docker-ros2-opengl

Dockerfile and docker-compose.yml for enabling OpenGL applications to run locally in an environment with the latest ros2 (rolling) build.

This is meant to be run on a system with an NVIDIA GPU as their GLVND docker container is the centerpiece to this all working.

Setup

NOTE: Make sure to have docker-compose 1.28+ for GPU passthrough. Ubuntu 20.04 defaults to 1.25 I believe. I have used 1.29.1 which is the default in this guide.

You will need to install nvidia's container toolkit.

Run setup.sh to build the container. This will also create a folder called dev. Anything placed in here will be available inside of the container.

Use

Run docker-compose up -d to initialize the container. Once initialized, run bash.sh from as many terminals as you'd like to jump right into developing! ROS2 will already be sourced.

Remote Server

In addition, if using X11 Forwarding, you can run OpenGL apps over ssh from within the docker container.

Make sure these are set in the server's /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

X11Forwarding yes
X11DisplayOffset 10
X11UseLocalhost no

When running ssh, make sure to use the -C option to enable compression. If this is not added, framerate will be abysmal. Your command should look something like:

ssh user@host:port -X -C

Keep in mind you can add these options to your ~/.ssh/config file so you don't have to remember to type it every time.

NOTE: Re-run docker-compose up -d each time you ssh to the server as it will need to grab the updated .Xauthority file. This must be run from a direct SSH (tmux and other local bash session managers will not properly transfer $DISPLAY).

Testing

As this is quite complicated and a bit tricky to set up, make sure to test that everything is working correctly by running glxgears in the docker container after opening a bash session. The glxgears demo should render in a local window!