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May 1, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Canonical releases Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop image for the Qualcomm DragonWing QCS6490 and QCS5430 processors

Canonical has just released a publicly available Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop beta image for the Qualcomm DragonWing QCS6490 and QCS5430 processors, and more specifically for the Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Vision Kit (QCS6490) and Qualcomm RB3 Gen 2 Lite Vision Kit (QCS5430). This adds to the existing Ubuntu 24.04 Server image for the Qualcomm vision kits, and Canonical says the unified image is currently designed for developers, ODMs/OEMs, and customers who want to evaluate the solution, and certified versions of Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop and Server images are coming soon with long term support and maintenance. Canonical explains the image enables the full Ubuntu Desktop experience at the edge with “powerful AI acceleration with high-performance graphics” (so I assume that means GPU and NPU are already supported), enhanced camera and multimedia capabilities, sensor integration, and various performance optimizations of the DragonWing family. So the way I read the announcement is that contrary […]

March 20, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Canonical now officially supports Ubuntu on NVIDIA Jetson system-on-modules

The NVIDIA JetPack SDK has been based on Ubuntu ever since it was created (although the Jetpack 6 SDK changed that somewhat), so I was surprised to read that Canonical now officially supports Ubuntu on NVIDIA Jetson, since I assumed there may have already been a partnership in place. The announcement explains that Canonical has announced the General Availability (GA) of Ubuntu for the NVIDIA Jetson Orin for edge AI and robotics “bringing enterprise-grade stability and support” to the popular system-on-modules. Canonical further explains the collaboration enables better performance with optimized Ubuntu images for the NVIDIA Jetson platform, enterprise-level security with updates and long-term support, a unified environment from edge to cloud, and improved stability and reliability with Canonical’s QA team performing over 500 OS compatibility-focused hardware tests. If we visit the NVIDIA Jetson page of the Ubuntu website, we’ll find Ubuntu Server 22.04 images for the Jetson AGX Orin, […]

June 18, 2024August 22, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II with SpacemIT K1 octa-core SoC to run Ubuntu supported by Canonical

Deep Computing has announced the DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II powered by a 2.0 GHz SpacemIT K1 octa-core 64-bit RISC-V processor coupled with up to 16GB DDR4 and running Ubuntu with official support from Canonical. Deep Computing unveiled the first RISC-V laptop – named ROMA – in 2022 but it never really took off because of all the web3 and cryptocurrency features plus the ultra-high price. The new DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II does without those and features a 14-inch IPS display, a 1TB SSD, a WiFI 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 module, a webcam, several USB ports including a USB-C with DisplayPort Alr mode, and a “development interface” with a few GPIOs. DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II specifications: SoC – SpacemiT K1 CPU – 8-core X60 RISC-V processor @ up to 2.0 GHz; single-core performance equivalent to about 1.3x the performance of an Arm Cortex-A55 GPU – Imagination IMG BXE-2-32 with support for […]

May 28, 2024May 28, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Canonical releases Ubuntu 24.04 Server image for Milk-V Mars RISC-V SBC

Canonical has been releasing Ubuntu RISC-V images for SBCs and QEMU at least since 2021. The latest addition is an Ubuntu 24.04 Server image for the Mars credit-card-size SBC powered by StarFive JH7110 quad-core RISC-V SoC and designed by Shenzhen Milk-V Technology. That means we now have Ubuntu Server images for the QEMU emulator, AllWinner Nezha SBC, Microchip Polarfire SoC FPGA Icicle Kit, SiFive Unmatched mini-ITX motherboard, Sipeed LicheeRV Dock, StarFive VisionFive 2 SBC, and the Mars SBC. You’ll note there aren’t any Ubuntu Desktop images for now, because the GPU (if any) in RISC-V SoCs is not yet fully supported. Mars SBC specifications: SoC – StarFive JH7110 CPU – Quad-core RISC-V processor (RV64GC) at up to 1.5GHz GPU – Imagination BXE-4-32 GPU with support for OpenCL 1.2, OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan 1.2 VPU H.264 & H.265 4Kp60 decoding H.265 1080p30 encoding JPEG encoder / decoder System Memory – 1GB, […]

