System requirements:

Linux
Ethernet adapter
Root access to the Ethernet adapter

These libraries are required by the youBot API:

Simple Open EtherCAT master http://soem.berlios.de (included in the driver)
Boost C++ Libraries http://www.boost.org

Installation with rosmake:

Install a minimal installation of ROS. (see ros.org)

Clone the youBot API sources:

git clone git://github.com/youbot/youbot_driver.git

Add the repository folder to the ROS_PACKAGE_PATH environment variable.

Compile the youbot driver by typing:

rosmake youbot_driver --rosdep-install

Manual installation:

First, make sure that you have the gnu-make software available on your system (version 3.81 or later required), as well as a working C compiler chain.

The console commands below are exemplary for a Ubuntu Linux.

You will need a git version control software:

sudo apt-get install git git-core

Cmake a cross platform make is also necessary:

sudo apt-get install cmake

To download the youBot API sources type:

git clone git://github.com/youbot/youbot_driver.git

Install boost.

sudo apt-get install libboost-all-dev

Now you should be able to compile the youBot API.

cd <your_folder>/youbot_driver
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make

The libraries will be generated in the folder ~/youbot_driver/lib.