Docker (Unsupported)

This guide provides detailed instructions for installing the Voyant API and development packages with Docker.

🚧 These docs are out of date as of May, 2026. 🚧

They reflect the Meadowlark (Carbon dev kit) API and may not apply to Carbon systems.

Questions? Reach out to us at: support@voyantphotonics.com

The Docker container approach is recommended when:

You are not on Ubuntu LTS releases 22.04, 24.04, or 26.04
You want a consistent, dependency-free environment

Prerequisites

Docker Engine — Docker installation guide

⚠️ Install Docker Engine, not Docker Desktop. Docker Desktop handles ethernet differently and will prevent connection to your Voyant device.

Procedure

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/Voyant-Photonics/voyant-sdk.git

2. Build the container:

   cd voyant-sdk/
   docker build -t voyant-sdk-container -f docker/Dockerfile .

Note: You can force a rebuild with the latest release using --no-cache:

docker build --no-cache -t voyant-sdk-container -f docker/Dockerfile .

3. Run the container:

   docker run --rm -it --name voyant-sdk-container --network host -v $(pwd):/workspace voyant-sdk-container /bin/bash

If you get a permissions error, prefix with sudo.

Note 1: The container gives you full access to send commands to the LiDAR and receive data, but limits some standard terminal commands (e.g. ip addr). Type exit to return to your regular terminal; re-run the docker run command to reopen it. Packages installed with apt inside the container will not persist after exit.

Note 2: On Windows or macOS, --network host behaves differently — you may need to adjust networking settings.

Verifying Installation

voyant_hello_world

Expected output:

Welcome to the Voyant Photonics, Inc. API!
You have successfully installed the voyant-api package with:
 - Proto version: 0.2.2 (Proto)
 - API version:   0.4.4 (API)

Viewing Header Files

Header files from voyant-api-dev are installed at /usr/include/voyant_api/.