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Setup

This section is the curated setup path for this system.

The goal is not to explain every design detail up front. The goal is to get a lab user from:

  • the real starting point they actually have

to:

  • a healthy operator-console bring-up
  • one successful raw recording
  • one successful published conversion
  • one successful local viewer review

Three Different Starting Points

There are three different setup audiences:

  • operator using shared_account on the already-prepared collection machine
  • lab member using their own Linux account on the already-prepared collection machine
  • admin or maintainer provisioning or repairing the machine itself

Those are not the same workflow.

Default Path: Shared Collection Account

For the normal collection-only workflow on the dedicated lab machine, start here:

That is the shortest operator path we expect many collection-only users to use.

Personal Account Path: Existing Lab Machine

If you are a lab member using your own Linux account on the same prepared machine, start here:

This is the right path when the machine already has ROS and system packages, but your own account still needs a workspace, .venv, or viewer setup.

Admin Path: Machine Provisioning

If you are:

  • building a fresh machine
  • repairing the machine-level base install
  • reinstalling ROS or apt packages
  • recovering the machine after a system-level break

use:

For a collection-only user on shared_account, follow these pages in order:

  1. Lab Machine Quick Start
  2. Hardware Bring-Up
  3. First Raw Demo
  4. First Published Conversion
  5. First Viewer Review

For a lab member using their own account on the existing machine, the normal path is:

  1. Personal Account Setup
  2. Hardware Bring-Up
  3. First Raw Demo
  4. First Published Conversion
  5. First Viewer Review

Supporting Setup Pages

These pages still matter, but they are supporting setup pages rather than the default operator flow on shared_account:

Optional But Important

Calibration is not part of the shortest first-smoke-test path, but it is part of the real system and should be treated as first-class work before serious data collection:

What This Section Covers

This setup section is for:

  • the normal shared lab machine path
  • the personal-account path on the same machine
  • operator-console bring-up
  • first end-to-end smoke-test workflow
  • maintainer setup pages when the shared account or machine must be repaired or rebuilt

This setup section is not the place for:

  • architecture rationale
  • topic-contract deep dives
  • storage design rationale
  • internal implementation history
  • speculative or archive-only design docs

Those belong in the later documentation sections:

  • design choices
  • operations and debugging