Dependency errors when building gazebo_gridmap_plugin on Ubuntu 24.04

[pgarcia-dev]

Bug report

I am experiencing issues when trying to compile the package gazebo_gridmap_plugin on Ubuntu 24.04. As far as I know, Gazebo Classic is no longer available in this version of Ubuntu, and Gazebo Ignition should be used instead.

When running rosdep, I get the following error:

rosdep install -r -y --from-paths ./src --ignore-src
/usr/bin/rosdep:6: DeprecationWarning: pkg_resources is deprecated as an API. See https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/pkg_resources.html
  from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
ERROR: the following packages/stacks could not have their rosdep keys resolved
to system dependencies:
gazebo_gridmap_plugin: Cannot locate rosdep definition for [gazebo_ros]
Continuing to install resolvable dependencies...
# All required rosdeps installed successfully

When compiling it, I get the following error:

colcon build --symlink-install
[0.192s] Starting >>> gazebo_gridmap_plugin
--- stderr: gazebo_gridmap_plugin                          
CMake Error at CMakeLists.txt:26 (find_package):
  By not providing "Findgazebo_dev.cmake" in CMAKE_MODULE_PATH, this project
  has asked CMake to find a package configuration file provided by
  "gazebo_dev," but CMake did not find one.

  Could not find a package configuration file provided by "gazebo_dev" with
  any of the following names:

    gazebo_devConfig.cmake
    gazebo_dev-config.cmake

  Add the installation prefix of "gazebo_dev" to CMAKE_PREFIX_PATH or set
  "gazebo_dev_DIR" to a directory containing one of the above files. If
  "gazebo_dev" provides a separate development package or SDK, be sure it has
  been installed.

---
Failed   <<< gazebo_gridmap_plugin [0.44s, exited with code 1]

Summary: 0 packages finished [0.58s]
  1 package failed: gazebo_gridmap_plugin
  1 package had stderr output: gazebo_gridmap_plugin

Upon checking, the dependencies:

<exec_depend>gazebo_dev</exec_depend>
<exec_depend>gazebo_msgs</exec_depend>
<exec_depend>gazebo_ros</exec_depend>

are unmet in rosdep for Ubuntu 24.04. Since Gazebo Classic is not supported on this OS anymore and the binaries of its dependent packages are not available in the repositories, I suspect that even compiling these packages from source wouldn’t work. Am I missing something?

Required Info
Operating System:
Ubuntu 24.04

ROS 2 Version:
ROS 2 Rolling binaries. NAV2 and grid_map compiled from source.

Steps to reproduce issue

Execute rosdep:
rosdep install -r -y --from-paths ./src --ignore-src

Build the package:
colcon build --symlink-install

Expected behavior

The package should compile without any issues.

Actual behavior

There are problems when compiling the package and installing its dependencies.