Ubuntu Development Environment

The following instructions use a bash script to set up the PX4 development environment on the Ubuntu Linux LTS versions supported by PX4: Ubuntu 22.04 (Jammy Jellyfish), 20.04 (Focal Fossa), and 18.04 (Bionic Beaver).

The environment includes:

• Gazebo Simulator on Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 20.04
• Gazebo Classic Simulator on Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 18.04
• Build toolchain for Pixhawk (and other NuttX-based hardware).

INFO

The build toolchain for other flight controllers, simulators, and working with ROS are discussed in the Other Targets section below.

Simulation and NuttX (Pixhawk) Targets

Use the ubuntu.sh script to set up a development environment that allows you to build for simulators and/or the NuttX/Pixhawk toolchain.

TIP

The script is intended to be run on clean Ubuntu LTS installations, and may not work if run "on top" of an existing system, or on a different Ubuntu release.

To install the toolchain:

1. Download PX4 Source Code:

   git clone https://github.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot.git --recursive

   INFO

   The environment setup scripts in the source usually work for recent PX4 releases. If working with an older version of PX4 you may need to get the source code specific to your release.

2. Run the ubuntu.sh with no arguments (in a bash shell) to install everything:

   bash ./PX4-Autopilot/Tools/setup/ubuntu.sh

   • Acknowledge any prompts as the script progress.
   • You can use the --no-nuttx and --no-sim-tools options to omit the NuttX and/or simulation tools.

3. Restart the computer on completion.

Additional notes

These notes are provided "for information only":

• This setup is supported by the PX4 Dev Team. The instructions may also work on other Debian Linux based systems.

• The script installs Gazebo "Garden" on Ubuntu 22.04, Gazebo Classic 11 on Ubuntu 20.04, and Gazebo Classic 9 on Ubuntu 18.04.

• If you want to use Gazebo on Ubuntu 20.04 you can add it manually. See Gazebo > Installation.

• You can verify the NuttX installation by confirming the gcc version as shown:

  $arm-none-eabi-gcc --version
  
  arm-none-eabi-gcc (GNU Arm Embedded Toolchain 9-2020-q2-update) 9.3.1 20200408 (release)
  Copyright (C) 2019 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.  There is NO
  warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

• You're going to need the PX4 source code anyway. But if you just wanted to set up the development environment without getting all the source code you could instead just download ubuntu.sh and requirements.txt and then run ubuntu.sh:

  wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/release/1.15/Tools/setup/ubuntu.sh
  wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PX4/PX4-Autopilot/release/1.15/Tools/setup/requirements.txt
  bash ubuntu.sh

Video Guide

This video shows how to install the toolchain for NuttX and simulation targets (as covered below) along with the basic testing covered in Building PX4 Software.

WARNING

The video suggests that you build source using JMAVSim, entering the command: make px4_sitl jmavsim. As JMAVSim is now community-supported, you should instead build using Gazebo or Gazebo Classic, as shown in Building the Code

Other Targets

The Ubuntu development environment for ROS, other simulators, and other hardware targets, is covered in their respective documentation. A subset of the relevant topics are linked below.

Raspberry Pi

• Raspberry Pi 2/3 Navio2 Autopilot > PX4 Development Environment
• Raspberry Pi 2/3/4 PilotPi Shield.

ROS

• ROS 2: ROS 2 User Guide > Installation & Setup.
• ROS (1): ROS (1) Installation Guide

Next Steps

Once you have finished setting up the command-line toolchain:

• Install VSCode (if you prefer using an IDE to the command line).

• Install the QGroundControl Daily Build

  TIP

  The daily build includes development tools that hidden in release builds. It may also provide access to new PX4 features that are not yet supported in release builds.

• Continue to the build instructions.