- Welcome to AHXproject.
AHXproject
< | >
Recent posts
#51
Ubuntu Blog / How to use RISC-V custom inst...
Last post by tim - Jun 25, 2026, 02:59 AMHow to use RISC-V custom instructions with Ubuntu
Introduction
My previous blog talked about the importance of instruction set standardization for ecosystem stability and growth through the use of profiles. And standardization is indeed important, but since one of RISC-V's great benefits is the ability to customize the instruction set, we should also consider how to support that ability.
This blog looks at what is needed in the software layer to support hardware custom instructions and how you can make that work with Ubuntu.
What is a custom instruction?
A custom instruction is simply an instruction that is not part of the base instruction set definition or ratified extensions. When RISC-V was created, there was an explicit desire to support innovation at the level of CPU architecture. While much innovation has been done at the microarchitecture level (for example, speculative execution, superscalar pipelines, and so forth), there are very few ISAs that allow for novelty at the architecture level itself. To support this, RISC-V created explicit instruction encoding space for instructions that are not part of the standard ISA or standard extensions.
Why customize?
In an embedded microcontroller, it's easy to imagine the benefits of custom instructions. For example in security operations it might be accelerating specific cryptographic operations, or for audio it might be custom DSP acceleration. For example Espressif's ESP32-P4 provides custom extensions for SIMD DSP.
In these systems the implementor usually controls both hardware and software – or at least software toolchain. However when we think of Linux based systems, it is usually a richer environment, with user deployed applications distributed in binary form. Linux can be used for embedded systems where the software is still tightly controlled, and there are increasing numbers of applications where the scale of deployment makes custom silicon viable.
In a world where software and hardware codesign becomes more common and companies are creating vertically integrated solutions comprising both hardware and software, customized silicon can address opportunities that may not have been possible before. The most well known example in recent years is probably Apple creating their own laptop silicon, but here are a couple of simple examples too:
While software compiled for custom hardware will only run on that hardware, it can still be worthwhile for the performance or power benefits.
These custom instructions are unlikely to be used by the operating system (OS), but there are situations where the OS needs to know about them. Specifically if the instructions require additional processor state, the OS needs to know about it. Let's explain that a little further.
What is state space?
State space is things that persist over time – for example, registers containing data values and status flags reporting on the output of instructions. At the OS level, these are important because the OS needs to be able to save and restore this state across events like interrupts. It is also common that registers need to be enabled by the OS. This can either be at boot time, or on a per-process basis at runtime For example, floating point and vector register files (where implemented) are disabled by default, and it is only after enabling them in the OS that application code can make use of them. Even if an implementation didn't require the OS to enable user access to a particular state, failing to account for it in the OS is likely to cause data corruption or execution problems.
How to support custom data processing instructions
Where a custom instruction only impacts data processing, but does not require any additional state space, it can be managed without having to modify the OS code. For example, instructions that treat data as a 4-bit datatype but only using the normal integer register file and status registers could be implemented without needing the OS to be aware of them.
Building applications to use these instructions needs either precompiled libraries with them implemented, or a custom toolchain that can target those instructions. Ubuntu's launchpad.net build infrastructure supports custom toolchains using Private Package Archives (PPA). The toolchain can either be built in its own right in its own PPA, or a pre-built binary toolchain can be included as part of the application code source tree. In either case, the application code is then built in turn and made available in the PPA.
By combining PPAs to manage customizations with an Ubuntu kernel and general package distribution, users can benefit both from security and maintenance patches from Canonical as well as the performance gains from customized hardware
How to support custom instructions that need state space
As discussed above, custom instructions that require state space are more complex since they need a custom kernel to handle saving and restoring the context around interrupts or permit access from user space to the extra state. Therefore, you will need more than a custom toolchain and application code: you will also need to create a custom kernel. Even here, the launchpad.net infrastructure can still be used to help. Again, the first step is making the custom toolchain available.
Canonical has worked with several RISC-V partners and developed an image cookbook which walks through the steps needed to create a custom kernel package. If you're thinking of building a custom kernel, this should be your starting point.
Once your custom kernel is ready, you can proceed as above, building the toolchain, kernel, and user packages.
The downside of a custom kernel is that it won't be maintained by Canonical, so security updates and patches are something you will have to manage yourself for the packages in the PPAs (any standard packages from our main repositories will of course still be supported and updated by Canonical).
Best practices for portability
So far we have assumed that the software will only ever be run on hardware with the related custom instruction support. While this might be true in embedded systems, for engineers building Linux binary packages this creates software that isn't portable. Running a binary that assumed a given custom instruction was available will cause an illegal instruction trap on hardware that doesn't support it.
What would be more useful is to write the software in a way that detects at runtime whether the custom instructions are available, and then calls the appropriate code path. This can also be used for standard extensions – for example detecting whether floating point instructions are implemented. If they are, then hardware floating point can be used; if not, then the software can still use a soft floating point implementation, rather than crashing or refusing to run.
The mechanism to do this within linux is hwprobe. It's beyond the scope of this blog to explain all the details, but in short, it provides a mechanism for user-level code to query the kernel and ask what extensions are supported. In turn the kernel will learn from the boot firmware what instructions are implemented on the specific hardware it is running on.
Earlier I argued that it's for stateless instructions it's not strictly necessary for the kernel to know about them. While true, it would mean this binary code may no longer be portable between different CPU implementations which have different extensions implemented. Using descriptions of the extensions in the firmware with a kernel that can identify them and hwprobe provides a more scalable way to support both stateful and stateless custom instructions.
Conclusion
We have discussed how Ubuntu's launchpad.net infrastructure can be used to support custom instructions, whether simpler data processing only, or more complex ones involving state space. This shows how RISC-V's promise of allowing innovation through customization works in a complex Linux environment.
