Canonical Launches Internet-of-Things Version of Ubuntu Core

darthcamaro writes: Ubuntu Linux isn't just for desktops, servers and the cloud anymore. Mark Shuttleworth wants Ubuntu to be the operating system of choice for the Internet of Things too. The new Snappy Ubuntu Core is targeted at device developers and it's the basis for an entire new division of Canonical Inc. The promise of Snappy Ubuntu Core is also one of security, protecting the devices of the world, by keeping them updated. "With Snappy there is also a division of responsibilities for updating that can also help protect IoT devices and users. So we could deliver an update for a Heartbleed or Shellshock vulnerability, completely independently of the lawnmower control app that would come from the lawnmower company," Shuttleworth said.

Comments

Why would you ever need more than the kernel?

[Anonymous Coward]

I would think anything IoT-related would be rather heavily customized for the device it's sitting on.

Re:Why would you ever need more than the kernel?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ticking and unticking all those boxes can be a pain, and it costs money - to pay the box ticker. Why customise when you can use a one-size-fits-all things off the shelf that costs nothing?

Re:Why would you ever need more than the kernel?

[Anonymous Coward]

This. If there's more running on my lawmower than the "lawmower control app," I'm not happy. Why should my lawnmower have a shell to be shocked? My lawnmower does not need BASH or any other shell. My lawnmower should have a noisy gasoline engine and a blade big enough to chop my foot off and nothing else.

Re:Why would you ever need more than the kernel?

[mattventura]

The problem I have is that it will probably end up far more bloated than it should be. The less bloated stuff there is, the less of a need for updates there is. Why would an IoT device be vulnerable to shellshock when it should have had a lightweight shell like ash instead of bash to begin with? Why would it have systemd instead of an embedded-centric init system like procd? Automatic updates are actually terrible from a usability standpoint because something can quite literally break overnight.

Re:Why would you ever need more than the kernel?

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Though, given the...'quality'... of software released by vendors with no particular software experience that are forced to include some software in their product(and even companies that should know better, like the ones that puke out painfully broken routers year after year), it would utterly fail to surprise me if the substantial majority of exploits under this scheme are based on idiotic behavior in the application, with the underlying OS and stock userland being dangerous mostly because they provide a familiar environment to work with once you've exploited the trivial weakness in the application.

It is true that a terrible application running on top of a linux image bodged together by clueless and apathetic amateurs would be even worse, so I guess this is better than nothing; but even if the OS were perfect, I suspect that overall security would remain at swiss cheese levels.

Re:Why would you ever need more than the kernel?

[Anonymous Coward]

Snarky reply much? Build embedded systems with very limited (by desktop standards) memory much?

Re:Why would you ever need more than the kernel?

[fractoid]

IoT 'things' have specs competitive with desktop computers of 20 years ago. While current embedded systems will never catch up with current desktops, in a few years they'll easily be powerful enough to run standard Linux installs.

Re:Why would you ever need more than the kernel?

[fractoid]

In this case your lawnmower shouldn't have anything more electrically complicated than a magnet and a coil for the spark plug. Maybe if you want to get really fancy, an EFI computer or brushless DC motor controller. But once your lawnmower is doing laps of your back yard automatically, and you want to connect to it from work via your house WiFi to check whether you left the pool cover on or not, it's gonna have an operating system.

Re:Why would you ever need more than the kernel?

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite likely yes, which can be a good thing from the desktop user point of view too. This forces the distro to support various alternative kinds of things for providing a certain service. Eg. it is not an option to suddenly add a hard dependency for certain components such as systemd-rXXX or udevd-rYYY, if the rest of system relies on upstart or it simply has "too old" kernel for the userspace. Or the system update just can't replace X11 with a Unity/Mir, if the system has its UI done for X11.
But if the Ubuntu manages to do this, it is a really fabulous things for us users. So instead of having some kitchen sink Linux 2.6 based systems with a ancient libc and forever-vulnerable ntpd/httpd, a router or a home appliance system would have a even remotely modern system, where one could maintain, add and modify features.

yay more cloud stuff

[Osgeld]

snappy core doesnt seem to be what I thought it was, I thought "hey here's a lightweight linux that runs on embedded things better" nope, its just a cloud service it seems from their 2 paragraph icons the size of postcards page on the ubuntu site

Re:Oh good.

[Teresita]

Great, now systemd can be the init daemon of things.

If it means more work on drivers for embedded chip

[polymeris]

...great.