April 11, 2024April 12, 2024 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Radxa NIO 12L – A low-profile MediaTek Genio 1200 SBC with Ubuntu certification for at least 5 years of updates

Radxa NIO 12L is a low-profile single board computer (SBC) based on the MediaTek Genio 1200 octa-core Cortex-A78/A55 SoC with a 4 TOPS NPU that got Ubuntu certification with at least 5 years of software update, and up to 10 years for extra payment. The board comes with up to 16GB RAM, 512GB UFS storage, HDMI, USB-C (DisplayPort), and MIPI DSI video interfaces, a 4K-capable HDMI input port, two MIPI CSI camera interfaces, gigabit Ethernet and WiFi 6 connectivity, five USB ports, and a 40-pin GPIO header for expansion. Radxa NIO 12L specifications: SoC – Mediatek Genio 1200 (MT8395) CPU Quad-core Arm Cortex-A78 @ up to 2.2 to 2.4GHz Quad-core Arm Cortex-A55 @ up to 2.0GHz GPU Arm Mali-G57 MC5 GPU with support for OpenGL ES1.1, ES2.0, and ES3.2, OpenCL 1.1, 1.2 and 2.2, Vulkan 1.1 and 1.2 2D image acceleration module APU – Dual‑core AI Processor Unit (APU) Cadence […]

October 30, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

MediaTek Genio 1200 Arm Cortex-A78/A55 EVK gets official Ubuntu 22.04 support

Canonical and MediaTek announced optimized Ubuntu images for the Genio 1200 EVK during Embedded Word 2023 last March, but at the time, I could not find any images for download, and there was just an invitation to come check out Ubuntu Core running on the MediaTek Genio platform at the event. But things have progressed well, and Canonical has now announced the availability of Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop and Server for not only the high-end Genio 1200 EVK, but also the mid-range Genio 700 EVK, and the entry-level Genio 350 EVK. That should be good news, as when I tested the i-Pi SMARC 1200 devkit earlier this year (June 2023), the Genio 1200 Arm Cortex-A78/A55 processor (aka MediaTek MT8195) showed really good performance in benchmarks, but at the time, the only option was to use a Yocto image, which is great, but there were still some unresolved software issues and the […]

August 18, 2022August 23, 2022 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

StarFive VisionFive V1 RISC-V SBC gets Ubuntu 22.04.1 Server image from Canonical

Canonical has been working on RISC-V support for Ubuntu for a while and released Ubuntu 20.04/21.04 64-bit RISC-V images for QEMU and HiFive boards last year. Now the company has released an Ubuntu 22.04.1 Server image for the StarFive VisionFive V1 RISC-V single board computer. While that’s a good development, The VisionFive V1, and other RISC-V platforms, are nowhere close to being Ubuntu-certified hardware, and Canonical posted a note reading “It is an early RISC-V developer access through Ubuntu 22.04.1.” The VisionFive V1 SBC is a pretty good platform for development with a StarFive JH7100 dual-core RISC-V processor, 8GB RAM, Gigabit Ethernet and WiFi connectivity, HDMI output, and four USB 3.0 ports, plus GPIOS headers, and MIPI CSI and DSI connectors. It offers a good middle ground between the high-end (and relatively expensive) HiFive Unmatched mini-ITX motherboard and the low-end Allwinner Nezha single board computer both of which can also […]

October 7, 2021October 12, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Ubuntu Frame is a secure display server for embedded systems

Canonical has announced and released the Ubuntu Frame display server for embedded systems such as interactive kiosks, digital signage solutions, or any other embedded devices with a graphical output. The solution aims to allow developers to build and deploy graphical applications more easily and quickly, as Ubuntu Frame requires less code since, as Canonical explains, there’s no need to integrate and maintain partial solutions such as DRM, KMS, input protocols, or security policies. Ubuntu Frame fullscreen shell is based on Wayland, requires snaps support, and offers compatibility with existing graphical toolkits such as Flutter, Qt5/6, GTK3/4, Electron, and SDL2, as well as support for web-based graphical applications written with HTML5 and/or Java. Besides the ease of development, the other main reason to use Canonical new display server is security: Ubuntu Frame adopts Wayland for a modern and secure approach to graphics. Thanks to Ubuntu Frame’s own secure socket, applications can […]