence installing Ubuntu. (Section 1.1 is inferred from https://itsfoss.com/create-live-usb-of-ubuntu-in-windows/)

Installing Ubuntu on an external hard drive

NOTE: When you install Ubuntu on an external hard drive, you can have a portable Ubuntu and just. Your external hard drive and computer should support USB3.

  1. When the computer is starting, press Esc key (for ASUS laptops). Then from the “boot driver”, choose “UEFI: name of your flash memory”. UEFI is specification that defines a software interface between an operating system and platform firmware.

  2. Follow the instructions on step-by-step (select your external hard drive instead of flash memory mentioned on this page): https://www.fosslinux.com/10212/how-to-install-a-complete-ubuntu-on-a-usb-flash-drive.htm Note: Don’t install Ubuntu on a flash memory because it will get so hot and causes some overcurrent issues. Note: I assigned 100 Gigabytes of my external hard to FAT32 and 100 Gigabytes of it to EXT4 for Ubuntu at the partitioning step mentioned on the above website.

  3. At the end, restart the computer. When the computer is starting, press Esc key (for ASUS laptops). Then from the “boot driver”, don’t choose any “UEFI” and just choose your hard drive name to start Ubuntu. Note 1: Ubuntu uses LibreOffice as Office in Windows. However, LibreOffice doesn’t have Times New Roman and some other fonts by default. So you should add these fonts to LibreOffice. Follow the instructions of this clip to do so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi4lI5AqMww Note 2: To number the headings of a whole document in LibreOffice, we should click on Tools then on Chapter Numbering. Then you can assign Level 1 to heading 1, Level 2 to heading to and so on. Then click on Insert then on Cross-reference to cite the headings.

Partitioning the rest of hard drive

Now we should partition the rest of the external hard drive to use it to save your files.

  1. On windows, install EaseUS Partition Master software.

  2. Click on “unallocated” part of your external hard and then click on Create at the right side.

  3. Assign this remaining space as NTFS to store your data by choosing File system as NTFS and click on OK. Afterward, click on “Execute Operations”. Note: Windows can just recognize FAT32 and NTFS file system to store data.

Installing Gazebo

  1. Go to http://gazebosim.org/.

  2. Click on Download icon. Then on Debian icon.

  3. Copy the download script and paste it in Terminal to download and install Gazebo. (You can find Terminal by searching it in your Applications)

Installing PX4 Firmware (PX4-Autopilot)

Install the firmware step-by-step according to the official clip on: https://docs.px4.io/master/en/dev_setup/dev_env_linux_ubuntu.html

Running Gazebo with PX4 Firmware (PX4-Autopilot)

Now, you have Gazebo and PX4 Firmware installed on your Ubuntu.

  1. Open PX4 Firmware through writing cd Firmware in Terminal. (On PX4 website, it is mentioned to use cd/path/to/PX4-Autopilot as the PX4 repository, but be aware that cd/path/to/ is just a symbol of a path to Firmware of PX4-Autopilot which is cd Firmware)

  2. Then write make px4_sitl gazebo in Terminal. (Section 4 is inferred from: https://docs.px4.io/master/en/simulation/gazebo.html) It is assumed that Ubuntu 20.4 LTS is being used on the devlopment machine. This page outlines how to set up VS Code for development on drones on the local network through SSH.

[Contributors] Set up VS Code

VS Code can be installed by following the instructions on the visual studio website, it should be as simple as downloading the .deb file and double-clicking to install.

Once Installed there are a few extensions that will make development easier and these should be installed from the extensions tab on the left side of the interface. They are as follows.

  • Python

  • Pylance

  • Remote Development

  • Remote - SSH

Once these extensions are installed and the drone has been set up with a static IP address navigate to the remote tab on the left of the interface and click on the + next to ‘ssh targets’. Now enter the following where user is the username chosen when Ubuntu was installed on the UP Core companion Computer and ip_address is the static IP address chosen during network configuration.

ssh user@ip_address