Is there a Torizon container with nodejs installed?

Technical Support
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1

I’ve been evaluating Verdin iMX8M-Mini Dula Lite and I’d like runnign a nodejs application in a Docker container over Torizon.
Is it technically feasible (flash and memory constrains)?
Is it available a Docker container with nodejs installed?

2

Hi @vix !

The containers made available by Toradex are usually meant to leverage hardware-specific features (like GPU for those modules that have it).

For the “application-only layer”, there are containers available via usual channels (like Dockerhub, Github, etc).

So, for example, you can go directly to Dockerhub and use the official Node container from there. You just need to be sure to select containers that support that target architecture (it is ARM 64 for iMX8-based modules).

And, about memory constraints, it depends on what you will use. Most probably your application will not need only node.js, but some other useful packages as well. So you will need to manage the memory (RAM and flash) usage as well.

Another remark: you might want to get rid of some of the default containers images that you might have in your TorizonCore (portainer, kiosk, weston) to save some space.

Best regards,

3

Hi @henrique.tx
I try to describe what I did and where I got stopped.
I started with TorizonCore with evaluation containers from here.
I saw there are some containers (portainer, kiosk and weston-vivante:2).
I try to install nodejs and all the necessary dependencies directly in weston-vivante container but (of course) we run out of space.
So I need to explore and find different solution to get the desired target, which is run my nodejs-based application on the Verdin iMX8M-Mini.

As far as I understand, this should be possible replacing portainer container with a nodejs-application container (which exposes a web app server), so that kiosk container can render my application through the included chromium.
Can you confirm that this is the correct way to get the result?
And, if yes, can you suggest how to proceed?

Thanks in advance

4

Hi @vix!

About this part:

Seems like you are talking about flash, right? Could you elaborate on what steps you executed to use all the flash space? Also, which Verdin iMX8 M Mini are you using? Their flash goes from 4GB to 16GB (and RAM from 1GB to 2GB):

Also, please refer to Node’s best practices at GitHub - nodejs/docker-node: Official Docker Image for Node.js 🐢.

Best regards,
Henrique

Quick Node.js example

I created a quick Node hello world and below are the flash and RAM usage when running Weston, Kiosk, and the Node.js app (based on official Node container). This by no means represents a Node.js template to follow! This was solely used to quickly test the memory (RAM/flash) usage.

Module OS
Verdin iMX8M Mini Q 2GB WB IT V1.1A TorizonCore 5.5.0

RAM

verdin-imx8mm-06827711:~$ free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:           1977         575         119          51        1283        1283
Swap:             0           0           0

Flash

verdin-imx8mm-06827711:~$ df
Filesystem                 1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs                        1012576   22028    990548   3% /run
devtmpfs                      743968       0    743968   0% /dev
/dev/disk/by-label/otaroot  15226760 2974372  11459200  21% /sysroot
tmpfs                        1012576       0   1012576   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs                        1012576       0   1012576   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs                        1012576   16220    996356   2% /tmp
tmpfs                        1012576       8   1012568   1% /var/volatile
tmpfs                         202512       0    202512   0% /run/user/1000

The node container setup and docker-compose.yml and how to launch it:

app.js

/home/torizon/node-app/app.js

const express = require('express')
const app = express()

app.get('/', (req, res) => res.send('Hello World!'))
app.listen(3000, () => console.log('Server ready'))

var process = require('process')
process.on('SIGINT', () => {
  console.info("Interrupted SIGINT")
  process.exit(0)
})
process.on('SIGTERM', () => {
  console.info("Interrupted SIGTERM")
  process.exit(0)
})
package.json

/home/torizon/node-app/package.json

{
  "name": "node-app",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "description": "",
  "main": "app.js",
  "scripts": {
    "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1"
  },
  "keywords": [],
  "author": "",
  "license": "ISC",
  "dependencies": {
    "express": "^4.17.3"
  }
}
package-lock.json

/home/torizon/node-app/package-lock.json

package-lock.json (31.1 KB)

The 3 files above must be used to build the Docker image from the Dockerfile below.

Dockerfile

/home/torizon/node-app/Dockerfile

#to build: docker build -t node-app /home/torizon/node-app
FROM node
WORKDIR /usr/src/app
COPY package*.json app.js ./
RUN npm install
EXPOSE 3000
CMD ["node", "app.js"]

After building the Docker image, we can launch Weston, Kiosk and our hello-world Node.js app using the following docker-compose.yml.

docker-compose.yml

/home/torizon/docker-compose.yml

version: '2.4'
services:
  node-app:
    command: node app.js
    image: node-app
    ports:
    - 3000:3000

  kiosk:
    command: http://node-app:3000
    depends_on:
      node-app:
        condition: service_started
      weston:
        condition: service_started
    image: torizon/kiosk-mode-browser@sha256:97130d7d2bb0c18180d3e0b8aa7af3c68a99ce0b50afb3caeaca849b45e8e99e
    platform: linux/arm64
    security_opt:
    - seccomp:unconfined
    shm_size: 256mb
    volumes:
    - source: /tmp
      target: /tmp
      type: bind
    - source: /var/run/dbus
      target: /var/run/dbus
      type: bind

  weston:
    cap_add:
    - CAP_SYS_TTY_CONFIG
    device_cgroup_rules:
    - c 4:0 rmw
    - c 4:7 rmw
    - c 13:* rmw
    - c 199:* rmw
    - c 226:* rmw
    environment:
      ACCEPT_FSL_EULA: '1'
    image: torizon/weston-vivante@sha256:827417ba996cf20c4676bae19c0128e8ea27f41a620dd0b84174427f06779797
    network_mode: host
    volumes:
    - source: /tmp
      target: /tmp
      type: bind
    - source: /dev
      target: /dev
      type: bind
    - source: /run/udev
      target: /run/udev
      type: bind

How to launch

To watch outputs from the containers

docker-compose -f /home/torizon/docker-compose.yml up

To launch in detached mode (no output to the terminal)

docker-compose -f /home/torizon/docker-compose.yml up -d
5

After some attempts I was able to get a docker container with nodejs running in Torizon.

  • I started with a nexts project
  • I followed the steps here
  • I cross-compiled for ARM64 architecture
  • I deployed to Torizon
  • I can see the UI using the chromium container included in Torizon with evaluation containers

Thanks

6

Hi @vix !

Great to know that it is working for you!

If possible, could you elaborate on what was the memory problem that you were facing?

Also, if your problem is solved, please mark the suitable message as solution.

Best regards,

7

The original “out of space” problem refers to Flash.
I tried to install nodejs in an existig container (as I do on my own Linux Desktop if I want to install nodejs).
The solution is to start from a working nodejs container.

You (@henrique.tx) suggested to start from the official node container - and I’m sure it works
I took a different way and followed th steps here to build a nextjs docker container on my Linux Desktop (and then cross-compiling it for ARM64 architecture)

8

Thanks for the explanation, @vix

It will surely help other users trying to do something similar :slight_smile: