Florian Pester · 3 min read
Long-Lived, Certifiable Robots with NixOS and CTRL-OS
NVIDIA Jetson is a popular platform for applications, such as robots and other edge applications making heavy use of AI features. The SOCs come with ARM-based processors and capable GPUs. For the past few weeks we've been working to lower the barrier to use the platform with NixOS and CTRL-OS. Read all about it in this post!
Running NVIDIA Jetson on NixOS
Unfortunately NVIDIA’s modified Linux kernel is required to get all the features out of the boards. Building a product on top of a vendor kernel is often tedious and can bring maintenance and security issues. When a vendor stops supporting the product, the kernel is often neglected and becomes old and unmaintained. Relying on a vanilla Linux kernel is much more sustainable.
At Cyberus our goal is to enable long-lived, digitally sovereign IT infrastructure. Thus, Martin and Samuel have been building a CTRL-OS module to enable the Jetson platform with a stock Linux kernel. The module enables PCIe and USB support during boot time. Hardware graphical acceleration support is nearing completion. CUDA support is not included yet but is planned for later this year.
The module is available on GitHub and compatible with NixOS unstable and the next release of CTRL-OS (26.05).
A CTRL-OS Robot Demonstrator
Since the Jetson platform is such a good fit for robots, we decided to build a fun demonstrator. We ordered a robot kit, which we use to demonstrate and test our work. So far we have the robot booting and driving around. We even had it play a nice game of catch in the video below:
Playing with the robot is entertaining, but we chose the demonstrator for a reason: it covers the same engineering challenges and requirements our customers have and thus enables us to test real-world hardware product integration.
One of the bigger challenges for our customers remains compliance and security tooling. Regulation such as the EU Cyber Resilience Act (CRA) imposes new requirements on vendors, especially those building on community-maintained ecosystems, such as Nixpkgs.
Next on the roadmap: Security Tracker
Our customers tell us they are looking towards a Nix-based stack because its reproducibility and declarative configuration provide them with benefits during development. However, Nix also has a lot of potential once a product has entered the market. CTRL-OS realizes this potential by providing long-term support for nixpkgs and improving the data quality around SBOMs and vulnerability management. The next item on our roadmap is a Security Tracker, designed to help our customers quickly understand whether they are affected by a vulnerability.
Are you building a product on the Jetson — or any other — platform? Do you require a security tracker for your product? Join the conversation on our Matrix channel or contact us directly if you are looking for an experienced partner to build long-lived, certifiable products on a Nix-based stack.