What Snappy and Core really are

[billstewart]

Core is a lightweight version of Ubuntu, intended so you can build it on small systems like cloud VMs or ARM boards or embedded devices. (That's an Ubuntu-ish use of "lightweight", which seems to be "of course you've got a huge disk drive even though you don't have much RAM or CPU, but I haven't yet loaded all the pieces to find what it takes to get a minimally useful system. It ain't Puppy Linux, but it's at least a JeOS replacement.)

Snappy is a package manager. It's designed for doing transactional updates to apps and frameworks, so you can load things that you really want to either succeed completely or else fail completely and clean up after themselves, without getting into trouble like dependencies or having to wait until the next semi-yearly Ubuntu release to have all their pieces. It's a replacement for apt/yum/ports/etc.

Snappy Ubuntu Core is an implementation of Core with a Snappy package manager on top of it. You'd typically load a framework like Docker on top of that, but you don't have to if your apps don't need it (or if you just don't have room.) Almost all the "Snappy Ubuntu Core" articles, including at Ubuntu.com, are mostly about Snappy package management, not actually about Core. Sigh.

• Some URLs:
• A minimal rootfs
• Installation Example
• Good intro to Snappy Core as JeOS replacement
• Description of Snappy as an App-building environment
• Cloud-init example
• UVtool for creating VMs.
• Snappy Guides
• Installing on different kinds of clouds

Re:What Snappy and Core really are

[Anonymous Coward]

Spending lots of effort trying to cram IoT type stuff into 16/128K ram/rom and along comes this Ubuntu fellow saying "lol I can do IoT too!"

doesn't use init

[Billly Gates]

Uses systemD like upstart.

Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things.

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a list of reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things:

1) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I sleep.

2) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I pee.

3) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I make kaka.

4) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I pleasure myself.

5) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I wash my body in the shower.

6) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I relax in the tub.

7) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I brush my teeth.

8) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I make passionate love to my wife.

9) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I brush my hair.

10) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I read a book.

11) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I read Slashdot.

12) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I bake cake.

13) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I put in my contact lenses.

14) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I get ready to play golf.

15) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I do my laundry.

16) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I think about rugby.

17) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I tie my shoes.

18) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I celebrate the 4th of July.

19) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I water my flowers.

20) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I eat ham.

21) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I use my stapler to staple documents.

22) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I chew bubble gum.

23) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I check the oil in my car.

24) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I look for my TV remote.

25) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I blow my nose.

26) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I rearrange my stamp collection.

27) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I listen to the Backstreet Boys.

28) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I do my calisthenics.

29) Internet of Things devices could watch me while I search for a paper clip.

30) Internet of Things devices could send information about me to advertisers.

31) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I sleep.

32) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I pee.

33) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I make kaka.

34) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I pleasure myself.

35) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I wash my body in the shower.

36) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I relax in the tub.

37) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I brush my teeth.

38) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I make passionate love to my wife.

39) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I brush my hair.

40) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I read a book.

41) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I read Slashdot.

42) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly collected about me while I bake cake.

43) Internet of Things devices could let advertisers use the data unsuspectingly coll

Typo correction

[billstewart]

First URL should be Core, and also in the second line of my post there's a missing quote mark after "of course you've got a huge disk drive even though you don't have much RAM or CPU .

Ubuntu please get one thing right first!

[kervin]

I use Ubuntu as my workstation OS, and manage quite a few Ubuntu cloud instances ( among others ). There are so many small issues we have to deal with everyday. On the desktop side there minor "polish" issues, like settings that reset on reset ( e.g. Bluetooth radio ). There are random lockups ( I've tried several common systems, including one that came with Ubuntu). I have a brand new Dell XPS 15 coming in a week I hope fairs better.

The fact that there is no way to use hibernate. It's 2015 and we can't use hibernate! A basic OS feature.

On the server side, upstart is an absolute nightmare.

Ubuntu launches on every device that gains traction ( Ubuntu for tablets, phones, etc ). But it seems the basic OS is still very rough around basic edges. But I wish they would just give us a polished desktop. Even if it may cost more than Windows I'd personally pay for it.

Re: Ubuntu please get one thing right first!

[Billly Gates]

Good thing 15.04 is switching to SystemD

Re:Ubuntu please get one thing right first!

[thegarbz]

Can you please expand on why Upstart is a nightmare on servers?

Re:Ubuntu please get one thing right first!

[Knuckles]

Hibernate: Do you use encrypted home directory?

