Linux Ubuntu Installation

Table of contents

Note: Due to the USB 3.0 translation layer between native hardware and virtual machine, the librealsense team does not support installation in a VM.
If you do choose to try it, we recommend using VMware Workstation Player, and not Oracle VirtualBox for proper emulation of the USB3 controller.
Please ensure to work with the supported Kernel versions listed here and verify that the kernel is updated properly according to the instructions.

Prerequisites

Note: We are supporting Ubuntu 18/20/22 LTS versions.
Note: The scripts and commands below invoke wget, git, add-apt-repository which may be blocked by router settings or a firewall.
Infrequently, apt-get mirrors or repositories may also cause timeout. For librealsense users behind an enterprise firewall,
configuring the system-wide Ubuntu proxy generally resolves most timeout issues.

Important: Running RealSense Depth Cameras on Linux requires patching and inserting modified kernel drivers.
Some OEM/Vendors choose to lock the kernel for modifications. Unlocking this capability may require modification of BIOS settings

Install dependencies

  1. Make Ubuntu up-to-date including the latest stable kernel:

    sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

  2. Install the core packages required to build librealsense binaries and the affected kernel modules:

    sudo apt-get install libssl-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev libudev-dev pkg-config libgtk-3-dev

    Cmake Note: certain librealsense CMAKE flags (e.g. CUDA) require version 3.8+ which is currently not made available via apt manager for Ubuntu LTS.

  3. Install build tools

    sudo apt-get install git wget cmake build-essential

  4. Prepare Linux Backend and the Dev. Environment
    Unplug any connected Intel RealSense camera and run:

    sudo apt-get install libglfw3-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev at

  5. Install IDE (Optional):
    We use QtCreator as an IDE for Linux development on Ubuntu.

Note:

  • on graphic sub-system utilization:
    glfw3, mesa and gtk packages are required if you plan to build the SDK’s OpenGL-enabled examples.
    The librealsens2e core library and a range of demos/tools are designed for headless environment deployment.

  • libudev-dev installation is optional but recommended,
    when the libudev-dev is installed the SDK will use an event-driven approach for triggering USB detection and enumeration,
    if not the SDK will use a timer polling approach which is less sensitive for device detection.

Install librealsense2

  1. Clone/Download the latest stable version of librealsense2 in one of the following ways:

    • Clone the librealsense2 repo

      git clone https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense.git

    • Download and unzip the latest stable librealsense2 version from master branch
      IntelRealSense.zip

  2. Run Intel Realsense permissions script from librealsense2 root directory:

    ./scripts/setup_udev_rules.sh

    Notice: You can always remove permissions by running: ./scripts/setup_udev_rules.sh --uninstall

  3. Build and apply patched kernel modules for:

    • Ubuntu 20/22 (focal/jammy) with LTS kernel 5.13, 5.15, 5.19, 6.2, 6.5
      ./scripts/patch-realsense-ubuntu-lts-hwe.sh

    • Ubuntu 18/20 with LTS kernel (< 5.13)
      ./scripts/patch-realsense-ubuntu-lts.sh

    Note: What the *.sh script perform? The script above will download, patch and build realsense-affected kernel modules (drivers).
    Then it will attempt to insert the patched module instead of the active one. If failed the original uvc modules will be restored.

    Check the patched modules installation by examining the generated log as well as inspecting the latest entries in kernel log:
    sudo dmesg | tail -n 50
    The log should indicate that a new uvcvideo driver has been registered.
    Refer to Troubleshooting in case of errors/warning reports.

Building librealsense2 SDK

  • Navigate to librealsense2 root directory and run:

    mkdir build && cd build

  • Run cmake configure step, here are some cmake configure examples:
    The default build is set to produce the core shared object and unit-tests binaries in Debug mode.
    Use -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release to build with optimizations.

    cmake ../

    Builds librealsense2 along with the demos and tutorials:

    cmake ../ -DBUILD_EXAMPLES=true

    For systems without OpenGL or X11 build only textual examples:

    cmake ../ -DBUILD_EXAMPLES=true -DBUILD_GRAPHICAL_EXAMPLES=false

  • Recompile and install librealsense2 binaries:

    sudo make uninstall && make clean && make && sudo make install

    Note: Only relevant to CPUs with more than 1 core: use make -j$(($(nproc)-1)) install allow parallel compilation.

    Note: The shared object will be installed in /usr/local/lib, header files in /usr/local/include.
    The binary demos, tutorials and test files will be copied into /usr/local/bin

    Note: Linux build configuration is presently configured to use the V4L2 backend by default.
    Note: If you encounter the following error during compilation gcc: internal compiler error
    it might indicate that you do not have enough memory or swap space on your machine.
    Try closing memory consuming applications, and if you are running inside a VM, increase available RAM to at least 2 GB.
    Note: You can find more information about the available configuration options on this wiki page.