While chips with custom instructions are less likely to be generally available to developers than vanilla RVA23 designs, it is almost certain there will be applications where Linux + custom RISC-V provides benefits to justify the investment. These will be high volume, high performance applications – for example networking, storage management or AI inference.
Canonical works directly with silicon companies to provide optimized open source solutions. Our Silicon partner page describes more about our partner program or if you're ready to work with us please get in touch
Further reading
Introduction My previous blog talked about the importance of instruction set standardization for ecosystem stability and growth through the use of profiles. And standardization is indeed important, but since one of RISC-V's great benefits is the ability to customize the instruction set, we should also consider how to support that ability. This blog looks at [...]
Source: https://ubuntu.com//blog/how-to-use-risc-v-custom-instructions-with-ubuntu Jun 22, 2026, 08:49 PM
Introduction
My previous blog talked about the importance of instruction set standardization for ecosystem stability and growth through the use of profiles. And standardization is indeed important, but since one of RISC-V's great benefits is the ability to customize the instruction set, we should also consider how to support that ability.
This blog looks at what is needed in the software layer to support hardware custom instructions and how you can make that work with Ubuntu.
What is a custom instruction?
A custom instruction is simply an instruction that is not part of the base instruction set definition or ratified extensions. When RISC-V was created, there was an explicit desire to support innovation at the level of CPU architecture. While much innovation has been done at the microarchitecture level (for example, speculative execution, superscalar pipelines, and so forth), there are very few ISAs that allow for novelty at the architecture level itself. To support this, RISC-V created explicit instruction encoding space for instructions that are not part of the standard ISA or standard extensions.
Why customize?
In an embedded microcontroller, it's easy to imagine the benefits of custom instructions. For example in security operations it might be accelerating specific cryptographic operations, or for audio it might be custom DSP acceleration. For example Espressif's ESP32-P4 provides custom extensions for SIMD DSP.
In these systems the implementor usually controls both hardware and software – or at least software toolchain. However when we think of Linux based systems, it is usually a richer environment, with user deployed applications distributed in binary form. Linux can be used for embedded systems where the software is still tightly controlled, and there are increasing numbers of applications where the scale of deployment makes custom silicon viable.
In a world where software and hardware codesign becomes more common and companies are creating vertically integrated solutions comprising both hardware and software, customized silicon can address opportunities that may not have been possible before. The most well known example in recent years is probably Apple creating their own laptop silicon, but here are a couple of simple examples too:
- Custom data types. With machine learning evolving at a very fast pace, using custom data types for a specific application might provide significant benefits in performance or power efficiency
- Control and data flow to an external accelerator. RISC-V CPUs are often used alongside custom accelerators, where custom instructions in the host CPU can be used to more efficiently manage the accelerator than connecting it as a simple memory mapped peripheral
While software compiled for custom hardware will only run on that hardware, it can still be worthwhile for the performance or power benefits.
These custom instructions are unlikely to be used by the operating system (OS), but there are situations where the OS needs to know about them. Specifically if the instructions require additional processor state, the OS needs to know about it. Let's explain that a little further.
What is state space?
State space is things that persist over time – for example, registers containing data values and status flags reporting on the output of instructions. At the OS level, these are important because the OS needs to be able to save and restore this state across events like interrupts. It is also common that registers need to be enabled by the OS. This can either be at boot time, or on a per-process basis at runtime For example, floating point and vector register files (where implemented) are disabled by default, and it is only after enabling them in the OS that application code can make use of them. Even if an implementation didn't require the OS to enable user access to a particular state, failing to account for it in the OS is likely to cause data corruption or execution problems.
How to support custom data processing instructions
Where a custom instruction only impacts data processing, but does not require any additional state space, it can be managed without having to modify the OS code. For example, instructions that treat data as a 4-bit datatype but only using the normal integer register file and status registers could be implemented without needing the OS to be aware of them.
Building applications to use these instructions needs either precompiled libraries with them implemented, or a custom toolchain that can target those instructions. Ubuntu's launchpad.net build infrastructure supports custom toolchains using Private Package Archives (PPA). The toolchain can either be built in its own right in its own PPA, or a pre-built binary toolchain can be included as part of the application code source tree. In either case, the application code is then built in turn and made available in the PPA.
By combining PPAs to manage customizations with an Ubuntu kernel and general package distribution, users can benefit both from security and maintenance patches from Canonical as well as the performance gains from customized hardware
How to support custom instructions that need state space
As discussed above, custom instructions that require state space are more complex since they need a custom kernel to handle saving and restoring the context around interrupts or permit access from user space to the extra state. Therefore, you will need more than a custom toolchain and application code: you will also need to create a custom kernel. Even here, the launchpad.net infrastructure can still be used to help. Again, the first step is making the custom toolchain available.
Canonical has worked with several RISC-V partners and developed an image cookbook which walks through the steps needed to create a custom kernel package. If you're thinking of building a custom kernel, this should be your starting point.
Once your custom kernel is ready, you can proceed as above, building the toolchain, kernel, and user packages.
The downside of a custom kernel is that it won't be maintained by Canonical, so security updates and patches are something you will have to manage yourself for the packages in the PPAs (any standard packages from our main repositories will of course still be supported and updated by Canonical).
Best practices for portability
So far we have assumed that the software will only ever be run on hardware with the related custom instruction support. While this might be true in embedded systems, for engineers building Linux binary packages this creates software that isn't portable. Running a binary that assumed a given custom instruction was available will cause an illegal instruction trap on hardware that doesn't support it.
