Canonical has published a release Ubuntu Core 20 , a compact Ubuntu distribution tailored for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, containers, consumer and industrial equipment. Ubuntu Core comes in the form of an indivisible, monolithic base system image that does not have to be split into separate deb packages. Ubuntu Core 20 images synced to the Ubuntu 20.04 package base prepared for x86_64 systems, ARMv7 and ARMv8.
Highlights innovations :
- Official support for various Raspberry Pi boards based on 32- and 64-bit ARM chips has been implemented.
- Added the ability to use full disk encryption with integration with TPM (Trusted Platform Module). Encryption is currently only available for x86 systems (for ARM it will appear later).
- Added new recovery and reinstallation modes (device initialization using the selected version). A boot menu is offered to select the startup option and go to Recovery mode. The menu is shown by holding down the “1” key at the initial stage of loading.
- Added initial support for MAAS (Metal-as-a-Service) to quickly deploy configurations to multiple systems.
- Added initial cloud-init support for system setup at boot time.
Recall that Ubuntu Core serves as the basis for launching additional components and applications, which are designed as self-contained add-ons in snap format. Ubuntu Core components, including the base system, Linux kernel, and system add-ons, are also supplied in snap format and managed by the snapd tool. Snappy technology makes it possible to form a system image as a whole, without splitting into separate packages.
Instead of step-by-step updates at the level of individual deb packages, Ubuntu Core uses an atomic update mechanism for snap packages and the base system, similar to Atomic, ChromeOS, Endless, CoreOS and Fedora Silverblue. When upgrading the base environment and snaps, it is possible to roll back to the previous version in case of problems identified after the upgrade. There are currently over 4600 snap packages in the SnapCraft directory.