Reminder: after resetting or flashing a new image, you will need to pair with your unit again (https://firewalla.com/install). Your old Firewalla icon will not work.
This tutorial explains how to flash image for Firewalla Red, Blue and Blue Plus.
- To flash Gold series boxes, see this guide.
- To flash Gold SE boxes, see this guide.
- To flash Purple series boxes, see this guide.
Firewalla is a general computer with a full Linux distribution. (Similar to Raspberry Pi, if you know what that is). Many of our early supporters really wanted Firewalla system to be "open". Not only open source, but open to modifications, or at least giving some room to 'play'.
There are some cool things you can do with your Firewalla.
If anything goes really wrong with your Firewalla when you are having fun, you can use the built-in Factory Defaults reset option to fix your box. But in case you got too creative and the box is not responding, here are instructions to help you recover:
Note: You need a 16Gb or larger SD card to flash your Firewalla.
Step 1: Download Image
Choose the correct box and download the stable or beta image below.
Firewalla Red
- Stable Image (Download here)
sha256: 7425195a1b04ff5fbe11910dc8cd31ceb8af0364e7cf0e5813dadc7ef8063273 - Beta Image (Download here)
sha256: e903cd6e0dfec0cf5ccb24530940d36aa01303afe6d1d92de5d59c3433a4b87a
Firewalla Blue
- Stable Image (Download here)
sha256: 98e7110c26a9ff4b14eb2edb43aeffbcd1c058baef801d53799d64912202204b - Beta Image (Download here)
sha256: d7a101fc0e9ebb0a37caa8d1a99e49a835bf16f8f67bf5cc2596914045f5d431
Firewalla Blue Plus
- Stable Image (Download here)
sha256: b1bc7b49bb34b7cd96fa81e441357a12537ae9202bdd28a92a1375a190bb4fed
Step 2: Download a flash program, we use etcher.io
If your flashing software doesn't find the image but you can see that the download was successful, you may need to unzip the .gz file after downloading. If you use etcher.io this step is not necessary.
Step 3: Flash the new Image
- Take the SD card out from the Firewalla Box
- Use the etcher to load the image you just downloaded to the card.
- Choose Select the SD card as your target.
Step 4: Set up with the new Image
Put the card back into the SD Card slot, and boot up the Firewalla box and set it up as new. Be sure to insert the card with the label side up and gold tips facing down. Insert until you feel/hear a little click and the card is not sticking out at all.
Step 5: Migrate data from your previous pairing (optional)
Go to Settings > Advanced > Migrate from other boxes. Here is a detailed tutorial on Box data migration.
Step 6: Remove the old Firewalla from the App
Once you have confirmed that previous settings have been migrated you can remove the old app.
- Launch the Firewalla App, you should see the old Firewalla icon on the App's main screen
- Tap and hold on the Firewalla Box icon, tap Unpair this box -> Unpair. The Box will be removed from the App.
Comments
5 comments
When Flashing device, don't forget to "Reset" the SSH password for your device as the default SSH password for image is not secure (and probably known).
There is no need to reset SSH password. The password will change itself after pairing. And will change itself once while. It also changes if you enter and exit support mode, and after each reboot.
I can't get my imac to recognize the microSD card that came with it using any means I have on hand. I had placed it into an empty SD adapter and directly into the SD slot on the imac as well as several different card readers. If I was to grab another card to put in here, what format should the card be before attempting to flash it with etcher?
Scott, if the card cannot be recognized, then the card is bad. For etcher to write a new card, formatting is not needed it, the program will dump a bit exact copy of the image
I had real problems with resetting this Firewalla blue and in the end I had to buy an external Micro SD card reader to try and flash the card. The card would not flash so I ended up buying a new 32GB micro SD card and that was flash-able and I used the beta image file to get it working and now I am reconfiguring it from scratch. Had to uninstall the Firewalla App too and reinstall.
Currently I have added the box but it says its initialising and will take about 1 minute.
Its been running for 5 minutes now so still waiting hence my time to write this. Wish me luck!
Its not straight forward and has taken me half a day to sort this so far. Surprised the card failed .. its only 4-5 months old
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