OpenNI_Camera on Pandaboard (Fuerte + Ubuntu 12.04)

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Hi,

As is mentioned in the title, I have a Pandaboard (pandaboard.org) which features a dual core ARMv7 processor. I currently have Ubuntu 12.04 running, as well as have compiled the "full - desktop" version of ROS Fuerte for it (wiki here: www.ros.org/wiki/fuerte/Installation/Ubuntu/Source). This Pandaboard is intended to be the brain of a robot which features a Kinect sensor for SLAM.

I am currently grappling with compiling OpenNI_Camera for my platform. I have installed the latest (unstable) OpenNI drivers as per this guide (www.pansenti.com/wordpress/?page_id=1772). I have not been able to sudo apt-get install any ROS packages on the Pandaboard. Is there a repository I'm missing or something?

Not sure if that was the right move, but thats what I've attempted so far. I realize this is not ros-fuerte-openni-camera as one would sudo apt-get on a normal x86 processor, but I believe it to be a dependency for the openni_camera (ros.org/wiki/openni_camera - fuerte version) package.

I guess my question/problem is that according to sources like this (kinect-with-ros.976505.n3.nabble.com/Ros-kinect-kinect-on-ARM-td2654041.html), people have openni_camera and openni_launch compiled and running for ARM architectures but I simply cannot find out how to do it, I thought I'd start by compiling its dependencies by hand, but the libopenni-sensor-primesense-dev for example, has no ARM compilation options according to the README (github.com/jspricke/openni-sensor-primesense) as well as a quick peak into the git.

Any direction or advice for how to do this would be greatly appreciated! This is for an undergraduate senior design course, for those interested. Apologies for the lack of karma and henceforth, real links - I've been lurking around for an answer on the internet for a couple weeks now.

EDIT 1:

Having followed the directions provided here:(http://www.pansenti.com/wordpress/?page_id=1772) (openNI and kinect drivers) and here:(http://www.novemberkiloecho.com/2012/05/08/how-to-install-opencv-2-4-on-your-pandaboard-an-addendum/) (OpenCV - Hansg91 mentioned it as a dependency, not sure if its necessary) The first link basically outlines what Hansg91 has said below. I have successfully read data from the kinect on the pandaboard, as per the testing listed at the bottom of the first link. This data is not in ROS yet, but will begin to look at Hansg91's source code to see if it can read the data as I have it.

It is worth noting that to get the test to execute successfully I had to change the default USB interface. Hansg91 recommended BULK, however I needed ISO, as is mentioned under the driver installation (UsbInterface=1) in the first link. I plan on continuing to update this post as I make progress. It is still very possible that his/her code needs BULK usb interface instead (UsbInterface=2)

EDIT 2:

Moving on from The OpenNI drivers, we found we would like to use these packages in ccny_rgbd. Its faster than rgbd_slam and doesn't require openni_camera (but still ... (more)