ROS2 on Debian 12

[Steve " 'dillo" Okay]

I've acquired a MNT "Pocket Reform" laptop and, of course, want to get ROS2 on it. 

I thought I'd ask here first before setting off on my own since I'm almost certain somebody here has done this before and might have a workflow they can point me at. 

It's running Debian 12, so there doesn't appear to be an immediate set of packages or direct support for this distro via ros.org. 

(The MNT is quite a neat little device, but since it's a crowd-funded, Open Source/Open HW system, it's got its own aarch64-based distro  of Debian 12. So no, just wiping it and installing Ubuntu 24 is not an option)

So, ROS2 on Debian 12 ? Anyone ? anyone ? 

Thanks,

'dillo

[Chris Albertson]

I would go with Docker. The ROS2 images are pre-built, so no installation is needed.

[Marco Walther]

On 9/12/25 16:26, Chris Albertson wrote:
> I would go with Docker. The ROS2 images are pre-built, so no installation is needed.

That's probably the easiest way to get something going.

>
>> On Sep 12, 2025, at 3:46 PM, Steve 'dillo Okay <espre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I've acquired a MNT "Pocket Reform" laptop and, of course, want to get ROS2 on it.
>> I thought I'd ask here first before setting off on my own since I'm almost certain somebody here has done this before and might have a workflow they can point me at.
>>
>> It's running Debian 12, so there doesn't appear to be an immediate set of packages or direct support for this distro via ros.org.
>>
>> (The MNT is quite a neat little device, but since it's a crowd-funded, Open Source/Open HW system, it's got its own aarch64-based distro of Debian 12. So no, just wiping it and installing Ubuntu 24 is not an option)
>

I would assume, there are maybe <50 'specialized' packages different
from the Bookworm-based RaspPiOS. Bookworm is also pretty close to
Ubuntu 24.04. So, you could probably make a Franken-Mix of those three,
depending how much ROS you want to get there.

You could probably install mostly Ubuntu 24.04 with the special
kernel/boot setup and potentially some GPU-related libraries.

OK, I found
https://mntre.com/reform-debian-repo/dists/reform/main/binary-arm64/ ,
that seems to have 36 packages right now;-)

Have fun with that little toy;-)
-- Marco

[Chris Albertson]

I would assume, there are maybe <50 'specialized' packages different from the Bookworm-based RaspPiOS. Bookworm is also pretty close to Ubuntu 24.04. So, you could probably make a Franken-Mix of those three, depending how much ROS you want to get there.

You could probably install mostly Ubuntu 24.04 with the special kernel/boot setup and potentially some GPU-related libraries.

We used to call solutions like this “A job for life”.   Every software upgrade breaks it so you either have to freeze the system literally forever, or spend literally forever keeping it working.   

[Marco Walther]

I would `not` suggest that for 50k hosts in a production environment;-)
But our one-off experimental robots and ROS setups already fall pretty
much into that category anyhow.

So, I see three choices;-)
* Use containers (will probably work for most things)
* Try to get most of the Ubuntu userland installed and install the
official ROS packages on that
* Keep the Debian and rebuild whatever you need/want from ROS.

Within ten minutes, I found the repo, which claims to be used to build
their boot/install images. I did not look at the code, but if all of
that is there, that would probably not be hard to fork & modify to
rebase it on AARCH64 Ubuntu.

-- Marco

>
>

[Steve " 'dillo" Okay]

On Friday, September 12, 2025 at 11:24:44 PM UTC-7 Marco Walther wrote:

On 9/12/25 16:26, Chris Albertson wrote:
> I would go with Docker. The ROS2 images are pre-built, so no installation is needed.

That's probably the easiest way to get something going.

>
>> On Sep 12, 2025, at 3:46 PM, Steve 'dillo Okay <espre...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I've acquired a MNT "Pocket Reform" laptop and, of course, want to get ROS2 on it.
>> I thought I'd ask here first before setting off on my own since I'm almost certain somebody here has done this before and might have a workflow they can point me at.
>>
>> It's running Debian 12, so there doesn't appear to be an immediate set of packages or direct support for this distro via ros.org.
>>
>> (The MNT is quite a neat little device, but since it's a crowd-funded, Open Source/Open HW system, it's got its own aarch64-based distro of Debian 12. So no, just wiping it and installing Ubuntu 24 is not an option)
>

I would assume, there are maybe <50 'specialized' packages different
from the Bookworm-based RaspPiOS. Bookworm is also pretty close to
Ubuntu 24.04. So, you could probably make a Franken-Mix of those three,
depending how much ROS you want to get there.

As much as I can eventually :) but I wasn't planning on running MoveIt! on there or anything like that. 

Really as a remote Rviz or console hackery/robot-following device. It's a bit chunky, but already beats hauling a proper laptop around. 
Foxglove installed w/ out a hitch because it's its own isolated .deb . 
I *could* build a robot around it, but I've got so many work and other side projects, I don't need another one TBH. 

Have fun with that little toy;-)

It's been a fun little thing, kind of reminds me of the Toshiba Libretto I had way back :) 

'dillo