Ubuntu Linux for Robotics · Lesson 92 of 96

Jetson

JetPack, power modes, tegrastats, CUDA containers and remote flashing.

Estimated time · 60–90 min

Learning goals

What you will understand

Explain jetson in your own words
Use it in a small workstation example
Verify the result instead of assuming it worked

Understand the idea first

The mental model

NVIDIA Jetson boards (Orin Nano, AGX Orin) are small computers with a GPU for perception. They run Ubuntu with NVIDIA's JetPack (drivers, CUDA, TensorRT). Flash the operating system with the NVIDIA SDK Manager or the provided images, and check which Ubuntu and ROS 2 versions your JetPack supports before choosing a ROS 2 distribution; containers are often the easiest way.

Use sudo nvpmodel to choose a power mode and sudo jetson_clocks to lock the clocks; watch temperature with tegrastats and cool the board (a fan) for sustained loads. Images are arm64, so pick containers built for aarch64.

Guided lesson

Work through these steps

1.
Open a terminal and record the current state before changing anything.
2.
Read the jetson commands and predict what each one does.
3.
Run the commands one at a time and compare each output with your prediction.
4.
Write the commands that worked in a setup note you can repeat later.

Worked example

Read it before you run it

cat /etc/nv_tegra_release
# Show the JetPack (L4T) release.
sudo nvpmodel -q
# Show the current power mode.
sudo nvpmodel -m 0
# Select the maximum-performance mode.
sudo jetson_clocks
# Lock the clocks at their maximum.
sudo tegrastats
# Watch CPU, GPU, memory, power and temperature.
docker run --rm --runtime nvidia --network host dustynv/ros:lyrical-ros-base-l4t bash
# Run an arm64 ROS 2 container with GPU access (image name depends on availability).

What the example is doing

1.Lines without sudo only inspect or change files you own; sudo authorizes a system-wide change.
2.Read command output before moving to the next line. Stop if names, versions, disks, or paths differ from the lesson.
3.Comments beginning with # explain safety checks and are not executed by the shell.

Watch it run · The robot's computer

See what this code does

The terminal types this lesson's practice solution and runs it. The scene shows the kind of robot behaviour that code drives. It plays by itself and loops.

Practice code

Now type it yourself

Open a terminal, run the starter line by line (or save it as practice.sh and run bash practice.sh), and replace every TODO with your own command.

# TODO: query the current power mode with nvpmodel

Expected output

The current NVPModel power mode

Stuck? Show the full solution (try it yourself first)

sudo nvpmodel -q

Expected result

How you know it worked

Each command completes without an unexplained error.
Your notes contain the command, the important output, and what it proves.

Practical exercise

Apply the lesson

Record the JetPack release, run the detector in two power modes, and compare frame rate, power and temperature using tegrastats.

Before you continue

You recorded the starting state
Every command and output is understood
The change can be repeated from your notes

If something goes wrong

A command says permission denied.

Check ownership and permissions first. Do not add sudo unless the command changes a documented system location.

A command or package is not found.

Check spelling, Ubuntu version, enabled repositories, and whether the previous installation command succeeded.