With support for ARM, X86 and RISC-V systems, Ubuntu Core transforms Ubuntu into a platform for billions of peripheral devices. Its application ecosystem and management infrastructure allow businesses to easily integrate third-party solutions that meet their deployment needs.
Ubuntu Core 24 is designed for billions of connected devices. Canonical has reduced the factory default installation time required per device and enabled air-gapped installation to meet the demands of accelerated deployments and secure global supply chains.
Ubuntu Core 24 introduces validation sets to the tool used to create custom Ubuntu Core images. Validation sets are signed documents that specify which apps, and which versions of those apps, should be installed, ensuring that particular devices always have good apps installed as a group. These documents can be updated over-the-air, ensuring that device updates are limited to the combinations of applications tested.
For regulated environments, Ubuntu Core 24 provides greater control over automatic network requests. Device manufacturers can now disable all network communications during device initialization. Ubuntu Core 24 also includes offline reshaping, which allows engineering teams to migrate to newer versions of Ubuntu Core in air-protected environments.
Ubuntu Core 24 brings new integrations and features for GPU operations and graphics support. Developers can now use the GPU interface to integrate a range of applications such as AI models running inference at the edge or products that require graphics acceleration. This release improves hardware compatibility with updated graphics drivers and optimizes resource usage with a shared user environment.
Ubuntu Core can be used in combination with Ubuntu Frame, Canonical’s secure display server for embedded Linux. For Core 24, Frame now supports hybrid GPU systems, including open Source and proprietary platform combinations. Other features of Ubuntu Frame that can be used in combination with Core include multi-monitor solutions, screen lock, seamless boot, drag and drop support, power saving displays, support for remote assistance, changing the display layout while running, and a new user-configurable diagnostics screen.
Ubuntu Core 24 offers new device management integrations with Landscape, Canonical’s systems management tool, and Microsoft Azure IoT Edge, allowing organizations to choose the approach that best meets their needs. Landscape provides centralized control of OTA updates, auditing, access control, and cross-device compliance. The management tool supports both well-connected and wireless environments. It comes with features like canary builds, remote device remodeling, and system monitoring to streamline device management tasks.
Additionally, Canonical announced the release of Azure IoT Edge snaps for seamless integration of Ubuntu Core devices with Azure IoT Edge services. These snaps allow organizations to deploy, manage, and monitor edge workloads on fleets of compatible devices, directly from the Azure portal. Azure IoT Edge Snaps are now available in the Canonical Snap Store, for AMD64 and ARM64 based architectures.
With Core 24, robotics innovators benefit from new device management, optimized installation, and AIoT capabilities to deliver new products at scale. Core 24 also offers production-ready integrations to deploy solutions with the Robot Operating System (ROS). Canonical has made ROS base snaps available for modular deployments. These snaps are maintained by Canonical and include sets of common ROS packages, such as ros_core, ros_base or desktop, available in several versions per ROS distribution. With them, developers can design modular ROS snap deployments, enabling reconfigurability and reducing overall memory and OTA update bandwidth.
