File Structure

misbah-jetbot/
├── README.md
├── .gitignore
├── .devcontainer/
│   ├── host/
│   │   ├── Dockerfile               # amd64/arm64, Humble + dev tools
│   │   └── devcontainer.json        # host development container config
│   └── jetbot/
│       ├── Dockerfile               # arm64, Humble, minimal GPU deps; tuned for Nano
│       └── devcontainer.json        # jetbot development container config
├── pico/
│   ├── README.md
│   └── firmware/
│       └── motor_driver/
│           ├── blink.py             # LED blink test
│           ├── main.py              # main motor driver entry point
│           ├── motor_test.py        # manual motor test script
│           └── uart.py              # UART communication helper
└── ros2_ws/
    ├── host_ws/
    │   └── README.md
    └── jetbot_ws/
        └── src/
            ├── motor_controller/    # ROS2 package: motor control
            │   ├── motor_controller/
            │   │   ├── __init__.py
            │   │   ├── simple_jetbot_controller.py  # Twist subscriber, direct GPIO control
            │   │   └── uart_controller.py           # UART-based motor control node
            │   ├── resource/
            │   │   └── motor_controller
            │   ├── test/
            │   │   ├── test_copyright.py
            │   │   ├── test_flake8.py
            │   │   └── test_pep257.py
            │   ├── package.xml
            │   ├── setup.cfg
            │   └── setup.py
            └── pico_bridge/         # ROS2 package: bridge between ROS2 and Pico
                ├── pico_bridge/
                │   ├── __init__.py
                │   └── bridge.py                    # Twist → UART → Pico bridge node
                ├── resource/
                │   └── pico_bridge
                ├── test/
                │   ├── test_copyright.py
                │   ├── test_flake8.py
                │   └── test_pep257.py
                ├── package.xml
                ├── setup.cfg
                └── setup.py

SSH setup

0) Preconditions

• JetBot and laptop on the same network.
• You know the JetBot’s username (in my case, misbah or whatever you created) and IP.

---

1) Create an SSH key on your laptop (ed25519, recommended)

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -a 100 -C "laptop-to-jetbot" -f ~/.ssh/id_jetbot
# Choose a passphrase (recommended)
eval "$(ssh-agent -s)"
ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_jetbot

---

2) Copy your public key to JetBot

Easiest way is to use ssh-copy-id:

in misbah@10.42.0.116 replace misbah with your Jetbot's username and 10.42.0.116 with your Jetbot's IP

ssh-copy-id -i ~/.ssh/id_jetbot.pub misbah@10.42.0.116

Option B (manual, if ssh-copy-id isn’t available): You will need to create ~/.ssh/authorized_keys file in you Jetbot's file system and copy the public key available on host system ~/.ssh/id_jetbot.pub to the the authorized_keys file in Jetbot.

I tried creating a bash command which will do this automatically, just replace the ~/.ssh/id_misbah.pub with your .pub key location and misbah@10.42.0.116 with your Jetbot's username and IP. If the below command fails then please create the file manually.

cat ~/.ssh/id_misbah.pub | ssh misbah@10.42.0.116 'mkdir -p ~/.ssh && cat >> ~/.ssh/authorized_keys && chmod 700 ~/.ssh && chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys'

---

3) Test passwordless login

replace misbah@10.42.0.116 with your Jetbot's username and IP

ssh misbah@10.42.0.116
# You should be logged in without a password prompt (you may be asked about host key the first time).

---

4) Make it convenient with an SSH config (on your laptop)

Create ~/.ssh/config:

Host jetbot
  HostName 10.42.0.116          # or the JetBot's IP
  User misbah                    # change if your JetBot user is different
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519

Now you can do:

ssh jetbot

5) VS Code Remote-SSH (quick start)

Important

The Connect to Host... in the Remote-SSH extension was not working with the Jetpack 4.6 version. The specific error I was getting was Remote host does not meet the prerequisites for running vs code server. I resolved this issue by downgrading VS code on my laptop to version 1.85.

• Install the Remote - SSH extension on your laptop.
• Command Palette → Remote-SSH: Connect to Host… → type jetbot (uses your ~/.ssh/config).
• Open your robot repo on JetBot and you’re in.

---

Dev containers setup