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Nvidia Jetson TX1

The TX1 is the second generation of the Nvidia Jetson processor boards. They carry a Tegra processor manufactured by Nvidia, which integrates an ARM architecture CPU with a GPU, Northbridge, Southbridge, and memory controller on a single chip. It is explicitely marketed as a platform for deep learning and computer vision. For this page, it is assumed that the Nvidia Jetson TX1 Developer Kit is used.

General Setup

To start using the TX1 for ROS applications, first the proper software needs to be installed. Fortunately, Nvidia provides most necessary software and drivers through JetPack. Simply said, JetPack flashes (installs the OS + drivers) the TX1 to Ubuntu 16.04 with a kernel and drivers that accompany the TX1 hardware architecture.

Required Peripherals

Flashing the TX1 using JetPack

  1. Download the latest version of JetPack (3.2 seems to be the latest version that will be made available for the TX1)

  2. Create an installation directory on the host computer
    • mkdir ~/jetson_install

  3. Copy your download of JetPack to the install directory

    • cp ~/Downloads/JetPack-L4T-3.2-linux-x64_b196.run ~/jetson_install

  4. Run the JetPack 3.2 installer

    • chmod +x ./JetPack-L4T-3.2-linux-x64_b196.run

    • ./JetPack-L4T-3.2-linux-x64_b196.run

  5. Follow the installer to download all necessary components
    • full install is recommended - contains a lot of interesting demo material

  6. In the meanwhile: connect the Jetson TX1 to your host computer via the USB to Micro-B cable
    1. Also: connect the rest of the peripherals to the Jetson TX1 directly
  7. After all components are installed and the Jetson is properly connected, go on with 'device installation'
  8. A new terminal window comes up, asking you to put the Jetson in usb recovery mode.
    1. Power down the device
    2. Press and release the POWER button [19]
    3. Press and hold the RECOVERY FORCE button [20]
    4. While holding the RECOVERY FORCE button [20], press and release the RESET button [22].
      • If the Jetson is put into recovery mode correctly, the lsusb command should show an NVIDIA CORP device

  9. Now hit a key in the terminal to proceed
  10. If everything went well, Jetson should now first be flashed, boot into ubuntu (username nvidia, password nvidia) and all components selected in step 5 should start to install (see progress in terminal window)

Install ROS

Fortunately, ROS Kinetic can be installed on the Nvidia Jetson from Debian packages, as described by by the Ubuntu Install of ROS Kinetic page.

If you run into a 'cannot download default sources list from:' error when calling sudo rosdep init, try to call sudo c_rehash /etc/ssl/certs before calling sudo rosdep init again (fix courtesy of Jetsonhacks).

For an almost 'one click' install, JetsonHacks published a blogpost and accompanying scripts to make this process even quicker.

Known Issues


2024-03-23 12:19