Recientemente Canonical presented the release of Ubuntu Core 18, a compact version of the distribution from Ubuntu, adapted for its use in devices, containers, consumer and industrial equipment of Internet of Things (IoT).
Free Core 18 is presented in the form of an indivisible monolithic image of the base system, which does not apply a breakdown into separate deb packages.
Ubuntu Core serves as the basis for launching additional components and applications that are designed as separate plugins in the plugin format.
About Ubuntu Core 18
Ubuntu Core components, including the base system as well as the Linux kernel and system plugins, are also provided in a plug-in format. and are controlled by the snapd toolkit.
Snappy (snapd) technology allows you to build an image of the system as a whole, without breaking it up into separate packages.
Instead of a phased update at the level of individual deb packages, Ubuntu Core 18 uses the atomic update of snap packages and the base system, similar to Atomic, ChromeOS, Endless, CoreOS and Fedora Silverblue.
When updating the base environment and instant packages, it is possible to revert to the previous version in case of problems detected after the update. Currently, the SnapCraft catalog has more than 4,600 snap packages.
To ensure the security of the system, Each component of the system is verified with a digital signature, allowing you to protect the distribution from making hidden modifications or install untested plugin packages.
Components delivered in the Span format are isolated using AppArmor and Seccomp, creating an additional barrier to protect the system in case individual applications are compromised.
How is it composed?
The basic system includes only the minimum set of required applications, which not only reduces the size of the system environmentIt also has a positive impact on security by reducing potential vectors for attacks.
The base file system is mounted in read-only mode. Updates are released regularly, delivered in OTA mode, and synced with Ubuntu 18.04 release.
Ubuntu Core 18 will receive 10 years of low-cost security maintenance, enabling long-term mission-critical and industrial deployments.
Updates are delivered with a device-specific SLA, ensuring the change is managed by the manufacturer or company and providing a rapid response to any vulnerabilities that are detected during the life of the device.
To minimize traffic, updates are sent in compressed form and include only the changes relative to the last update (delta updates).
Automating the installation of updates solves problems with maintaining system security when used on embedded devices.
Thanks to the logical separation of the base system from the applications, maintenance of the Ubuntu Core code base in its current form is handled by the Ubuntu developers, and its developers are concerned about the relevance of additional applications.
This approach reduces the cost of maintaining products whose software environment is based on Ubuntu CoreAs their manufacturers do not need to be involved in the release and delivery of system updates and it is sufficient to focus only on their specific components.
How to get Ubuntu Core 18?
Ubuntu Core 18 images, which are synced with Ubuntu 18.04 base package, are prepared for i386, amd64, ARM systems (Raspberry Pi 2, Samsung Artik 5, Samsung Artik 10, Orange Pi Zero) and ARM64 (Qualcomm Dragonboard 410c, Raspberry Pi 3).
Image size is 230-260MB depending on architecture. The indicated time of support for Ubuntu Core 18 will be 10 years.
For those who are interested in being able to obtain the image, this can be done by going to the official Ubuntu website and in its download section you can find the link to obtain the image.