Compiling Realsense SDK on Jetson Orin Nano

Issue Overview

Users are experiencing difficulties compiling the librealsense SDK for ROS Noetic on the NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano developer board. The main problem arises when following the official Jetson installation guide provided in the realsense_ros GitHub documentation. The guide does not explicitly support the Orin Nano, leading to compilation errors. Specifically, when attempting to build from source, users encounter an "Unsupported kernel version 5.10.104-tegra" error. This issue prevents the successful installation and use of the realsense-ros package on the Orin Nano platform.

Possible Causes

1. Outdated documentation: The official installation guide may not have been updated to include support for the newer Jetson Orin Nano platform.

2. Kernel version mismatch: The error message suggests that the Realsense SDK is not compatible with the kernel version running on the Orin Nano.

3. JetPack version incompatibility: The Realsense package might be based on older JetPack 4 releases, while the Orin Nano uses JetPack 5.

4. Missing dependencies or configuration: The build process may require additional libraries or configuration steps specific to the Orin Nano that are not covered in the general installation guide.

Troubleshooting Steps, Solutions & Fixes

1. Use the community-provided solution:
   A successful solution was found and shared by a user in a related GitHub issue. To implement this fix:

   a. Visit the GitHub issue: https://github.com/IntelRealSense/librealsense/issues/10662

   b. Follow the instructions provided in the issue to compile and install the Realsense SDK on your Jetson Orin Nano.

2. Verify successful installation:
   After applying the fix, you should be able to:

   • Open the realsense-viewer application
   • Retrieve HD images successfully from your Realsense camera

3. If the above solution doesn’t work, try the following steps:

   a. Update your system:

   sudo apt update
   sudo apt upgrade
   

   b. Install necessary dependencies:

   sudo apt install git libssl-dev libusb-1.0-0-dev pkg-config libgtk-3-dev
   sudo apt install libglfw3-dev libgl1-mesa-dev libglu1-mesa-dev
   

   c. Clone the latest version of librealsense:

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

   d. Configure and build the SDK:

   mkdir build && cd build
   cmake ../ -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DBUILD_EXAMPLES=true
   make -j4
   sudo make install
   

4. If you encounter kernel-related issues:

   • Check your current kernel version: uname -r
   • Look for any Jetson-specific patches or workarounds in the librealsense GitHub issues or discussions.

5. For ROS Noetic integration:

   • Ensure you have ROS Noetic installed correctly on your Orin Nano.
   • Follow the ROS wrapper installation instructions from the official realsense-ros repository, adapting them as necessary for the Orin Nano.

6. If problems persist:

   • Report the issue on the librealsense GitHub repository, providing detailed information about your setup, JetPack version, and the exact error messages you encounter.
   • Consider reaching out to the NVIDIA Developer Forums for Jetson-specific advice on compiling third-party SDKs.

Remember to always backup your data and system configuration before making significant changes to your development environment.