[ros-users] [Discourse.ros.org] [General] Development setup for multiple ROS distros?

[Martin Günther]

Another option is debootstrap + schroot. Schroot is a way to install a different Ubuntu version in parallel to your main Ubuntu version. I regularly use this on my Ubuntu Trusty (14.04) host system to change into a Ubuntu Precise (12.04) schroot, where I have ROS fuerte installed (don't ask). But this would work for any combination of Ubuntu versions. You can mount your home directory so it's accessible from both systems. Even graphical programs such as RViz or Gazebo GUI work. No bootup time, no background processes or anything required. If I'm not using it, it doesn't eat up any resources; when I want to use it, I just run `schroot -c chroot:ros_precise` and I'm there in one second.

Same caveats apply as with Docker (since Docker is basically a pimped up schroot): Your schroot processes share the host system's kernel, so you cannot access a hardware device that requires a kernel which is newer than the host system's kernel. This has never happened to me though. Also, just as with docker, you of course need the disk space to install a complete second copy of Ubuntu.






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