What would be more useful is to write the software in a way that detects at runtime whether the custom instructions are available, and then calls the appropriate code path. This can also be used for standard extensions – for example detecting whether floating point instructions are implemented. If they are, then hardware floating point can be used; if not, then the software can still use a soft floating point implementation, rather than crashing or refusing to run.
The mechanism to do this within linux is hwprobe. It's beyond the scope of this blog to explain all the details, but in short, it provides a mechanism for user-level code to query the kernel and ask what extensions are supported. In turn the kernel will learn from the boot firmware what instructions are implemented on the specific hardware it is running on.
Earlier I argued that it's for stateless instructions it's not strictly necessary for the kernel to know about them. While true, it would mean this binary code may no longer be portable between different CPU implementations which have different extensions implemented. Using descriptions of the extensions in the firmware with a kernel that can identify them and hwprobe provides a more scalable way to support both stateful and stateless custom instructions.
Conclusion
We have discussed how Ubuntu's launchpad.net infrastructure can be used to support custom instructions, whether simpler data processing only, or more complex ones involving state space. This shows how RISC-V's promise of allowing innovation through customization works in a complex Linux environment.
While chips with custom instructions are less likely to be generally available to developers than vanilla RVA23 designs, it is almost certain there will be applications where Linux + custom RISC-V provides benefits to justify the investment. These will be high volume, high performance applications – for example networking, storage management or AI inference.
Canonical works directly with silicon companies to provide optimized open source solutions. Our Silicon partner page describes more about our partner program or if you're ready to work with us please get in touch
Further reading
Introduction My previous blog talked about the importance of instruction set standardization for ecosystem stability and growth through the use of profiles. And standardization is indeed important, but since one of RISC-V's great benefits is the ability to customize the instruction set, we should also consider how to support that ability. This blog looks at [...]
Source: https://ubuntu.com//blog/how-to-use-risc-v-custom-instructions-with-ubuntu Jun 22, 2026, 08:49 PM
#52
Ubuntu Blog / Ubuntu Summit 26.04: connecte...
Last post by tim - Jun 25, 2026, 02:59 AMUbuntu Summit 26.04: connected by open source
What an incredible experience! Ubuntu Summit 26.04 has officially drawn to a close, but the energy from our global community is still buzzing – in the comments section, on social media, and in news reports. Whether you joined us in person or tuned in from across the globe, you helped make this edition our most interactive and connected summit yet.
A connected open source experience
This year, the remote community truly took the spotlight. The Ubuntu Discourse connected the wider community with the speakers, whilst the livestream brought thousands of eyeballs to both days.
Relive the magic: videos and music
With so many amazing presentations, picking favorites is difficult. If you don't know where to start your binge watching marathon, here are five talks that got my brain tingling:
If you missed a session or simply want to revisit your favorite moments, everything is ready for you:
Looking ahead to Ubuntu Summit 26.10
The Ubuntu Summit 26.04 is a wrap, but the momentum does not stop here. We are already spinning up plans for our next grand gathering, and we want you to be a part of it.
The call for proposals and event registration for the upcoming Ubuntu Summit 26.10 are already open. Submit your talk and register by visiting the Ubuntu Summit website today!
Thank you to our phenomenal speakers, our dedicated organizers, and every single attendee for bringing your passion and creativity to the summit. See you at the Ubuntu Summit 26.10!
What an incredible experience! Ubuntu Summit 26.04 has officially drawn to a close, but the energy from our global community is still buzzing – in the comments section, on social media, and in news reports. Whether you joined us in person or tuned in from across the globe, you helped make this edition our most [...]
Categories: Ubuntu, Ubuntu Summit, ubuntu summit 26.04
Source: https://ubuntu.com//blog/ubuntu-summit-26-04-connected-by-open-source Jun 22, 2026, 01:04 PM
What an incredible experience! Ubuntu Summit 26.04 has officially drawn to a close, but the energy from our global community is still buzzing – in the comments section, on social media, and in news reports. Whether you joined us in person or tuned in from across the globe, you helped make this edition our most interactive and connected summit yet.
A connected open source experience
This year, the remote community truly took the spotlight. The Ubuntu Discourse connected the wider community with the speakers, whilst the livestream brought thousands of eyeballs to both days.
- Interactive engagement: The channels were constantly alive with energy: attendees drove the conversations in the live chats, asked insightful questions to the speakers, and shared valuable insights in the instant polls.
- Community fun: from online activities to photo threads, participants shared their viewing spaces and setups, welcoming everyone into their homes and local watch parties from every corner of the world.
Relive the magic: videos and music
With so many amazing presentations, picking favorites is difficult. If you don't know where to start your binge watching marathon, here are five talks that got my brain tingling:
- : Grégory Schiano brought an incredibly nerdy hardware project to the stage. He introduced us to a fully functioning cloud cluster that could fit in your pocket. In keeping with the theme of compactness, he delivered an amazing demonstration in a tight five minute lightning talk!
- : A fascinating look at how an open source project can intentionally choose to stay small. Learn about the Gleam programming language, which takes a minimalist approach to everything: from syntax to tooling. This tight focus allows it to grow organically and foster a fantastic community.
- : What initially sounded like a talk about streaming pixels turned out to be an entire operating system frontend, running directly in the browser. It is backed by a cloud native architecture that delivers absolutely incredible performance.
- : This session showcased the power of decentralized, encrypted, open source long range, low power technology. Find out how a fallen tree in Oklahoma inspired our speaker, Jonathan Bennett, to get involved!
- : A brilliant look at how new AI technology can deliver highly accurate climate predictions while actually saving a tremendous amount of energy compared to incredibly demanding traditional methods.
If you missed a session or simply want to revisit your favorite moments, everything is ready for you:
- The complete playlist: Every single talk, from technical deep dives to lightning talks, is available on the Ubuntu Summit 26.04 YouTube playlist . Catch up on all the amazing sessions at your own pace.
