Custom OS installation now available on AWS DeepRacer devices
AWS Machine Learning Don Barber
AWS released a developer bootloader for DeepRacer autonomous race car devices, enabling users to install custom operating systems and modern Linux distributions instead of the outdated Ubuntu 16.04 and 20.04 versions that shipped with the hardware. The bootloader uses certificate-based signature verification with self-service certificate management, provides clear visual warnings when developer mode is active, and the community has already created a distribution based on Ubuntu 24.04 and ROS2 Jazzy. This extends the useful life of DeepRacer devices and allows developers to run modern software stacks and custom algorithms on the hardware.
Why it matters
With the stock firmware and software, developers couldn't modify their AWS DeepRacer devices to use the latest operating systems. Now, developers can upgrade or install a custom operating system (OS) by using a newly released bootloader, which extends the life of these hardware devices. In this post, we introduce the bootloader, discuss how to use it, and share links to a community distribution that uses it.
