Canonical vs Ubuntu

Migrate Cloud TPU API Workloads to Compute Engine

This technical migration guide explains moving TPU workloads from Google Cloud's deprecated Cloud TPU API to Compute Engine instances. The Cloud TPU API is no longer under active development and future TPU hardware generations (starting with TPU7x) are supported only through Compute Engine or Google Kubernetes Engine. Migration requires flag and command mapping (e.g., accelerator-type -> machine-type, tpu-vm ssh -> compute ssh), checking different quota metrics (preemptible vs family quota) and provisioning models (FLEX_START, SPOT, STANDARD, RESERVATION_BOUND), and adjusting startup scripts and images (some Compute Engine accelerator images lack tools like docker). The guide documents practical troubleshooting: using SPOT to probe capacity, checking both quota metrics via the Cloud Quotas API, handling silent failures where RUNNING != ready, and other pitfalls encountered during real migrations.

• Google's Cloud TPU API is no longer under active development; new hardware generations starting with TPU7x are supported only via Compute Engine or GKE.
• Compute Engine uses different flags and flows (e.g., --machine-type=ct6e-standard-1t, --image-family, --request-valid-for-duration, --provisioning-model=FLEX_START) compared with the Cloud TPU API.
• Flex-start provisioning on Compute Engine consumes preemptible quota (PREEMPTIBLE-TPU-V6E-per-project-region) and falls back to the family quota; quota and capacity are separate and reported by different APIs.

Arduino® VENTUNO™ Q is available for pre-order with Ubuntu pre-installed

Canonical and Arduino (a subsidiary of Qualcomm Technologies) announce that the Arduino VENTUNO Q is available for pre-order with Ubuntu pre-installed, following their initial collaboration announcement in March 2026.

Install Apache Kafka 4.2 on Ubuntu WSL2 (KRaft)

This technical guide explains how to install and run Apache Kafka 4.2 in KRaft (Kafka Raft Metadata) mode on Ubuntu 24.04 running under WSL2. It covers prerequisites (Java 11+), downloading and extracting Kafka, configuring server.properties for a single-node broker+controller, initializing KRaft metadata (generating a Cluster ID and running kafka-storage.sh format), starting the broker, creating/listing/describing topics, producing and consuming messages, and common administrative commands and troubleshooting. The author highlights the removal of ZooKeeper in favor of KRaft, the importance of the controller.quorum.voters setting, and the two-listener port model (9092 for clients, 9093 for internal controller communication).

• The guide installs Apache Kafka 4.2 on Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS running in WSL2 using KRaft mode (no ZooKeeper).
• KRaft mode uses an internal Raft-based Controller to manage metadata; a unique Cluster ID must be generated and kafka-storage.sh format must be run once before starting the broker.
• Example server.properties for a single-node KRaft deployment includes process.roles=broker,controller; node.id=1; controller.quorum.voters=1@localhost:9093; and listeners for PLAINTEXT on 9092 and CONTROLLER on 9093.