- The summit soundtrack: Our dedicated Creative Commons music stream was a delightful experience. Check andon Lorenzo's Music YouTube channel. Special thanks to all the artists involved in the amazing stream.
Looking ahead to Ubuntu Summit 26.10
The Ubuntu Summit 26.04 is a wrap, but the momentum does not stop here. We are already spinning up plans for our next grand gathering, and we want you to be a part of it.
The call for proposals and event registration for the upcoming Ubuntu Summit 26.10 are already open. Submit your talk and register by visiting the Ubuntu Summit website today!
Thank you to our phenomenal speakers, our dedicated organizers, and every single attendee for bringing your passion and creativity to the summit. See you at the Ubuntu Summit 26.10!
What an incredible experience! Ubuntu Summit 26.04 has officially drawn to a close, but the energy from our global community is still buzzing – in the comments section, on social media, and in news reports. Whether you joined us in person or tuned in from across the globe, you helped make this edition our most [...]
Categories: Ubuntu, Ubuntu Summit, ubuntu summit 26.04
Source: https://ubuntu.com//blog/ubuntu-summit-26-04-connected-by-open-source Jun 22, 2026, 01:04 PM
#53
Ubuntu Blog / So you need to add microcontr...
Last post by tim - Jun 25, 2026, 02:59 AMSo you need to add microcontrollers to your fleet: now what?
Your Ubuntu Core fleet is running beautifully. OTA updates roll out in minutes. Every device is strictly confined, cryptographically attested, and carrying a 10 to 15 year long term support (LTS) commitment. The operational team sleeps soundly.
Then the product roadmap meeting happens. The industrial floor needs vibration sensors on every motor. The smart building needs temperature nodes in every room. The cold chain system requires dozens of low-power Bluetooth tags. And someone just said the words: "we need these on a coin cell."
You've just crossed into microcontroller (MCU) territory and your Ubuntu Core gateway is about to get a new best friend.
The challenge
Ubuntu Core excels at managing Linux-class edge devices: CPUs and MPUs with an OS, a filesystem, and real RAM. Microcontrollers address a different challenge: less than a MegaByte (MB) of flash, a Real Time Operating System (RTOS), milliwatt power budgets, and bespoke firmware. These two worlds need to coexist in virtually every real-world IoT deployment and now they can, seamlessly.
Why microcontrollers go where Linux can't
Microcontrollers are a deliberate engineering choice for the outermost edge of your infrastructure and are typically used for constrained environments: limited power access, limited communications, small spaces, plus time and temperature sensitive environments, etc. An MCU like the Nordic nRF52840 or an STM32-series device can run for years on a small battery, wake in microseconds to sample a sensor, and return to sleep, for a relatively low hardware cost. Linux-capable SoCs would require outlandish compromises to get even close to that power profile.
In industrial IoT, the typical deployment layers microcontrollers – handling real-time sensing and actuation – underneath Linux-based edge computers doing aggregation, AI inference, and local logic. These feed back to cloud infrastructure for fleet-wide management.
How do you manage, update, secure, and observe thousands of MCU nodes with the same confidence you have in your Ubuntu Core fleet? How do you push a firmware fix at 2AM to 10,000 temperature sensors in the field? How do you rotate certificates on a device with 256KB of flash?
That's exactly the problem Golioth was built to solve. As a part of the Canonical stack, developers now have an end-to-end solution that runs from MCUs to apps.
Meet Golioth: device management for the tiny half of your fleet
Golioth is a cloud platform and firmware SDK built specifically for microcontroller-class devices. Where Ubuntu Core brings order to your Linux edge layer, Golioth brings the same operational discipline to the MCU layer beneath it. Together, they cover the full stack from the smallest sensor node to your enterprise cloud infrastructure.
The foundation is the Golioth Firmware SDK, which often runs alongside the Zephyr Real Time Operating System (RTOS). This open source project has become the de facto standard for connected MCU development. Think of Zephyr as the Linux of microcontrollers: a kernel, a hardware abstraction layer, a thriving ecosystem of board support packages, and a community of tens of thousands of embedded engineers. The Golioth SDK layers cloud connectivity on top, giving you everything from secure device authentication to OTA firmware updates in a package your MCU can actually run.
LayerProductComponentsCloudCanonical InfraUbuntu · K8s · JujuCloudGolioth PlatformFleet · Pipelines · APILinux edgeUbuntu CoreGateway Snap · MPU/CPUMCU layerGolioth + ZephyrSensors · Actuators · MCUsHow Canonical and Golioth cover your full fleet
What Golioth gives you
Here's what the Golioth platform delivers for your MCU fleet, available the moment your firmware includes the SDK:
OTA firmware updatesPush firmware to individual devices or entire fleets. Rollback built in. MCUs stay current at scale.Certificate-based securityUnique cryptographic identity per device. Mutual TLS, rotating certs via PKI integrations using OpenID Connect.Real-time data streamsPipelines route anywhere, including LightDB Stream: Golioth's in house time-series database.Fleet managementConsole + REST API for device health, logs, last-seen, and remote actions across all MCUs.Remote loggingDevice logs streamed via Golioth Pipelines to any destination. No serial cable required in the field.Rapid deploymentPrototype to production fleet in days — build on top of proven, well documented infrastructure that coding assistants love.
Where Ubuntu Core and Golioth meet
The most natural integration point is the gateway pattern: an Ubuntu Core device acting as the local hub for a cluster of MCU nodes, forwarding data to the Golioth cloud. Because Golioth's gateway software is packaged as a snap – the same containerized packaging format used throughout Ubuntu Core – you can deploy it with a single command on any Ubuntu-based edge device.