IoT == FAIL

[Anonymous Coward]

Only for dummies who to be profiled and store all of their data on someone else's computer. That's almost everyone? Oh.

Oblig joke.

[SeaFox]

Now all of our devices can exist in a world of Unity.

Systemd changelog:

[Chewbacon]

Light bulb, ceiling fan, thermostat and garage door opener support.

Re:Systemd changelog:

[Anonymous Coward]

SystemD could boot them all in parallel. Init cant turn the light and fan on at the same time.

Re:Systemd changelog:

[Anonymous Coward]

Is the kitchen sink feature only scheduled for a future release?

Just great...

[fahrbot-bot]

"So we could deliver an update for a Heartbleed or Shellshock vulnerability, completely independently of the lawnmower control app that would come from the lawnmower company" Shuttleworth said.

... then I can have one system with both a patched container and an un-patched container. "Is your system up-to-date?" ... "Sort of." Now I can look forward to downloading the same patches N times, once for each container - thanks Mark, that's snappy!

Re:Just great...

[Anonymous Coward]

You incorrectly assume that is is based on docker and containers. It is not.

I can now put my thing on the Internet!

[Ukab the Great]

Eat your heart out, Fappening!

Does it run systemd?

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear they ported linux to systemd the other day.

How snappy?

[Anonymous Coward]

How snappy is it?
If it takes more than a second to boot it's shit.

Re:Reasons why I don't like the Internet of Things

[Blaskowicz]

Ceiling iot is watching you masturbate.

canonical, huh

[Anonymous Coward]

This just goes to show how far Canonical has lost their way and is out of touch with users and reality. Avoid Ubuntu like the plague.

Re:canonical, huh

[walterbyrd]

IMO: that goes for Red Hat as well.

Actually, logging's optional :-)

[billstewart]

The installation instructions says that logging isn't one of the services included in Snappy Ubuntu Core by default; you have to install syslogd or equivalent if you want it. (Presumably it's not just because it saves space, but because the system can be more flexible about whether or where to have writable storage if it's not logging things, and because one of the typical behaviours of Internets of Things is that they're for consumers who aren't going to bother reading logs anyway.)

Re:Actually, logging's optional :-)

[drinkypoo]

The installation instructions says that logging isn't one of the services included in Snappy Ubuntu Core by default; you have to install syslogd or equivalent if you want it.

Well, that is an epic superfail. Logging needs to be a core component of any IoT system. If my light doesn't go on, I want to know why.

Stop the Not Invented Here Syndrome

[Errol backfiring]

Maybe Canonical should stop their Not Invented Here Syndrome. If something works for at least 90%, they invent something worse and force it into the main Ubuntu distro. Have the Canonical guys never tried one of their own updates?

constant software updates for my front door

[cjonslashdot]

Something to look forward to: constant software updates for my front door. And if the power goes out, sorry - you can't get in!

Who needs it?

[walterbyrd]

Just a chrome-os ripoff.

As I see it: windows is desktops, BSDs are for servers, android or ios is for handhelds. Linux does not fit in anywhere - not since systemd.

I want uber-lightweight for devices

[davidwr]

"Things" like the Fridge or Thermostat should be extremely lightweight. If you need "apps" use a user-replaceable front-end-controller.

The "thing" itself should be so lightweight that, at least for "things" like those that existed 20 years ago, they could run on an ASIC no more complicated than a mid-1970s desktop calculator or even with just a very simple circuit similar to that of a simple "dumb" home thermostat. The only complexity would be the optional front-end controller.

The optional front-end controller would come in two connected parts:

Part 1 would be a very basic box that provided only a very basic connection to the outside world (e.g. a serial port, Ethernet, WiFi, etc.) and the security services necessary to ensure authenticated private communications (SSH or similar). Strictly speaking, the front-end controller would be optional - without it, the fridge or other "thing" would still work but it wouldn't be any "smarter" than today's "dumb" devices. It would also be user-replaceable, because we all know that security and networking technologies change over time.

Part 2 would be a "computer on a chip" that ran apps and optionally provided "real" connectivity to the outside world (e.g. WiFi, a web server, web-based apps, etc.). Since the functions of this device can be handled by any PC, it should be optional and easy for the user to remove or replace.

The physical and logical interfaces between the 3 components will be well-defined, and for the interface from the device to "part 1" of the front-end controller, they would also be simple and designed to not become obsolete for more than the life of the actual "thing" they are controlling.

"Snappy Ubuntu Core" = SUC?

[radtea]

Might be great technology. Not a great acronym.