Support Debian install on Ubuntu 22.04

[Ryanf55]

Hello,

I'd like to request some packaging support for this tool. Is there any way that eProsima could start supplying a debian (pre-compiled package) of MicroXRCEDDSGen that is installable through apt? Right now, all of our build tools in ROS 2 can either be installed with debian or compiled from source with colcon build. Adding MicroXRCDDSGen to an apt repository such ArduPilot developers can apt install Micro-XRCE-DDS-Gen would be wonderful as then there wouldn't be a separate gradle compilation step.

The alternative is something like this PR: ArduPilot/ardupilot#25651

In order to enable DDS by default in ArduPIlot, I've had to copied the generated message files into our source tree and use those as a fallback if microxrceddsgen is not found, because the current MicroXRCEDDSGen installation process is too burdensome for the dev team.

I only have experience creating debians with CPack for CMake-based projects, but I am happy to help out with this.

[pablogs9]

Hello @Ryanf55, we have just released a .deb installation of Micro-XRCE-DDS-Gen in the new Vulcanexus Iron release.

So if you follow this you will be able to install both Micro-XRCE-DDS-Gen and the micro-ROS Agent via apt.

[Ryanf55]

Hello @Ryanf55, we have just released a .deb installation of Micro-XRCE-DDS-Gen in the new Vulcanexus Iron release.

So if you follow this you will be able to install both Micro-XRCE-DDS-Gen and the micro-ROS Agent via apt.

Excellent. Is it possible that the Micro-XRCE-DDS-Gen and micro-ROS agent would be compatible with ROS 2 humble?
According to the recent developer survey, the largest percentage of downloads on ROS 2 are on humble:
https://discourse.ros.org/t/2023-ros-metrics-report/35837

ArduPilot is currently on Humble due to LTS stability.

[pablogs9]

AFAIK Vulcanexus team is working in the Humble release. It will came with the packets you mention. CC: @rsanchez15

[rsanchez15]

Hi @Ryanf55

As @pablogs9 mentioned, we were working on the Humble release last week and now is ready!

Now you should be able to install Micro-XRCE-DDS-Gen and Micro-ROS Agent by downloading it from our apt repository (apt install -y vulcanexus-humble-micro) or just by pulling the Vulcanexus Micro Docker image (docker run -it eprosima/vulcanexus:humble-micro) which comes with these software tools.

[Ryanf55]

Can you add more info on the debian generation? Due to #68 not being solved in the version released on humble, and ArduPilot not forcing users to upgrade FastDDS to vulcanexus which I do not believe is compatible with the version of DDS shipped by default in ROS 2 humble, we would like to build our own debians for our custom fork:
https://github.com/ArduPilot/Micro-XRCE-DDS-Gen/releases/tag/v4.5.0

[Ryanf55]

Hello,

Can you please share your process to generate the debians? I would like to build and host them myself. I don't see it tracked in this repo.

We would use it for the following:
ArduPilot#3

[pablogs9]

Hi @Ryanf55 unfortunately the procedures for generating deb packages at the eProsima side are not public.

[khancyr]

Would it be an issue if I submit my PR here? It is just a one simple way to create a .deb