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 and Gold Plus boxes. To flash:
- Gold SE boxes, see this guide.
- Gold Pro boxes, see this guide.
- Purple series boxes, see this guide.
- 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:
- Do not delete or unpair the previous instance in your Firewalla mobile app if you want to restore your previous configuration from it later using the Migration feature.
- Download the Firewalla Gold Series installer image: gold-fireupdater-0.0709.img.gz (Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS)
MD5sum: 0f536fc1e023a2c0d8c103c3b41380d5
sha256: 66d0b1c7ce4741fcc79427a4718fb691f519b667a3959630529864bdb783c348- You don't need to decompress the file for flashing.
- Firewalla Gold Pro uses the same image as other Gold series boxes, so it's expected to see "gpro" in the name of the decompressed file.
- This version includes some general performance improvements
- [Gold Plus] PPPoE download performance can now reach 2.3gbps even with QoS enabled.
- [Gold] PPPoE download performance can now reach 1gbps even with QoS enabled.
- [Legacy image] Download link: fireupdater-3.0929.img.gz (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS)
MD5sum: 2c1e2628b20c9c374a489a2a0a4c0d5c
sha256: 094ad9229396d3adb9c96e189069659e447de606832daac75d9bf1ebc40346fa
- 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.
- Plug a USB drive with at least 16 GB disk space into your computer, and select it as the flash target.
- Select Flash!
- After flashing, unplug the USB drive from your computer and plug it into the other USB slot on Firewalla Gold (please DO NOT remove the red dongle, DO NOT use USB hub).
- Power cycle the Gold box (Unplug the power cable and plug it back in) to start flashing the Gold box. A display monitor may be connected via the HDMI port to watch the flashing process.
- Wait about 10 minutes (this may vary depending on the USB drive) for the beep sounds from the internal speaker of the Gold or Gold Plus box. (Gold SE does not have a speaker).
- If all is O.K., the Gold/Gold Plus will beep twice every 5 seconds.
- If flashing fails, the Gold/Gold plus will beep 3 times every 5 seconds.
In case of failure, see Troubleshooting below.
- Unplug the USB drive, then power cycle the Gold box.
- The box will be powered up as new, and ready for pairing.
Troubleshooting
Flashing should take about 10 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, not Gold SE.
- Check that USB drive was imaged successfully with Etcher.
- Try a different USB drive.
- 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.
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, you can tap and hold on the previous Firewalla Icon, and tap "unpair" to remove the previous pairing.
How to flash image file to USB drive via Linux command line (Warning, Pro users only)
# Make sure the device file is the device file of the USB drive, 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 fireupdater-3.0.0929.img.gz | sudo dd of=/dev/sdc bs=32M status=progress
Known Issues
Etcher prompts for user confirmation before flash in Windows 11
Solution: Start Etcher with administrative privilege
Etcher stuck during flashing in Windows 11
Solution: Revert Etcher back to an old version. v1.18.11
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}s2Etcher doesn't work on MacOS Catalina (10.15)
Solution: Here is an open issue on 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/balenaEtcherType your MacOS login password when asked.
Older Images (Not recommended):
-
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Supports Gold Only)
- Download link: fireupdater-3.0.0113.img.gz (Firewalla Version: 2.1223)
- MD5sum: eb64d196a7a9f9d80f6fd914334aea46
-
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Supports Gold Only)
- Download link: firestaller-0.132.img.gz
- MD5sum: 22ecc3d8d41d874338597e620ca371f0
Comments
39 comments
Maybe for the future you could allow flashing with a 8gb module too since the CPU support's 8gb of ram 🙂
Please ignore the 0.132 version, it is the image builder. The image is still the production one.
Please provide more secure hash sums (ideally SHA512) and ideally also GPG signatures for ensuring the security of the installer image.
I don't pretend to be a security expert, though as I've understood it:
Requesting this respectfully, of course...it's just that even if likelihood is low that the router image were compromised, the security of everything connected to the Firewalla's network seems like it would be a runaway train....
Do the automatic firmware updates get verified by MD5 file hashsums as well?
If so, can the security of this be upgraded as soon as possible, please?
I'm currently on the alpha release for FWG. If I re-flash the FWG with fireupdate-3.0.0113.img.gz, will that take me back to the beta versions, or will FWG update to the alpha release automatically?
The goal is to get to the 20.04 base image plus be on the alpha release cycles.
Thank you!
bks
You will have to rejoin the alpha/beta you were on before with the previous image.
That's what I needed to know! Thank you!
bks
If we have upgraded to 8 GB of ram, do we have to install the 4 GB stick before flashing this image?
Will all of the settings and/or customizations be retained after flashing? I assume yes, but wanted to make sure.
bks
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