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Additional Installation Information

Installation can usually be completed using the installation script provided (see Installing NavVis Desktop Processing Software). However, manual installation may be required in some cases. Details of this process are provided below.

We provide our software and dependencies as Ubuntu packages in the native Debian package format (.deb). These packages are delivered via apt repositories for easy and convenient installation and upgrading. We provide the following repositories:

  • navvis-stable-desktop: This repository contains the NavVis Desktop Processing Software and some additional customized packages for processing NavVis M6 and NavVis VLX data. A NavVis Desktop Processing Software update license is required.
  • ros-stable: The required ROS packages are mirrored in this repository. For all NavVis devices with an active license.
  • navvis-stable-vlx-system: This repository contains the NavVis VLX system software and some additional customized packages. A NavVis System Software license is required.
  • navvis-stable-m6-system: This repository contains the NavVis M6 system software and some additional customized packages. A NavVis System Software license is required.

Optional: Enable automatic, unattended upgrades. See Automatic Updates (Ubuntu documentation) for more information.

Find more information on installing and updating packages as well as on configuring the update process in the Ubuntu documentation on package management.
Note: In certain cases, a release-specific repository may be required to install your software. However, dp not change the software repositories to anything other than *-stable unless specifically advised to do so. For more information, contact NavVis technical support.

Ensuring a Clean Installation​

A clean installation is recommended. To facilitate a clean installation, remove all previously installed NavVis packages from your processing machine using the following commands:

sudo apt-get purge navvis-*
sudo apt-get purge '^ros-.*'
sudo apt-get autoremove

Installation Steps​

The following commands must be executed on an Ubuntu 64-bit installation. Only Ubuntu 18.04 is supported. Note that lines ending with a backslash \ have been wrapped for better readability.

  1. Download the software signing key:
    wget -qO - https://static.navvis.com/navvis.key | sudo apt-key add -
  2. Register the NavVis repository:
    sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://repo2.navvis.com/repository/navvis-stable-desktop/ $(lsb_release -cs) bionic non-free" \
     > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/navvis.list'
    Note: Registering the apt repositories is a one-time step. Once the apt repositories are registered, the NavVis software can be managed with the apt tools just like any other Ubuntu software. Always use the official NavVis repositories (also for PCL and ROS packages). Do not add your own repositories.
  3. Update the package sources:
    sudo apt-get update
  4. Install navvis-repos:
    sudo apt-get install navvis-repos
  5. Update the package sources again:
    sudo apt-get update
    Note: This setup leaves the original Ubuntu sources in /etc/apt/sources.list untouched. The installed file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/navvis-ubuntu.list will have no effect and the machine will get the latest Ubuntu packages.
  6. Install the relevant NavVis mapping software package (see Ensuring a Clean Installation). In the example below, the navvis-desktop-stable package will be installed with all relevant dependencies:
    sudo apt-get install navvis-desktop-stable
    It is not unusual to install 900+ packages during the first-time installation with Ubuntu. The installation also requires some packages (e.g. qt-at-spi) to be uninstalled. These conflict with the NavVis mapping software and can be removed safely.
Note: Do not modify static configuration files under /opt/NavVis. Do not modify the file /etc/NavVis/sensor_frame.xml.
Note: If the NavVis software is unable to run after (re-)installation, a reboot is required.