A tool to run docker images with customized local support injected for things like nvidia support. And user id specific files for cleaner mounting file permissions.

Rocker supports extensions via entry points there are some built in but you can add your own. Here's a list of public repositories with extensions.

• Off-your-rocker: https://github.com/sloretz/off-your-rocker

This should work on most systems using with a recent docker version available.

Docker installation instructions: https://docs.docker.com/install/

For the NVIDIA option this has been tested on the following systems using nvidia docker2:

Install nvidia-docker 2: https://docs.nvidia.com/datacenter/cloud-native/container-toolkit/install-guide.html#docker

For executing Docker as a non-root user, separate installation instructions are provided here: https://docs.docker.com/engine/security/rootless/

After installing Rootless Docker, the nvidia-docker2 package can be installed as usual from the website above. Currently, cgroups are not supported in rootless mode so we need to change no-cgroups in /etc/nvidia-container-runtime/config.toml

[nvidia-container-cli]
no-cgroups = true

Note, that changing this setting will lead to a Failed to initialize NVML: Unknown Error if Docker is executed as root (noted here).

For intel integrated graphics support you will need to mount through a specific device

--devices /dev/dri/card0

Debian packages are available from the ROS repositories. You can set them up in step one here then come back.

Then you can sudo apt-get install python3-rocker

If you're not on a Ubuntu or Debian platform.

Rocker is available via pip you can install it via pip using

pip install rocker

Using any AUR helper, for example, with paru

paru -S python-rocker

or

paru -S python-rocker-git

To set things up in a virtual environment for isolation is a good way. If you don't already have it install python3's venv module.

sudo apt-get install python3-venv

Create a venv

mkdir -p ~/rocker_venv
python3 -m venv ~/rocker_venv

Install rocker

cd ~/rocker_venv
. ~/rocker_venv/bin/activate
pip install git+https://github.com/osrf/rocker.git

For any new terminal re activate the venv before trying to use it.

. ~/rocker_venv/bin/activate

To run tests install nose and coverage in the venv

. ~/rocker_venv/bin/activate
pip install nose
pip install coverage

Then you can run nosetests.

nosetests-3.4 --with-coverage --cover-package rocker

Notes:

• Make sure to use the python3 instance of nosetest from inside the environment.
• The tests include an nvidia test which assumes you're using a machine with an nvidia gpu.

Example usage with an iris

rocker --nvidia --x11 --user --home --pull --pulse tfoote/drone_demo

After the ekf converges,

You can send a takeoff command and then click to command the vehicle to fly to a point on the map.

Example usage with a plane

rocker --nvidia --x11 --user --home --pull --pulse tfoote/drone_demo roslaunch sitl_launcher plane_demo.launch world_name:=worlds/plane.world gui:=false

In QGroundControl go ahead and make a mission, upload it, and then start the mission.

rocker --nvidia --x11 osrf/ros:crystal-desktop rviz2

On Xenial

rocker --nvidia --x11 osrf/ros:kinetic-desktop-full gazebo

On Bionic

rocker --nvidia --x11 osrf/ros:melodic-desktop-full gazebo

--volume adds paths as docker volumes.

The last path must be terminated with two dashes --.

rocker --volume ~/.vimrc ~/.bashrc -- ubuntu:18.04

The above example of the volume option will be expanded via absolute paths for docker run as follows:

--volume /home/<USERNAME>/.vimrc:/home/<USERNAME>/.vimrc --volume /home/<USERNAME>/.bashrc:/home/<USERNAME>/.bashrc  

It will process the same as docker's --volume option, rocker --volume takes 3 fields.

• 1st field: the path to the file or directory on the host machine.
• 2nd field: (optional) the path where the file or directory is mounted in the container.
  • If only the 1st field is supplied, same value as the 1st field will be populated as the 2nd field.
• 3rd field: (optional) bind propagation as ro, z, and Z. See docs.docker.com for further detail.