As an example of where Ubuntu Core and Golioth meet, let's take a demo we ran at Embedded World 2026. In this setup, the Golioth Snap runs as an isolated, strictly confined system process alongside your other Ubuntu Core applications. The gateway device handles local protocol translation (BLE, serial, Wi-Fi HaLoW, wired, etc), applies Golioth's Pouch protocol to encrypt and package the data, and forwards it to the Golioth cloud. The MCU nodes never need their own internet connection: they just need to reach the gateway.
More about Golioth PouchPouch is Golioth's transport-agnostic application layer protocol that enables secure and efficient transmission of data between intermittently offline nodes across multiple network hops. Pouch allows for highly constrained MCU devices (< 100 KB flash and memory) to communicate with the Golioth cloud platform, whether directly over protocols like CoAP, HTTP, or MQTT, or indirectly via a gateway over BLE, serial, etc.
This architecture scales well. A single Qualcomm Dragonwing™ IQ9 running Ubuntu, for instance, can simultaneously host a heavy-duty local AI model, run your existing business applications as Snaps, and operate as a Golioth gateway for dozens of nearby Bluetooth MCU nodes.
Security from MCU to cloud (the regulatory clock is ticking)
In 2026, IoT security is no longer a best-practice checkbox. The EU Cyber Resilience Act and evolving US IoT cybersecurity frameworks are creating hard compliance requirements for connected products. Every device in your fleet, including that $4 MCU on the factory floor, needs demonstrable, auditable security features.
Canonical and Golioth address this at every layer:
Together, these properties mean you can demonstrate to auditors, customers, and regulators that every device in your fleet, from the Ubuntu Core gateway to the smallest Bluetooth sensor node, has a known identity, a current firmware version, and an encrypted communication channel.
Golioth and Ubuntu Core are built on open source
Golioth and Canonical share an open source philosophy. Both companies believe the best infrastructure for long-lived devices is built on open standards, maintained by active communities, and designed to outlast any single vendor relationship.
The Golioth Firmware SDK is open source. Ubuntu Core is built on open source foundations. The Snap packaging format is public. When you build your MCU firmware on Zephyr + Golioth running under an Ubuntu Core gateway, you're choosing a stack with no proprietary lock-in at any layer.
Your IoT products need to run for a decade or more. The infrastructure underneath them should be able to make the same promise.
What this means for Ubuntu Core customersIf you're already running Ubuntu Core at the edge, adding Golioth for your MCU layer means you're extending the same operational model including OTA updates, fleet visibility, and strict security to every device on your network, regardless of whether it runs Linux. One team, one console, one support relationship, all the way to the sensor.
Want to discuss your IoT needs?
Tell us about your MCU use case and we'll connect you with a solutions expert who can map out the right architecture for your deployment.
Talk to Canonical about your MCU use case
Your Ubuntu Core fleet is running beautifully. OTA updates roll out in minutes. Every device is strictly confined, cryptographically attested, and carrying a 10 to 15 year long term support (LTS) commitment. The operational team sleeps soundly. Then the product roadmap meeting happens. The industrial floor needs vibration sensors on every motor. The smart building [...]
Categories: IoT, Ubuntu Core
Source: https://ubuntu.com//blog/microcontrollers-ubuntu-core-golioth Jun 18, 2026, 08:18 PM
Your Ubuntu Core fleet is running beautifully. OTA updates roll out in minutes. Every device is strictly confined, cryptographically attested, and carrying a 10 to 15 year long term support (LTS) commitment. The operational team sleeps soundly.
Then the product roadmap meeting happens. The industrial floor needs vibration sensors on every motor. The smart building needs temperature nodes in every room. The cold chain system requires dozens of low-power Bluetooth tags. And someone just said the words: "we need these on a coin cell."
You've just crossed into microcontroller (MCU) territory and your Ubuntu Core gateway is about to get a new best friend.
The challenge
Ubuntu Core excels at managing Linux-class edge devices: CPUs and MPUs with an OS, a filesystem, and real RAM. Microcontrollers address a different challenge: less than a MegaByte (MB) of flash, a Real Time Operating System (RTOS), milliwatt power budgets, and bespoke firmware. These two worlds need to coexist in virtually every real-world IoT deployment and now they can, seamlessly.
Why microcontrollers go where Linux can't
Microcontrollers are a deliberate engineering choice for the outermost edge of your infrastructure and are typically used for constrained environments: limited power access, limited communications, small spaces, plus time and temperature sensitive environments, etc. An MCU like the Nordic nRF52840 or an STM32-series device can run for years on a small battery, wake in microseconds to sample a sensor, and return to sleep, for a relatively low hardware cost. Linux-capable SoCs would require outlandish compromises to get even close to that power profile.
In industrial IoT, the typical deployment layers microcontrollers – handling real-time sensing and actuation – underneath Linux-based edge computers doing aggregation, AI inference, and local logic. These feed back to cloud infrastructure for fleet-wide management.
How do you manage, update, secure, and observe thousands of MCU nodes with the same confidence you have in your Ubuntu Core fleet? How do you push a firmware fix at 2AM to 10,000 temperature sensors in the field? How do you rotate certificates on a device with 256KB of flash?
That's exactly the problem Golioth was built to solve. As a part of the Canonical stack, developers now have an end-to-end solution that runs from MCUs to apps.
Meet Golioth: device management for the tiny half of your fleet
Golioth is a cloud platform and firmware SDK built specifically for microcontroller-class devices. Where Ubuntu Core brings order to your Linux edge layer, Golioth brings the same operational discipline to the MCU layer beneath it. Together, they cover the full stack from the smallest sensor node to your enterprise cloud infrastructure.
