Setup - Laptop#

What you will need

  • A laptop or machine running Ubuntu 20.04 or 22.04

  • Alternatively: A laptop or machine running MacOS

What you will get

  • Your laptop configured with Duckietown software and ready to sign into your accounts

In this section, we will install all the software that you need to run the Duckietown development environment on your laptop. This includes Git, Docker, and the Duckietown Shell.

Note

If you are unfamiliar with Git or Docker, we strongly recommend reading the following reference pages to gain a working understanding of these tools.

  1. The Duckietown Intro to Git

  2. The Duckietown Intro to Docker

Check out the laptop requirements below to make sure you are ready to proceed, then continue on to the next page to begin setting up your development environment.

If you need help installing Ubuntu, see Step 0: System Installation below.

Minimal Laptop Requirements#

Duckietown officially supports Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 22.04.

Please be aware that using an operating system that is not officially supported reduces the ability of the Duckietown team and the whole community to provide you with technical support when needed.

Officially Supported

Ubuntu 22.04

This is the recommended operating system for using Duckietown. We strongly suggest using it.

Ubuntu 20.04

This older version of the Ubuntu operating system will currently work with the Duckietown ecosystem.

Unofficially Supported

Other Linux distributions

Having Ubuntu is not an enforced requirement, and everything should in theory work on any Linux operating system.

MacOSX

We provide instructions for setting up on MacOSX, but you may run into bugs as you venture further into development.

Ubuntu installed via VM

This is possible, though network configuration is required. See the section below for more details.

Windows (WSL)

An experimental setup is in development to run the dts through the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). Select the Windows (Beta) tab to test this.

Not Supported

Windows (Native)

Currently, it is not possible to run the Duckietown development tools on Windows. See below for available VM options to run Ubuntu on your Windows machine.

Native installation vs virtual machines#

Having Ubuntu installed natively on your laptop is recommended but not strictly required.

If you are running Ubuntu in a VM make sure that you are using a Bridged network adapter (for example VirtualBox uses NAT by default). This allows you to be on the same subnetwork as your Duckiebot.

Sometimes when running a VMware machine on a Mac OS host, it is neccessary to have two network adapters: Share with my Mac for connecting to the internet and Bridged Networking for connecting to the Duckiebot.

For more information about networking with VMware, see here.

Step 0: System Installation#

Install the Ubuntu operating system. Ubuntu 22.04 is strongly suggested.

Follow the official documentation for instructions.

Warning

This configuration is not officially supported. We recommend using the Ubuntu Operating System for an optimal experience.

Select the MacOSX tab on each of the following laptop setup pages to follow the instructions specific to your operating system.

Install WSL:

  1. Open the Start menu and search for Command prompt.

  2. Right click on the Command prompt result and select Run as administrator.

  3. In the command prompt execute:

    wsl --install -d Ubuntu-22.04

  4. Reboot your Windows machine for the changes to take effect.

  5. Setup Ubuntu your user account by following the prompts.

  6. Update the WSL kernel:

    wsl --update