ROS has traditionally only supported a self-contained installation from version control, typically somewhere like ~/ros or /opt/ros. While Debian and Ubuntu packages exist for many ROS components, they are hosted by the ROS community and onl support installation to /opt/ros. Beginning with ROS Fuerte (released 2012-04-23), the ROS community is moving towards conforming with the FHS (REP 122.)
Now that the ROS community are targeting an FHS-compatible layout, it should be possible to generate binary packages for ROS components and get them accepted into Fedora proper (distribution acceptance is one of the stated reasons for the switch.) This page summarizes the progress towards getting a full working ROS installation into Fedora.
Tasks
- Package python tools that have traditionally been installed using easy_install
- Package the ROS build underlay
Dependencies
Some extra packaging work is
- Ensure all appropriate Fedora packages appear in their relevant rosdep manifests
- Package Gazebo
- Issues: Bundles several libraries, prefixed with gazebo_*.so. Some (ODE) contain significant changes from upstream. Need to get clarification on whether changes will be upstreamed.