Getting Started

Prerequistites

MacOS installation steps were not tested, proceed at your own risk!

Rust

Install Rust via rustup — the official Rust toolchain installer.

All platforms: go to https://rustup.rs and follow the instructions, or run:

curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh

After installation, restart your terminal and verify:

rustc --version
cargo --version

Bun

Bun is the JavaScript runtime and package manager used for the frontend.

Using npm or yarn will not work with the current setup, there are scripts that specifically call for bun.

Linux / macOS:

curl -fsSL https://bun.sh/install | bash

Windows: download the installer from https://bun.sh

Verify:

bun --version

Tauri CLI prerequisites

Tauri requires some OS-level dependencies in addition to Rust.

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo apt update
sudo apt install libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev libgtk-3-dev \
  libayatana-appindicator3-dev librsvg2-dev patchelf

Windows: install the Microsoft C++ Build Tools and WebView2 (usually already present on Windows 10/11).

macOS:

xcode-select --install

GStreamer

GStreamer handles video decoding and streaming. Version 1.22.x is required to match the Rust crate versions (gstreamer = "0.22" maps to GStreamer 1.22).

Linux (Ubuntu/Debian):

sudo apt install \
  libgstreamer1.0-dev \
  libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev \
  libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-dev \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-base \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-good \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-bad \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-ugly \
  gstreamer1.0-libav \
  gstreamer1.0-tools

Verify:

gst-launch-1.0 --version

Windows:

  1. Download the MSVC 64-bit installer for GStreamer 1.22.x from https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/download/
  2. Download both the runtime and development installers
  3. Install both to the default path: C:\gstreamer\1.0\msvc_x86_64\
  4. Add the GStreamer bin directory to your system PATH:
C:\gstreamer\1.0\msvc_x86_64\bin

Verify in a new terminal:

gst-launch-1.0 --version

The GST_PLUGIN_PATH environment variable is set automatically by the app at runtime (in lib.rs), so you do not need to set it manually.

macOS:

brew install gstreamer gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good \
  gst-plugins-bad gst-plugins-ugly gst-libav

Cloning the Repository

Before cloning the repository, install the following tools on your machine.

The repository contains a Git submodule for the protobuf definitions. You must clone with --recurse-submodules or the src-tauri/proto/ directory will be empty and the build will fail.

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/RoboTeamTwente/erc-software-basestation.git
cd erc-software-basestation

If you already cloned without the flag, initialise the submodule manually:

git submodule update --init --recursive

Keeping the submodule up to date

When pulling changes that include submodule updates, always run:

git pull
git submodule update --recursive

If the proto definitions change and your build starts failing with protobuf-related errors, this is almost always the cause.

Installing Frontend Dependencies

bun install

This reads package.json and installs all SvelteKit, Threlte, and other frontend dependencies into node_modules/. Run this once after cloning and again whenever package.json changes.

Common Operations

Running in Development

bun run tauri dev

This command does the following in parallel:

The frontend supports hot module replacement — changes to .svelte and .ts files appear immediately without restarting. Rust changes require a recompile, which Tauri handles automatically but takes longer.

First build warning: the initial cargo build downloads and compiles all Rust dependencies including GStreamer bindings. This can take 5–15 minutes depending on your machine. Subsequent builds are fast due to incremental compilation.

Building for Production

One of Tauri's dependencies, libc (the C standard library), is forward compatible but not backward compatible

The demo laptop has an old verison of linux so you need to use docker to build the app if you want to use it in it.
The first time you build you have to build docker first:

sudo docker build -t tauri-ubuntu2204 .

For building the app in linux the subsequent times for the demo laptop use the command:

sudo docker run --rm \
    -v $(pwd):/app \
    -v tauri-cargo-cache:/root/.cargo/registry \
    tauri-ubuntu2204

You don't have to docker build every time, just the first time and if you change anything in the dockerfile

Testing Without Rover Hardware

You do not need a physical rover to develop or test the UI. The backend includes a full simulator.

Video Feeds

Fake camera

fake_camera_gstreamer/ — a GStreamer-based test source that sends H.264 RTP streams on the expected UDP ports (4500, 4501, 4502). It can be run from by running the following command from erc-software-basestation/fake_camera_gstreamer/

cargo run --bin fake_camera_gstreamer

Stream from Webcam

To test the video feed with your webcam open a terminal and use the following command.

Linux

gst-launch-1.0 v4l2src ! videoconvert ! x264enc tune=zerolatency bitrate=800 speed-preset=ultrafast ! rtph264pay ! udpsink host=127.0.0.1 port=4500

Windows

gst-launch-1.0 ksvideosrc ! videoconvert ! x264enc tune=zerolatency bitrate=800 speed-preset=ultrafast ! rtph264pay ! udpsink host=127.0.0.1 port=4500

Dummy data streams (rover telemetry)

Once the app is running, go to /settings and use the simulator controls:

The simulator runs inside the Rust backend so it works regardless of whether a rover is connected.

Connecting to the Rover

TODO

The base station listens for incoming UDP packets on the address set on lib.rs, must set static address in laptop settings


Common Issues

Build fails with "No valid proto files found under components/" The proto submodule is not initialised. Run git submodule update --init --recursive.

GStreamer errors at startup on Linux Verify the plugin path exists: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gstreamer-1.0. If your system uses a different architecture or distro the path in lib.rs may need updating.

GStreamer errors at startup on Windows Verify GStreamer is installed to exactly C:\gstreamer\1.0\msvc_x86_64\ and that the bin directory is in your PATH.

Video feeds show "SIGNAL LOST" No camera is sending data on the expected UDP ports. Start fake_camera_gstreamer or connect the rover to get video.

White/blank window on launch The SvelteKit dev server may not have started yet. Wait a few seconds and the window should load. If it persists, check the terminal for Vite errors.

Model shows "Failed to load 3D model" In development, models are loaded from src-tauri/models/. Verify that chibiRover.glb (or your model file) exists there. In production builds, run debug_resource_dir from the Settings page to check where Tauri is looking.

"[Error] Unhandled Promise Rejection: ReferenceError: Cannot access uninitialized variable." Seems like a circular import error, check the name of the files, some require odd names such as detected_objects.svelte.ts. If you remove the .svelte it will error out oddly.