Accessing GPIOs in a Docker container created from a ROS2 image

General
1

Hey,

I just started using Docker a week ago to work on my project :baby:. I need to use the MCC128 board in a ROS2 node. However, the board is detected on Raspberry Pi OS and ROS2 on Ubuntu. So, I want to use Docker to have a ROS2 environment on my Raspberry Pi OS.

Iā€™ve looked through a lot of forums, but I still havenā€™t found a solution to my problem, so Iā€™m hoping to find my savior hereā€¦

Iā€™m not sure what information is needed to understand my issue, so Iā€™ll try to be as precise as possible:

My Raspberry Pi ā†’ Raspberry Pi 3 B
OS ā†’ Raspberry Pi OS Lite 64Bits

delfinRos@raspberrypi:~  $ cat /etc/os-release
   PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm)"
   NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
   VERSION_ID="12"
   VERSION="12 (bookworm)"
   VERSION_CODENAME=bookworm
   ID=debian
   HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
   SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
   BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

delfinRos@raspberrypi:~  $ arch 
   aarch64

delfinRos@raspberrypi:~ $ uname ā€“a 
   Linux raspberrypi 6.12.20+rpt-rpi-v8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.12.20-1+rpt1~bpo12+1 (2025-03-19) aarch64 GNU/Linux

To install Docker on my Raspberry Pi, I followed this guide: https://docs.docker.com/desktop/setup/install/linux/debian/ using the apt repository.

I pulled this image from Docker Hub: docker pull arm64v8/ros:humble-ros-base.

Then, I wrote this Dockerfile:

FROM arm64v8/ros:humble-ros-base 
WORKDIR /ros_data 

# Install sudo and useful tools 
RUN apt update && apt install -y \ 
    sudo \ 
    python3-pip \ 
    python3-dev \ 
    python3-rosdep \ 
    python3-colcon-common-extensions \ 
    i2c-tools \ 
    kmod \ 
    libcap-dev \ 
    && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* 

# Add user delfinRos and permissions as root 
RUN useradd -ms /bin/bash delfinRos \ 
    && echo 'delfinRos:delfinRos' | chpasswd \ 
    && adduser delfinRos sudo \ 
    && echo '%delfinRos ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL' >> /etc/sudoers 

# Add user to groups required for accessing I2C, SPI, and GPIO 
RUN groupadd -f spi \ 
    && groupadd -f i2c \ 
    && groupadd -f gpio \ 
    && usermod -a -G spi delfinRos \ 
    && usermod -a -G i2c delfinRos \ 
    && usermod -a -G gpio delfinRos 

# Initialize rosdep (run as root to avoid permission issues) 
USER root 
RUN rosdep update 

# Switch back to 'delfinRos' user 
USER delfinRos 

# Copy project files into /ros_data 
COPY . . 

# Set up a volume for persistent storage 
VOLUME ["/ros_data"]

# Ensure ROS 2 environment is sourced on shell startup 
RUN echo 'source /opt/ros/humble/setup.bash' >> /home/delfinRos/.bashrc 

# Default command to start an interactive shell 
CMD ["/bin/bash"]

Then I built the image with:

docker build -t my_ros2_image .

And ran the container:

docker run --privileged --device=/dev/mem --device=/dev/i2c-1 --device=/dev/i2c-2 --device=/dev/spidev0.0 --device=/dev/spidev0.1 --device=/dev/gpiomem -v /home/delfinRos:/ros_data -it my_ros2_image

Iā€™m trying to give Docker as much access as possible to read my MCC128 board, which uses I2C and SPI communication.

Inside my container, I run sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get upgrade.

Once thatā€™s done, I go to my daqhat folder, which I have access to thanks to the volume in the Dockerfile. Itā€™s a folder I downloaded from this GitHub: https://github.com/mccdaq/daqhats/blob/master/README.md
Following the README, I try to install the board by running sudo ./install.sh.

Everything goes well until the end, where I get the following error:

Reading DAQ HAT EEPROMs

/usr/local/bin/daqhats_read_eeproms: 32: dtoverlay: not found
Loading of i2c-gpio dtoverlay failed. Do an rpi-update (and maybe apt update; apt upgrade).

./install.sh: line 71: raspi-config: command not found
./install.sh: line 71: [: -eq: unary operator expected
Shared library install complete.

So I canā€™t use the example code from the GitHub folder, and therefore I canā€™t build a ROS node using the daqhat library. :smiling_face_with_tear:

Iā€™m not sure if what I want to do is possible, but Iā€™m staying positive about finding a genius here!

If thereā€™s any missing information to debug this, Iā€™ll gladly update my post.

2

So you installed Docker Desktop that runs containers in a virtual machine. That wonā€™t work if you want to mount devices from the host. Install Docker CE