ROS Noetic End of Life: May 2025 — ROS 1 Is Over, Migration Guide

Q: Can ROS 1 and ROS 2 nodes run together during a migration?

Yes. The ros1_bridge package relays topics and services between a ROS 1 master and a ROS 2 DDS graph, so nodes can be ported one at a time instead of in a single rewrite. The bridge is a migration tool, not a long-term architecture — it keeps the end-of-life ROS 1 side in production for as long as it runs.

Q: How do I check which ROS distribution a robot is running?

Run rosversion -d or echo $ROS_DISTRO in a sourced shell; on ROS 2 the same environment variable applies. lsb_release -a shows the Ubuntu release underneath, which matters because a Noetic install implies Ubuntu 20.04 and its own end-of-life clock.

Quick answer: ROS Noetic Ninjemys — the final ROS 1 distribution — reached end of life in May 2025 (officially May 1, 2025, per the endoflife.date dataset), more than a year ago. Noetic was the last distribution of ROS 1 ever released, so its EOL didn't just retire a version: it ended the entire ROS 1 line. There are no further ROS 1 releases, no security patches, and no maintained migration window. The path forward is ROS 2.

If you run Noetic in production

Robots are long-lived assets — fleets routinely outlive the software they shipped with. A Noetic-based robot deployed today runs an unpatched middleware stack on an OS pairing (Ubuntu 20.04) that has itself left standard support. Both layers of that stack have stopped receiving fixes.

Key Dates at a Glance

ROS Noetic Ninjemys (final ROS 1 release): released 2020-05-23; end of life 2025-05-01
ROS Melodic Morenia: end of life 2023-04-01
ROS Kinetic Kame: end of life 2021-05-01
Ubuntu 20.04 (Noetic's target OS): standard support ended 2025-05-31; Expanded Security Maintenance ends 2030-05-31
ROS 2 Humble Hawksbill: end of life 2027-05-31
ROS 2 Jazzy Jalisco: end of life 2029-05-31
ROS 2 Lyrical Luth: released 2026-05-22; end of life 2031-05-31

ROS 1 end-of-life timeline

Distribution	Released	End of Life	Status
Kinetic Kame	May 2016	May 2021	EOL
Lunar Loggerhead	May 2017	May 2019	EOL
Melodic Morenia	May 2018	Apr 2023	EOL
Noetic Ninjemys	May 2020	May 2025	EOL — final ROS 1 release

Live dates for every distribution are on the ROS lifecycle page, regenerated at every deploy.

Running ROS Noetic past end of life?

Extended support past the official EOL date exists for many products in this position — whether it covers ROS Noetic is exactly what we check. Tell us where to reach you and we’ll reply with matched options and pricing guidance — or an honest “no vendor covers this.” Free, no obligation.

What Noetic EOL actually means

End of life for Noetic means the ROS maintainers no longer publish updates of any kind: no security fixes, no bug fixes, no dependency rebuilds. Because Noetic targets Ubuntu 20.04 — which has also exited standard support — teams still on Noetic are accumulating unpatched CVEs at two layers simultaneously: the middleware and the operating system under it. This is the classic CVE blind spot: every vulnerability disclosed against either layer since EOL is public, documented, and permanently unfixed on your stack.

Migration: ROS 2 is the only forward path

With no ROS 1 successor, migration means moving to ROS 2 — current LTS distributions are supported on modern Ubuntu LTS releases with multi-year windows. The migration is real work: ROS 2 replaces the ROS 1 master/node architecture with DDS-based communication, and core APIs differ. Practical sequencing for most teams:

Inventory ROS 1 dependencies — many popular packages have ROS 2 ports; some don't. The gaps define your migration cost.
Bridge during transition — the ros1_bridge package lets ROS 1 and ROS 2 nodes interoperate, enabling incremental migration instead of a big-bang rewrite.
Target an LTS distribution — pick the current ROS 2 LTS so your next support window is measured in years.
Pair the OS migration — moving off Ubuntu 20.04 at the same time clears both EOL layers in one program.

Track robotics stack EOL

ROS, Ubuntu, Python, and every other layer of a robotics stack have independent EOL clocks. Check any of them in the EOL Checker, or scan a full dependency file with the Stack Scanner.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ROS Noetic still supported?

No. ROS Noetic Ninjemys reached end of life on 2025-05-01. Since then the ROS maintainers publish no security fixes, bug fixes or dependency rebuilds for it, and because Noetic was the final ROS 1 distribution there is no later ROS 1 release to move to.

When did ROS Noetic reach end of life?

2025-05-01, matching the end of standard support for Ubuntu 20.04 — Noetic’s target platform — which followed on 2025-05-31. A Noetic robot is therefore unpatched at both the middleware and the operating-system layer.

Is ROS 1 end of life?

Yes. Noetic was the last ROS 1 distribution ever released, so its end of life on 2025-05-01 closed the whole ROS 1 line. Earlier distributions went first: Melodic Morenia on 2023-04-01 and Kinetic Kame on 2021-05-01. All future development is ROS 2.

Which ROS 2 distribution should I migrate to?

Pick one of the long-support ROS 2 distributions, which run on five-year windows: Humble Hawksbill (Ubuntu 22.04) is supported until 2027-05-31, Jazzy Jalisco (Ubuntu 24.04) until 2029-05-31, and Lyrical Luth, released 2026-05-22, until 2031-05-31. Kilted Kaiju is a short-support release that ends 2026-12-31 — not a migration target for a fleet. For a new migration starting now, Jazzy or Lyrical gives the longest runway.

Is there extended support for ROS Noetic?

Not for ROS itself — no ROS 1 extended-support program exists from Open Robotics or the ROS maintainers. The operating-system layer is different: Canonical’s Expanded Security Maintenance covers Ubuntu 20.04 until 2030-05-31 under an Ubuntu Pro subscription, which keeps the OS patched while the ROS layer stays frozen. If you need a bridge for a deployed fleet, use the form on this page and we will tell you plainly what is and is not available.

Can ROS 1 and ROS 2 nodes run together during a migration?

Yes. The ros1_bridge package relays topics and services between a ROS 1 master and a ROS 2 DDS graph, so nodes can be ported one at a time instead of in a single rewrite. The bridge is a migration tool, not a long-term architecture — it keeps the end-of-life ROS 1 side in production for as long as it runs.

How do I check which ROS distribution a robot is running?

Run rosversion -d or echo $ROS_DISTRO in a sourced shell; on ROS 2 the same environment variable applies. lsb_release -a shows the Ubuntu release underneath, which matters because a Noetic install implies Ubuntu 20.04 and its own end-of-life clock.