Rqtclose - Odin

Introduction: When Your ROS GUI Vanishes If you are a robotics software engineer working with the Robot Operating System (ROS), you have likely mastered the rqt suite—a powerful framework for graphical user interfaces (GUIs) that includes tools like rqt_graph , rqt_plot , and rqt_console . However, an obscure but critical error has been appearing in forums and debug logs: "odin rqtclose" .

def shutdown_plugin(self): self._timer.stop() rospy.signal_shutdown("odin rqtclose: Plugin closing") rospy.sleep(0.5) # Give ROS time to clean up Launch rqt with a timeout:

#!/bin/bash # odin – correct wrapper for rqt rqt_pid="" function cleanup if [[ -n "$rqt_pid" ]]; then kill -TERM "$rqt_pid" wait "$rqt_pid" echo "odin rqtclose: clean exit" fi odin rqtclose

rosnode list After rqtclose fails, run again. If the rqt node still appears, it’s still alive. Force-kill it:

def shutdown_plugin(self): rospy.loginfo("odin rqtclose: Starting shutdown sequence") # Disconnect callbacks self.pub.unregister() rospy.loginfo("odin rqtclose: Publishers unregistered") # Call parent super().shutdown_plugin() rospy.loginfo("odin rqtclose: Complete") If you see the first log but not the last, you’ve found a hang. Attach strace to the stuck rqt process (find PID via ps aux | grep rqt ): Introduction: When Your ROS GUI Vanishes If you

import signal signal.signal(signal.SIGTERM, my_shutdown_handler) If that handler calls sys.exit() without cleaning up rqt , you’ll see rqtclose errors. Modify your rqt plugin’s shutdown_plugin() method:

This error is not a standard ROS output. Instead, it typically surfaces when a custom rqt plugin or a node named "Odin" (a common internal codename for autonomy stacks, custom executors, or specific robotic platforms) fails to close its ROS GUI components gracefully. The rqtclose signal indicates that the GUI was either forcibly terminated, lost a connection to the ROS master, or encountered a deadlock during shutdown. If the rqt node still appears, it’s still alive

trap cleanup EXIT rosrun rqt_gui rqt_gui & rqt_pid=$! wait $rqt_pid Example of a safe shutdown in a Python rqt plugin: