Problem with the "Simulating the 2dnav Stack" tutorial

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I am trying to play with the ROS navigation stack, eventually to use on a differential drive robot that I have built. I starting following this tutorial: http://wiki.ros.org/pr2_2dnav_gazebo/...

But I've run into a few issues.

1) It seems that there is some discontinuity bewteen the code downloaded at https://code.ros.org/svn/wg-ros-pkg/s... and the packages in ros-groovy-pr2, which I installed with apt-get. Both pr2-armless-wg-fake_localization.launch and pr2-wg-amcl.launch expected launch files in pr2 packages not to be in designated "launch" folders, but they were. I fixed this easily, but I thought it would be relevant to note.

2) I see the following error message when launching either pr2-armless-wg-fake_localization.launch or pr2-wg-amcl.launch

Warning [parser.cc:361] Converting a deprecated SDF source[data-string].
Set SDF value
  Version[1.0] to Version[1.3]
  Please use the gzsdf tool to update your SDF files.
    $ gzsdf convert [sdf_file]
Error [parser.cc:712] XML Element[filename], child of element[heightmap] not defined in SDF. Ignoring.[heightmap]
Error [parser.cc:703] Error reading element <heightmap>
Error [parser.cc:703] Error reading element <geometry>
Error [parser.cc:703] Error reading element <collision>
Error [parser.cc:703] Error reading element <link>
Error [parser.cc:703] Error reading element <model>
Error [parser.cc:369] Unable to read element <sdf>
Error:   Could not find the 'robot' element in the xml file
         at line 59 in /tmp/buildd/ros-groovy-urdfdom-0.2.8-2precise-20140305-0755/urdf_parser/src/model.cpp
Error [parser_urdf.cc:1814] Unable to call parseURDF on robot model
Error [parser.cc:319] parse as old urdf model file failed.
Error [World.cc:1440] Unable to read sdf string[<gazebo version="1.0"><model static="true" name="wg_walls"><link name="link"><origin pose="-25.65 -25.65 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0" /><collision name="collision"><geometry><heightmap filename="willow_walls_heightmap.png" size="51.3 51.3 1" origin="0 0 0" /></geometry></collision><visual name="visual"><geometry><heightmap filename="willow_walls_heightmap.png" size="51.3 51.3 1" origin="0 0 0"><texture><diffuse>dirt_diffusespecular.png</diffuse><normal>dirt_normal.png</normal><size>50</size></texture><texture><diffuse>grass_diffusespecular.png</diffuse><normal>grass_normal.png</normal><size>20</size></texture><texture><diffuse>fungus_diffusespecular.png</diffuse><normal>fungus_normal.png</normal><size>80</size></texture><blend><min_height>2</min_height><fade_dist>5</fade_dist></blend><blend><min_height>4</min_height><fade_dist>5</fade_dist></blend></heightmap></geometry></visual></link><origin pose="-25.65 -25.65 0 0 -0 0" /></model></gazebo>]

From this question, it looks like I need to convert some SDF file to a more recent version. In that question, there was a useful filename where I only get [data-string]. I've searched through the pr2 and gazebo packages for text that matched that xml with no luck. I have a feeling the xml is being generated every time I launch... Does anyone have any pointers for this?

3) When I run either pr2-armless-wg-fake_localization.launch or pr2-wg-amcl.launch I see constant stream of log messages describing attempts to restart map-server ... (more)