Hi everyone,
To celebrate the new year, I’m happy to announce the availability of OCI (Open Container Initiative) images for Gazebo, providing containerized versions of the simulator across all current releases. These images work with Docker, Podman, and any OCI-compatible container runtime.
What’s Available
The images cover all current Gazebo releases:
- Jetty (LTS)
- Ionic
- Harmonic (LTS)
- Fortress (LTS)
Each release is available in two variants:
core- Minimal installation with essential tools (up to sdformat)full- Complete Gazebo suite with all packages
All images support both linux/amd64 and linux/arm64 architectures. They are automatically rebuilt weekly and whenever new package versions are detected in the Gazebo repositories.
Quick Start with Rocker
Here’s an example using rocker to run Gazebo with display and GPU support:
pip install rocker
rocker --x11 --nvidia ghcr.io/j-rivero/gazebo:jetty-full -- gz sim --verbose
The repository also includes usage examples for Apptainer, Distrobox, nerdctl, Podman, and other container tools.
Comprehensive Diagnostics
Having trouble with GPU acceleration or display issues? The repository includes a detailed gz_oci_images/TROUBLESHOOTING.md at main · j-rivero/gz_oci_images · GitHub covering:
- NVIDIA and Intel GPU setup
- X11 display configuration
- Understanding gz sim --verbose output
- Tool-specific fixes for various container runtimes
Credits
This work is built on top of the excellent foundation created by Shane Loretz in his GitHub - sloretz/ros_oci_images: ROS Open Container Initiative Images repository. The Gazebo images adapt his architecture and build system. All credit goes to Shane for the underlying infrastructure.
Links
- Repository: GitHub - j-rivero/gz_oci_images: Gazebo Open Container Initiative Images
- Images: ghcr.io/j-rivero/gazebo:-
- Troubleshooting Guide: gz_oci_images/TROUBLESHOOTING.md at main · j-rivero/gz_oci_images · GitHub
Feedback and contributions are welcome! 