The foundation is the Golioth Firmware SDK, which often runs alongside the Zephyr Real Time Operating System (RTOS). This open source project has become the de facto standard for connected MCU development. Think of Zephyr as the Linux of microcontrollers: a kernel, a hardware abstraction layer, a thriving ecosystem of board support packages, and a community of tens of thousands of embedded engineers. The Golioth SDK layers cloud connectivity on top, giving you everything from secure device authentication to OTA firmware updates in a package your MCU can actually run.
LayerProductComponentsCloudCanonical InfraUbuntu · K8s · JujuCloudGolioth PlatformFleet · Pipelines · APILinux edgeUbuntu CoreGateway Snap · MPU/CPUMCU layerGolioth + ZephyrSensors · Actuators · MCUsHow Canonical and Golioth cover your full fleet
What Golioth gives you
Here's what the Golioth platform delivers for your MCU fleet, available the moment your firmware includes the SDK:
OTA firmware updatesPush firmware to individual devices or entire fleets. Rollback built in. MCUs stay current at scale.Certificate-based securityUnique cryptographic identity per device. Mutual TLS, rotating certs via PKI integrations using OpenID Connect.Real-time data streamsPipelines route anywhere, including LightDB Stream: Golioth's in house time-series database.Fleet managementConsole + REST API for device health, logs, last-seen, and remote actions across all MCUs.Remote loggingDevice logs streamed via Golioth Pipelines to any destination. No serial cable required in the field.Rapid deploymentPrototype to production fleet in days — build on top of proven, well documented infrastructure that coding assistants love.
Where Ubuntu Core and Golioth meet
The most natural integration point is the gateway pattern: an Ubuntu Core device acting as the local hub for a cluster of MCU nodes, forwarding data to the Golioth cloud. Because Golioth's gateway software is packaged as a snap – the same containerized packaging format used throughout Ubuntu Core – you can deploy it with a single command on any Ubuntu-based edge device.
As an example of where Ubuntu Core and Golioth meet, let's take a demo we ran at Embedded World 2026. In this setup, the Golioth Snap runs as an isolated, strictly confined system process alongside your other Ubuntu Core applications. The gateway device handles local protocol translation (BLE, serial, Wi-Fi HaLoW, wired, etc), applies Golioth's Pouch protocol to encrypt and package the data, and forwards it to the Golioth cloud. The MCU nodes never need their own internet connection: they just need to reach the gateway.
More about Golioth PouchPouch is Golioth's transport-agnostic application layer protocol that enables secure and efficient transmission of data between intermittently offline nodes across multiple network hops. Pouch allows for highly constrained MCU devices (< 100 KB flash and memory) to communicate with the Golioth cloud platform, whether directly over protocols like CoAP, HTTP, or MQTT, or indirectly via a gateway over BLE, serial, etc.
This architecture scales well. A single Qualcomm Dragonwing™ IQ9 running Ubuntu, for instance, can simultaneously host a heavy-duty local AI model, run your existing business applications as Snaps, and operate as a Golioth gateway for dozens of nearby Bluetooth MCU nodes.
Security from MCU to cloud (the regulatory clock is ticking)
In 2026, IoT security is no longer a best-practice checkbox. The EU Cyber Resilience Act and evolving US IoT cybersecurity frameworks are creating hard compliance requirements for connected products. Every device in your fleet, including that $4 MCU on the factory floor, needs demonstrable, auditable security features.
Canonical and Golioth address this at every layer:
- Device identity: Every Golioth device is provisioned with a unique certificate at manufacturing time. No shared secrets, no default credentials.
- Certificate rotation: The Golioth Firmware SDK supports rotating device certificates via external PKI providers, authenticated with OpenID Connect which is automated credential hygiene even for field-deployed MCUs.
- Encrypted transit: CoAP over DTLS for connected MCUs, Pouch end-to-end encryption for Bluetooth nodes. Data is encrypted before it leaves the device.
- Ubuntu Core confinement: The gateway layer benefits from Ubuntu Core's immutable, strictly confined architecture. Each Snap is sandboxed, preventing lateral movement even if one component is compromised.
- Audit trail: Golioth's Management API provides a programmatic interface to query the state, last-seen, firmware version, and log history of every device for compliance reporting.
Together, these properties mean you can demonstrate to auditors, customers, and regulators that every device in your fleet, from the Ubuntu Core gateway to the smallest Bluetooth sensor node, has a known identity, a current firmware version, and an encrypted communication channel.
Golioth and Ubuntu Core are built on open source
Golioth and Canonical share an open source philosophy. Both companies believe the best infrastructure for long-lived devices is built on open standards, maintained by active communities, and designed to outlast any single vendor relationship.
The Golioth Firmware SDK is open source. Ubuntu Core is built on open source foundations. The Snap packaging format is public. When you build your MCU firmware on Zephyr + Golioth running under an Ubuntu Core gateway, you're choosing a stack with no proprietary lock-in at any layer.
Your IoT products need to run for a decade or more. The infrastructure underneath them should be able to make the same promise.
What this means for Ubuntu Core customersIf you're already running Ubuntu Core at the edge, adding Golioth for your MCU layer means you're extending the same operational model including OTA updates, fleet visibility, and strict security to every device on your network, regardless of whether it runs Linux. One team, one console, one support relationship, all the way to the sensor.
Want to discuss your IoT needs?
Tell us about your MCU use case and we'll connect you with a solutions expert who can map out the right architecture for your deployment.
Talk to Canonical about your MCU use case
Your Ubuntu Core fleet is running beautifully. OTA updates roll out in minutes. Every device is strictly confined, cryptographically attested, and carrying a 10 to 15 year long term support (LTS) commitment. The operational team sleeps soundly. Then the product roadmap meeting happens. The industrial floor needs vibration sensors on every motor. The smart building [...]
