Restore Connext 7.7 and apply feedback

[fgallegosalido]

Description

Yesterday we were facing an issue with Connext 7.7.0 integration for Lyrical. See ros2/rmw_connextdds#219 for the full discussion.

This pull request re-introduces Connext 7.7.0 in the CI for Lyrical removed in #859, along with minor fixes to Windows builds (see #844 (comment)).

We need a validation using this branch (fgallegosalido/fix/843-update-rti-connext) for the CI and the branch feature/218-update-connext-770 from ros2/rmw_connextdds#219.

Is this user-facing behavior change?

The CI will now use Conenxt 7.7.0 for Lyrical.

Did you use Generative AI?

No

Additional Information

For more information about what was causing the issues related to Connext 7.7.0, see ros2/rmw_connextdds#219 (comment).

[cottsay]

• Linux
• Linux (With debian packages)
• Linux (Kilted)
• Linux (Kilted) (With debian packages)
• Linux-aarch64 (smoke test - connext is not supported)
• Linux-rhel
• Windows
• Windows (Kilted) <-- Test failures are not related 👍

With test_communication:

• Linux
• Linux (with Fast-DDS cross-vendor testing)
• Windows (with Fast-DDS cross-vendor testing)

[cottsay]

This looks a LOT better. We're even passing the cross-vendor tests with Fast-DDS on Linux.

Windows is still seeing some failures in rcl tests. I have another job going that casts a wider net, but I tried the job twice and the failures are persistent. I'm trying to get a local reproduction of the issue but I'm struggling.

[fgallegosalido]

We can work on that issue during the stabilization period. The failing tests don't seem really blocking, as the more important ones are passing, and Linux looks really good.

Do we need the bigger validation (like the one we got yesterday with the smoke tests for Linux) to get this merged? It seems that most of the issues are now gone and the tests failing look hard to reproduce (as they only happen on Windows).

[cottsay]

Do we need the bigger validation

That's what the test_communication job is trying to do. The Linux one looks fine but the Windows one ran into a bunch of Zenoh-related problems so I'm going to cancel it and re-trigger it with Zenoh disabled.

[lobolanja]

@cottsay From my side everything looks good. Please feel free to proceed with the merge if the Windows build is stable.

From RTI, we are committed to supporting the stabilization process in case any additional issues arise, not only related to Connext or the RMW. As we continue gaining a deeper understanding of the ROS 2 CI and overall project, we are increasingly in a position to help across more areas.

Thanks for your support and assistance.

[fgallegosalido]

@cottsay I think the test failures in test_communication are not related to the Connext RMW. Can we get both this pull request and ros2/rmw_connextdds#219 merged?