Watchdog module is enabled by default for UP Squared with BIOS 4.6 or newer and UP Core Plus with BIOS 1.5 or newer.

Note: At the moment the iTCO Watchdog is using the standard WDAT driver with the Ubuntu, future versions of the kernel will enable the iTCO driver and use that instead.

First, load the WDAT module to enable the watchdog device:

sudo sh -c 'echo wdat_wdt >> /etc/modules'

Then, you can define your timeout for halting the system. Otherwise, 30 seconds will be set by default:

wdctl -s 60

Finally, write to the watchdog device and wait until the board reboot:

echo 1 > /dev/watchdog