Categories: IoT, Ubuntu Core
Source: https://ubuntu.com//blog/microcontrollers-ubuntu-core-golioth Jun 18, 2026, 08:18 PM
#54
Ubuntu News / Ubuntu brings Livepatch to ar...
Last post by tim - Jun 25, 2026, 02:59 AMUbuntu brings Livepatch to arm64 for rebootless kernel updates
Canonical has brought Livepatch to Arm64 devices for the first time, allowing Ubuntu systems on Arm hardware to apply critical kernel security patches without a full reboot. Livepatch is one of Ubuntu's best hidden security features – it's not enabled by default, requires Ubuntu Pro – as it allows kernel security updates to be applied in memory while your system is running. Normally, a restart is needed. Perfect if you're a bit lazy running a task or workload you don't want interrupted. Livepatch is now available on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Ubuntu Core 26 running on Arm64 devices for the first time [...]
You're reading Ubuntu brings Livepatch to arm64 for rebootless kernel updates , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Categories: News, arm, Canonical, livepatch
Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/ubuntu-livepatch-arm64 Jun 25, 2026, 01:10 AM
Canonical has brought Livepatch to Arm64 devices for the first time, allowing Ubuntu systems on Arm hardware to apply critical kernel security patches without a full reboot. Livepatch is one of Ubuntu's best hidden security features – it's not enabled by default, requires Ubuntu Pro – as it allows kernel security updates to be applied in memory while your system is running. Normally, a restart is needed. Perfect if you're a bit lazy running a task or workload you don't want interrupted. Livepatch is now available on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS and Ubuntu Core 26 running on Arm64 devices for the first time [...]You're reading Ubuntu brings Livepatch to arm64 for rebootless kernel updates , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Categories: News, arm, Canonical, livepatch
Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/ubuntu-livepatch-arm64 Jun 25, 2026, 01:10 AM
#55
Ubuntu News / Pine64 launch $50 smart speak...
Last post by tim - Jun 25, 2026, 02:59 AMPine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers
Open-hardware manufacturer Pine64 has launched a $50 smart speaker that runs open-source software on a RISC-V chip. PineVoice (previously known as PineVox) is built around a Bouffalo Lab BL606P RISC-V SoC with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and Zigbee radio interfaces. It's equipped with dual microphone array and speaker with support for 'local wake word detection', and top-mounted buttons allow you to mute (with LED indicator), start/stop and adjust volume. The factory-shipped firmware is built on Alibaba's open-source YoC platform and runs the Wyoming Satellite protocol, which turns the device into a local microphone and speaker for a self-hosted, Linux-based Home [...]
You're reading Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Categories: Hardware, News, pine64
Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/pine64-pinevoice-riscv-smart-speaker-launch Jun 24, 2026, 05:24 PM
Open-hardware manufacturer Pine64 has launched a $50 smart speaker that runs open-source software on a RISC-V chip. PineVoice (previously known as PineVox) is built around a Bouffalo Lab BL606P RISC-V SoC with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0 and Zigbee radio interfaces. It's equipped with dual microphone array and speaker with support for 'local wake word detection', and top-mounted buttons allow you to mute (with LED indicator), start/stop and adjust volume. The factory-shipped firmware is built on Alibaba's open-source YoC platform and runs the Wyoming Satellite protocol, which turns the device into a local microphone and speaker for a self-hosted, Linux-based Home [...]You're reading Pine64 launch $50 smart speaker for Home Assistant tinkerers , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Categories: Hardware, News, pine64
Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/pine64-pinevoice-riscv-smart-speaker-launch Jun 24, 2026, 05:24 PM
#56
Ubuntu News / COSMIC desktop update adds ne...
Last post by tim - Jun 25, 2026, 02:59 AMCOSMIC desktop update adds new system monitor app
A new update to System76's COSMIC desktop is now rolling out with a new system monitoring tool and a fresh set of fixes and fine-tuning. COSMIC Epoch 1.1.0 also sees the developers behind the Rust-based desktop opting to "[increment] the minor version regularly in order to allow for mid-release patch versions if necessary". The biggest new feature is COSMIC Monitor, a native system monitoring tool built using the same Iced toolkit and widget set the rest of the desktop's core apps are built in. It will replace the GTK-based GNOME System Monitor in Pop!_OS 24.04, but users can (obviously) continue [...]
You're reading COSMIC desktop update adds new system monitor app , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Categories: News, Cosmic DE, Pop!_OS, system76
Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/cosmic-desktop-update-system-monitor Jun 24, 2026, 01:05 AM
A new update to System76's COSMIC desktop is now rolling out with a new system monitoring tool and a fresh set of fixes and fine-tuning. COSMIC Epoch 1.1.0 also sees the developers behind the Rust-based desktop opting to "[increment] the minor version regularly in order to allow for mid-release patch versions if necessary". The biggest new feature is COSMIC Monitor, a native system monitoring tool built using the same Iced toolkit and widget set the rest of the desktop's core apps are built in. It will replace the GTK-based GNOME System Monitor in Pop!_OS 24.04, but users can (obviously) continue [...]You're reading COSMIC desktop update adds new system monitor app , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Categories: News, Cosmic DE, Pop!_OS, system76
Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/cosmic-desktop-update-system-monitor Jun 24, 2026, 01:05 AM
#57
Ubuntu News / Focus blur, nightlight added ...
