We are pleased to announce the TorizonCore 5.3.0 quarterly release for Toradex's System on Modules.

TorizonCore is our operating system that powers Torizon, a DevOps platform that simplifies the development and maintenance of embedded Linux software. TorizonCore is designed to be used out-of-the-box on devices requiring high reliability, allowing you to focus on your application instead of on building and maintaining an operating system.

Torizon uses software containers, making it simple to add functionality to your system in a way that is both secure and easy to maintain. Torizon supports hardware acceleration in containers and graphical user interfaces.

This release includes all updates from the previous 5.x.y TorizonCore releases.

Updates and Highlights

TorizonCore

• Support for Verdin iMX8M Plus
  You can now start using Torizon with the Verdin iMX8M Plus! Just follow the step-by-step instructions from our Quickstart Guide.
• VPN Support with WireGuard
  VPN support with WireGuard is now available in TorizonCore out-of-the-box and it is the recommended way to use a VPN with Torizon. Nevertheless, if you have a legacy server that does not support WireGuard, you may use containers to run OpenVPN.
• Support for Wi-Fi Access Point mode on modules with on-SoM Wi-Fi
  Use the NetworkManager and Systemd's built-in DHCP server support to enable Wi-Fi Access Point.
• PWM can be accessed without root privileges
  It is a best practice to run the Debian Containers for Torizon as the torizon user. Then the user inside the container will match the permissions of the torizon user on the host system. This leads to a more secure environment since it adds another layer of protection: applications and services running in the container will not have root access.
• WPE/Cog browser with hardware-accelerated capabilities
  Torizon has a web browser/kiosk mode container. Up until release 5.2.0, the only browser provided in this container was Chromium, and it did not have hardware acceleration. We are adding WPE/Cog side-by-side with Chromium, to provide both rendering and video playback acceleration.
  As of this release, Chromium is still the default browser for Torizon, but we plan to replace it with WPE/Cog once we confirm it is stable. You can try out running Cog already.
• Increased update reliability
  The Greenboot framework allows TorizonCore to check if updates were successfully deployed. It is easily extensible through scripts, allowing you to write your own application-based checks and recovery triggers.
• Neofetch added to the base OS and our Debian base container
  Neofetch is a command-line system information tool. You can try it out now, just run "neofetch" from the command-line!
• Use a GPIO to shut the system down
  TorizonCore allows you to use a GPIO to trigger a system shutdown, so it can be powered off from outside the SoM. This functionality uses the GPIO Power-Off kernel feature, and you must customize your device tree or create an overlay to enable it on a specific pin.
• Aktualizr client application forked to Aktualizr-Torizon
  No customer impact is foreseen from this change. The Torizon team has forked the project to be able to maintain features that are Torizon-specific, while still staying close to the mainline and being able to contribute to it.
  
• Maximum RAM used by journald to store logs decreased to 16MB
  This update reduces the quantity of RAM allocated for journald logs from 64MB to 16MB. This is a more reasonable default for Torizon and should be transparent to customers.
• Systemd hardware watchdog integration enabled by default
  This allows TorizonCore to detect if a core service freezes and recover the system without human intervention. This improvement is transparent to customers. If you want to learn more about how it works, read the blog post systemd for Administrators, Part XV.
  
• Use the U-Boot variable defargs to load specific kernel arguments
  The variable defargs is used by the Toradex BSP to store SoM-specific kernel arguments. This update aligns the TorizonCore approach with the BSP, making the use of this feature consistent across our embedded Linux offerings.
  

Debian Packages and Containers

• Debian packages based on the NXP downstream moved to NXP BSP L5.4.x-2.3.2
  Learn more about what has changed from the NXP Embedded Linux for i.MX Applications Processors release notes.
• Debian containers updated to 202104 Debian bullseye snapshot
  This update lets you benefit from updates and bug fixes for Debian packages.
• Chromium updated to version 88.0.4324
  Our kiosk-mode browser container has been updated to be based on Chromium 88.0.4324. This is regular maintenance and customers should not be impacted.
• kmscube and glmark2 packages for 32 bits architectures provided in our Debian feed
  These packages can be used to evaluate the performance of devices and help choose the most appropriate one for your use case.

Other Updates

• Several bug fixes
  Browse through cumulative bug fixes from 5.3.0-devel-202105, 5.3.0-devel-202106 and 5.3.0.
  

Get more updates on this from our Release Notes.

Hardware Support

A quarterly release is intended to be used in a production environment only with volume products, as long as they are supported by TorizonCore.

• Support for the Verdin iMX8M Plus
  This is the first TorizonCore release that supports the Verdin iMX8M Plus. Just follow the step-by-step instructions from our Quickstart Guide.
• Volume products: Apalis iMX6, Colibri iMX6DL, Colibri iMX7D 1GB
  This release is intended to be used in production on these modules.
  
• Sample products: Apalis iMX8, Apalis iMX8X, Colibri iMX8X, Verdin iMX8M Mini
  Due to the hardware status of samples, this release is intended for development.
  For Verdin, only the second generation of Verdin products is supported. Read the previous BSP news for 5.2.0 to learn more.