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 the image of Firewalla Gold SE boxes.
- To flash other boxes in the Gold series, see this guide.
- To flash Gold Pro boxes: see this guide.
- To flash Purple series boxes, see this guide.
- To flash Firewalla Red, Blue, and Blue Plus boxes, see this guide.
In case anything goes wrong and the "reset to factory default" does not work, here is how to recover:
Step 1: Prepare the installer Image
- Do not delete or unpair the previous instance in your Firewalla mobile app. You can restore configurations from it later using the Migration feature.
- Download the Firewalla Gold SE installer image:
- Download link: gse-install-1.0612.img.gz (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS)
- MD5sum: 02b01a8cfb93131b0a4cd1de06b619da
sha256: c5c6bfdd4bde4ff1bb52a6af02c56c27d756c9ad6543a1acb40d8f6036b81f57
- In router mode, PPPoE download performance can now reach 2gbps.
- In router mode, DHCP/Static download performance can now reach 2.3gbps. (may vary depending on the actual network environment)
- LEGACY Image Download link: gse-install-0.0821.img.gz (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS)
- MD5sum: 0bbc57df600236d5ac8abf2fc318cd89
sha256: 781960584fdb9a3ccacde20e567e73e6e76f9d7316404b3135d5a25f2022fe8c
- Download a flash program. We use etcher.io in this example.
Note: if Etcher doesn't work on macOS Catalina (10.15), please see below for a workaround.
- Launch the etcher and select the image you've downloaded before.
- You will need a MicroSD Card with at least 16 GB disk space (not included with a Firewalla Gold SE).
- Reformat the MicroSD card to wipe out any data.
- Insert the MicroSD Card into a Card reader and plug it into your computer, then select it as the flash target. (If your computer has a built-in SD card slot, you can insert the card into your computer directly.)
- Select Flash!
- After flashing, unplug the SD Card Reader from your computer, and eject the MicroSD card from the reader or eject the card from your computer.
Step 2: Install the Image on your Gold SE
- If you have an SD Card installed on GSE, please eject it.
- Power off the Firewalla Gold SE (you can just unplug the power cable from the box) and insert the SD Card into the SD card slot with the brand and text side facing up and gold tips facing down. You will feel a little click when it's inserted well.
- Power cycle the Gold SE (unplug the power cable and plug it back in) to start flashing it. You may connect a display monitor via the HDMI port to monitor the flashing process.
- Wait for the installation process to complete.
Status Light Process Blinking Blue Installing Blinking Red Verifying Solid Red Fail Solid Blue Success - If flashing fails, the status light will be solid red. See Troubleshooting below.
- Once you see the status light is solid blue, the flashing process is completed successfully. Unplug the power cable to power off the box, then remove the SD card by pushing it gently.
- Plug the power cable back in and follow the installation guide to configure your Gold SE in whichever mode you have selected.
Troubleshooting
Flashing should take 10-15 minutes. If it takes substantially more than that, there may be some issues. Here are some things you can check:
- Check that the image is for Gold SE, not Gold.
- Check that SD card was imaged successfully with Etcher.
- Try a different SD card or SD card reader.
- In case of failure, if a monitor has been connected via HDMI, you may take a photo of the screen output and submit it with a support case.
Step 3: Restoring Configuration
When installing the new version, the iOS app will use "Quick Setup" to restore the previous network configuration.
Then please use Settings -> Advanced -> Migrate from other boxes to restore rules and device names after installation. See the tutorial on how to migrate: How to migrate data from one Firewalla Box to another? Note: please do not unpair the old box before the migration. Just use the USB to flash, install, and migrate. After migration, test that the box is fully restored. When you are satisfied that things are restored, you can tap and hold on to the previous Firewalla Icon, and tap "unpair" to remove the previous pairing. There is no undo for this action.
How to prepare installer image via Linux command line (Warning, Pro users only)
# Make sure the device file is the device file of your USB adapter, flashing to the wrong device file may cause unexpected data loss
gunzip -c <image_file> | sudo dd of=<usb device file> bs=32M status=progress
# Example
gunzip -c gse-install-0.0705.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdc bs=32M status=progress
Known Issues
1. Etcher prompts for user confirmation before flashing on Windows 10
Solution: Start Etcher with administrative privilege
2. Etcher fails to start flashing in macOS
Solution: Unmount auto-mounted partitions from the USB drive by running the following commands in Terminal
x=$(diskutil list | awk '/external/ {print $1}')
sudo umount ${x}s1 ${x}s2
3. Etcher doesn't work on macOS Catalina (10.15)
Solution: Here is an open issue on the GitHub etcher project to track this: https://github.com/balena-io/etcher/issues/2833
Here is a workaround you can use before etcher fixes this issue.
- Open Terminal.app
- Run this command in the terminal:
sudo /Applications/balenaEtcher.app/Contents/MacOS/balenaEtcher
- Type your macOS login password when asked.
Comments
3 comments
How does one validate that this has installed properly. I am still seeing the stable box 1.9780 and am pretty sure that the pppoe settings which I am trying to test on GSE have not made it to my box. Should I open a support ticket ?
You can do a speed test with PPPoE, you should be able to see faster speed after flashing the "beta" image
Yes I also get the stable release shown in settings but can confirm the double PPPOE speeds. I have sent in my findings to help@firewalla.com and below are also my initial findings:
Hi I have emailed my initial findings to help@firewalla.com (Ticket: 82599) the details of which are also below:
Firewalla Gold SE PPPOE Beta (gse-install-1.0523.img.gz) test feedback
Initial findings
The update from SD card in and power on took exactly 10 minutes. 5 further minutes of verifying and about 8 minutes of migrating settings.
Instead of using the migrate functionality in the settings (as the update page suggested: https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/19523706861843-Firewalla-Gold-SE-How-to-Flash-Installer-Image) while setting the box up it offered to restore from the cloud which I chose an approximately eight minutes later the box was fully usable.
As described exactly double the PPPOE speeds. The firewalla box never fully measured the correct speed on my line always showing 600Mbps or less. Firewalla box speed give or take now sees 1200Mbps (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!). My actual line speed is full fibre 1600Mbps down and 115Mbps up (thanks to UK internet service provider upload speeds, no symmetrics here).
I have always managed to get faster speed test results by SSH into my Gold SE installing ookla speed test using command: wget https://install.speedtest.net/app/cli/ookla-speedtest-1.2.0-linux-aarch64.tgz and running command "./speedtest" without quotes. When the main firewalla app page showed sub 600Mbps this test would get me about 750-800Mbps. I can now reach upwards of 1400Mbps on this test.
The monthly data plan setting was automatically turned on and set to one terabyte. This was not active before the upgrade to beta and I have never used that option. If I had not noticed would this have cut off the internet??? No idea why this turned on by itself.
Other details of my connection:
ISP is EE (A merge of ISP BT - British Telecom United Kingdom. EE = Everything Everywhere).
Package I am on is called Full Fibre AKA Busiest home bundle (https://ee.co.uk/broadband/full-fibre).
Using Firewalla Gold SE on package beta: gse-install-1.0523.img.gz (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS) (https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/19523706861843-Firewalla-Gold-SE-How-to-Flash-Installer-Image)
App still shows release as stable.
App Version 1.61.88 (1740)
Box Version 1.978 (c419cef5)
Are there any other tests firewalla want me to try with this beta?
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