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Ubuntu Core 22 is now available – optimised for IoT and embedded devices

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Re: Ubuntu Core 22 is now available – optimised for IoT and embedded devices

#61

Post by mdtusz »

la_fayette wrote: post #18

Look for balenaOS ( http://balena.io ) if you want an alternative IoT solution. We looked into ubuntu core, which seems like an overkill in complexity. With balena you can get started immetiately with all the tools you already know, like docker etc and have a solution that works...

While balena is great for getting up and running quick, you'll quickly run into issues when more specific application requirements arise, or you need to tighten down security.

It's fantastic for small-scale IoT deployments, but you very much need to play nice in their ecosystem, and there's many features missing for deployment and version management still, and balenaOS and the balena supervisor can often introduce breaking quirks, and managing networking is a nightmare. We're very happy with how it allowed us to get off the ground and running quickly, but are moving to a more "traditional" build using yocto on its own moving forwards.

Re: Ubuntu Core 22 is now available – optimised for IoT and embedded devices

#62

Post by 8bitbuddhist »

tomcam wrote: post #28
brnt wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Been a huge fanboy since Warthog, but as of 20.04 I've sought refuge elsewhere. Turns out, Ubuntu isn't nearly as user friendly as it was back then, in fact, it's one of the least user friendly distros these days! Everybody progressed and you deserve t check it out yourself!

What’s your new distro of choice?

Not OP, but Pop OS is a great Ubuntu derivative.

Re: Ubuntu Core 22 is now available – optimised for IoT and embedded devices

#63

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

RedShift1 wrote: post #48
nix23 wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely sprinting away with anything canonical. SUSE/openSUSE/Micro RHEL/Fedora/CoreOS nothing else...no more canonical, too many disappointments and trickery into pay massive at the end of the day.

What is Micro RHEL?

Not RHEL; https://microos.opensuse.org/

Re: Ubuntu Core 22 is now available – optimised for IoT and embedded devices

#64

Post by GordonS »

jamesgeck0 wrote: post #53
traceroute66 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I highly discourage anyone to use Ubuntu Core as part of their solution. Yup. The guys at Nitrokey did a nice write-up about this last year.[1] (TL;DR in the end, they chose Debian instead) [1] https://www.nitrokey.com/news/2021/nextbox-why-we-decided-an...

I'm surprised they ended up going with a non-immutable distro. They say their Debian-derived system is as robust as Ubuntu Core, but seemingly immediately contradict this by saying they're using apt to manage updates.

Aren't they only using it for security updates though?

Re: Ubuntu Core 22 is now available – optimised for IoT and embedded devices

#65

Post by GordonS »

curt15 wrote: post #50
yourstruly-br wrote: post #6

I highly discourage anyone to use Ubuntu Core as part of their solution. It is a secure environment, yes, but it is a nightmare to configure (snaps) and for everything, expect for the most basic stuff, you will need what is called a "brand store", which costs about $20k/year, regardless if you have 1 or 100 devices. (We could not even make one snap talk to another snap, checking another snap status etc). We had comme…

Buying a Brand Store is also the only official way to have full control of snap updates. Someone at Canonical must have been taking notes from Microsoft -- take away control from users and sell it back in an "enterprise edition".

No issue with Canonical making some money from their OSS efforts, but as-is the pricing seems crazy. At the least, I wish they'd do something like make brand stores free for less than 100 devices. That would also serve to hook people in, then they pay as they grow.

Ideally though, Canonical would let anyone run their own "brand store" on their own hardware.

Re: Ubuntu Core 22 is now available – optimised for IoT and embedded devices

#66

Post by nullcipher »

GordonS wrote: post #41
yourstruly-br wrote: post #6

I highly discourage anyone to use Ubuntu Core as part of their solution. It is a secure environment, yes, but it is a nightmare to configure (snaps) and for everything, expect for the most basic stuff, you will need what is called a "brand store", which costs about $20k/year, regardless if you have 1 or 100 devices. (We could not even make one snap talk to another snap, checking another snap status etc). We had comme…

I like Ubuntu, and looked into using Ubuntu Core for an IoT architecture a few years ago - but the "brand store", which IIRC is mandatory for private deployments, are complete madness. Plus, while the concept behind Snaps is interesting, in practice they seem to be nearly universally reviled.

it's reviled because nobody wants to learn yet another deployment tool. apt has been reliable enough for installing packages and good enough UX that people can't be bothered

Re: Ubuntu Core 22 is now available – optimised for IoT and embedded devices

#68

Post by GordonS »

andrewshadura wrote: post #24
la_fayette wrote: post #18

Look for balenaOS ( http://balena.io ) if you want an alternative IoT solution. We looked into ubuntu core, which seems like an overkill in complexity. With balena you can get started immetiately with all the tools you already know, like docker etc and have a solution that works...

Another solution would be Apertis (www.apertis.org). Unlike Ubuntu Core, it uses standard technologies like OSTree, Flatpak etc to provide similar features. Disclaimer: I work on Apertis.

I took a quick look at your landing page, and I've got to say it doesn't do that great a job of telling me what it is or how it works.

Are you able to provide a short summary, and maybe compare it to Ubuntu Core and BalenaOS?

Would it be suitable for shipping appliances? How do you folks make money?

Thanks :)

Re: Ubuntu Core 22 is now available – optimised for IoT and embedded devices

#69

Post by theamk »

nullcipher wrote: post #66
GordonS wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like Ubuntu, and looked into using Ubuntu Core for an IoT architecture a few years ago - but the "brand store", which IIRC is mandatory for private deployments, are complete madness. Plus, while the concept behind Snaps is interesting, in practice they seem to be nearly universally reviled.

it's reviled because nobody wants to learn yet another deployment tool. apt has been reliable enough for installing packages and good enough UX that people can't be bothered

Nope, it's reviled because of its hostile user experience. Try finding an official, working way to stop automatic snap updates!

Re: Ubuntu Core 22 is now available – optimised for IoT and embedded devices

#70

Post by glassconclusion »

ngrilly wrote: post #22
n00bface wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Smallest thing I've found is a FreeScale SOC running a Cortex-A7.

Can you run Linux on a Cortex-M, which is basically a microcontroller, instead of a Cortex-A that has a MMU? I don't think it's possible.

Yes, you can actually. I haven't done this myself, but there are defconfigs for mmu less devices (stm32f4 series for instance). You need some more RAM though, but most evaluation kits don't provide this. Have a look here: https://elinux.org/STM32 I'm planning to give this a spin on an EVK that I got from work if I find the time.
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