Last post by tim - Jun 25, 2026, 02:59 AMFocus blur, nightlight added to Miracle-wm desktop
A new version of miracle-wm, the Wayland compositor built on Mir with an i3/Sway style tiling window manager, has been released. Developer Matthew Kosarek, a Canonical engineer developing this keyboard-driven UX in his free time, says the new v0.10.0 release sees the plugin system introduced in the April 2026 release "getting better and better everyday". Plugins can now be used to set a blur effect on individual unfocused windows using a two-pass separable Gaussian blur shader. This helps set a visible cue that might help you focus more. A new nightlight plugin uses an output shader capability to tint the screen [...]
You're reading Focus blur, nightlight added to Miracle-wm desktop , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Categories: News, desktop environments, mir, Miracle-WM, Wayland
Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/miracle-wm-focus-blue-nightlight Jun 23, 2026, 03:32 AM
A new version of miracle-wm, the Wayland compositor built on Mir with an i3/Sway style tiling window manager, has been released. Developer Matthew Kosarek, a Canonical engineer developing this keyboard-driven UX in his free time, says the new v0.10.0 release sees the plugin system introduced in the April 2026 release "getting better and better everyday". Plugins can now be used to set a blur effect on individual unfocused windows using a two-pass separable Gaussian blur shader. This helps set a visible cue that might help you focus more. A new nightlight plugin uses an output shader capability to tint the screen [...]You're reading Focus blur, nightlight added to Miracle-wm desktop , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Categories: News, desktop environments, mir, Miracle-WM, Wayland
Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/miracle-wm-focus-blue-nightlight Jun 23, 2026, 03:32 AM
#58
Ubuntu News / Control AirPods & Galaxy Buds...
Last post by tim - Jun 25, 2026, 02:59 AMControl AirPods & Galaxy Buds on Ubuntu with 'BudsLink'
BudsLink is a Linux app giving you more control over Bluetooth earbuds from the likes of Apple, Sony, Samsung and Nothing – battery levels, active noise cancellation (ANC) and more, all without needing to use a mobile app. Most Bluetooth audio devices 'just work' on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions for listening to audio, but that's about it. Pair AirPods or Galaxy Buds with your desktop and you'll find you can't adjust all of the on-device features you paid for. BudsLink is a GTK4/libadwaita app which can. It lets you control earbud features on your Linux desktop, no need to [...]
You're reading Control AirPods & Galaxy Buds on Ubuntu with 'BudsLink' , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Categories: News, AirPods, audio, bluetooth, Headphones
Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/budslink-airpods-galaxy-buds-linux Jun 22, 2026, 10:28 PM
BudsLink is a Linux app giving you more control over Bluetooth earbuds from the likes of Apple, Sony, Samsung and Nothing – battery levels, active noise cancellation (ANC) and more, all without needing to use a mobile app. Most Bluetooth audio devices 'just work' on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions for listening to audio, but that's about it. Pair AirPods or Galaxy Buds with your desktop and you'll find you can't adjust all of the on-device features you paid for. BudsLink is a GTK4/libadwaita app which can. It lets you control earbud features on your Linux desktop, no need to [...]You're reading Control AirPods & Galaxy Buds on Ubuntu with 'BudsLink' , a blog post from OMG! Ubuntu . Do not reproduce elsewhere without permission.
Categories: News, AirPods, audio, bluetooth, Headphones
Source: https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/budslink-airpods-galaxy-buds-linux Jun 22, 2026, 10:28 PM
#59
9to5Linux / PipeWire 1.6.7 Is Out with Be...
Last post by tim - Jun 18, 2026, 06:35 PMPipeWire 1.6.7 Is Out with Better ALSA Support and Small Fixes
PipeWire 1.6.7 audio/video server for Linux is now available for download with fixes for various issues and regressions for the ALSA sound stack, scheduler, the RT portal, and more.
The post PipeWire 1.6.7 Is Out with Better ALSA Support and Small Fixes appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.
Categories: Drivers, News, audio server, PipeWire, sound server
Source: https://9to5linux.com/pipewire-1-6-7-is-out-with-better-alsa-support-and-small-fixes Jun 18, 2026, 12:03 PM
PipeWire 1.6.7 audio/video server for Linux is now available for download with fixes for various issues and regressions for the ALSA sound stack, scheduler, the RT portal, and more.
The post PipeWire 1.6.7 Is Out with Better ALSA Support and Small Fixes appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.
Categories: Drivers, News, audio server, PipeWire, sound server
Source: https://9to5linux.com/pipewire-1-6-7-is-out-with-better-alsa-support-and-small-fixes Jun 18, 2026, 12:03 PM
#60
9to5Linux / NVIDIA 595.84 Linux Driver Im...
Last post by tim - Jun 18, 2026, 06:35 PMNVIDIA 595.84 Linux Driver Improves Support for 007 First Light and Other Games
NVIDIA 595.84 production-ready graphics driver for Linux is now available for download with improvements for several video games and various bug fixes to improve stability.
The post NVIDIA 595.84 Linux Driver Improves Support for 007 First Light and Other Games appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.
Categories: Drivers, News, graphics driver, Nvidia, video driver
Source: https://9to5linux.com/nvidia-595-84-linux-driver-improves-support-for-007-first-light-and-other-games Jun 17, 2026, 09:49 PM
NVIDIA 595.84 production-ready graphics driver for Linux is now available for download with improvements for several video games and various bug fixes to improve stability.
The post NVIDIA 595.84 Linux Driver Improves Support for 007 First Light and Other Games appeared first on 9to5Linux - do not reproduce this article without permission. This RSS feed is intended for readers, not scrapers.
Categories: Drivers, News, graphics driver, Nvidia, video driver
Source: https://9to5linux.com/nvidia-595-84-linux-driver-improves-support-for-007-first-light-and-other-games Jun 17, 2026, 09:49 PM