Pimping Firewalla Gold Plus

WARNING!

If you are reading this post you automatically agree NOT to tell the great folks at Firewalla that I did this nor will you attempt this really stupid hack. You agree to not share this post with them as I don't want them to read it you may continue reading - let's keep this our little secret. Otherwise press the back button.

Also, to be clear, once you do this all bets are off. You no longer have a warranty. There is a really good chance that you are going to brick your Firewalla. There is no one to support you - certainly not the smart folks at Firewalla. There is a good chance you will "let the smoke out" of your Gold Plus. You also have a very good chance of not being able to reflash your Gold Plus.

Another reference, and more details, for this thought exercise can be found here.

PIMPING THE GOLD PLUS - adding a 1TB SSD and 16GB of memory

Again, do not do this.  Just have fun reading this post.

Let's look at what the baseline configuration of a Firewalla Gold Plus is.

lsblk

pi@Firewalla:~ (Gold Plus Firewalla) $ lsblk
NAME         MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
mmcblk0      179:0    0  29.1G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1  179:1    0     1M  0 part
├─mmcblk0p2  179:2    0   500M  0 part /boot
├─mmcblk0p3  179:3    0   4.5G  0 part /media/root-ro
├─mmcblk0p4  179:4    0   3.5G  0 part /var/lib/docker
├─mmcblk0p5  179:5    0     2G  0 part /media/home-ro
├─mmcblk0p6  179:6    0     2G  0 part /media/home-rw
├─mmcblk0p7  179:7    0     1G  0 part /log
├─mmcblk0p8  259:0    0     4G  0 part /data
└─mmcblk0p9  259:1    0   256M  0 part /boot/efi
mmcblk0boot0 179:8    0     4M  1 disk
mmcblk0boot1 179:16   0     4M  1 disk
zram0        252:0    0   1.9G  0 disk [SWAP]
zram1        252:1    0   1.9G  0 disk [SWAP]
zram2        252:2    0   1.9G  0 disk [SWAP]
zram3        252:3    0   1.9G  0 disk [SWAP]

... and for memory ...

/proc/meminfo 

pi@Firewalla:~ (Gold Plus Firewalla) $ cat /proc/meminfo 
MemTotal:        3822628 kB
MemFree:          210248 kB
MemAvailable:    1096136 kB
Buffers:          204512 kB
Cached:           781904 kB
SwapCached:         2944 kB
Active:           685376 kB
Inactive:        1870612 kB
Active(anon):      77044 kB
Inactive(anon):  1546224 kB
Active(file):     608332 kB
Inactive(file):   324388 kB
Unevictable:         124 kB
Mlocked:               0 kB
SwapTotal:       1908720 kB
SwapFree:        1639588 kB
...

Install the SSD and memory cards

I am not going into the details about what SSD and memory cards you should get.  I will say, there are a lot of wrong SSD cards to get -- PCIe will not work.  There are many physical sizes of SSD cards and anything other than a 2242 will not fit.

Insert the SSD card. Lots of ways to insert the card in the wrong way. Lots of ways that things can break here. Do not do it. If you do this and your Gold Plus starts beeping a lot on startup ... you are hosed.

Install the SO-DIMM memory card.

This is what a Gold Plus with new goodies installed looks like.  Yours will never look link this - right?!

The memory will just work. The SSD needs quite a bit of provisioning and configuration.

On Power Up - memory

Check your memory after the first boot. In this proof of concept, memory is now 16GB.

/proc/meminfo

pi@Firewalla:~ (Gold Plus Firewalla) $ cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal:       16190496 kB                                                                                                                             
MemFree:        12324264 kB                                                                                                                             
MemAvailable:   13582596 kB                                                                                                                             
Buffers:          200688 kB                                                                                                                             
Cached:          1396628 kB                                                                                                                             
SwapCached:           56 kB                                                                                                                             
Active:          1145364 kB                                                                                                                             
Inactive:        1802880 kB                                                                                                                             
Active(anon):      88516 kB                                                                                                                             
Inactive(anon):  1449192 kB                                                                                                                             
Active(file):    1056848 kB                                                                                                                             
Inactive(file):   353688 kB                                                                                                                             
Unevictable:         124 kB
Mlocked:               0 kB                                                                                                                             
SwapTotal:       8093680 kB                                                                                                                             
SwapFree:        8046832 kB 
...

Provisioning the SSD

Observe where the SSD is logically connected. This is almost certainly going to be at /dev/sda.

lsblk

pi@Firewalla:~ (Gold Plus Firewalla) $ lsblk
NAME         MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda            8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk
mmcblk0      179:0    0  29.1G  0 disk
├─mmcblk0p1  179:1    0     1M  0 part
├─mmcblk0p2  179:2    0   500M  0 part /boot
├─mmcblk0p3  179:3    0   4.5G  0 part /media/root-ro
├─mmcblk0p4  179:4    0   3.5G  0 part /var/lib/docker
├─mmcblk0p5  179:5    0     2G  0 part /media/home-ro
├─mmcblk0p6  179:6    0     2G  0 part /media/home-rw
├─mmcblk0p7  179:7    0     1G  0 part /log
├─mmcblk0p8  259:0    0     4G  0 part /data
└─mmcblk0p9  259:1    0   256M  0 part /boot/efi
mmcblk0boot0 179:8    0     4M  1 disk
mmcblk0boot1 179:16   0     4M  1 disk
zram0        252:0    0   1.9G  0 disk [SWAP]
zram1        252:1    0   1.9G  0 disk [SWAP]
zram2        252:2    0   1.9G  0 disk [SWAP]
zram3        252:3    0   1.9G  0 disk [SWAP]

Partition the SATA SSD using fdisk
Now that it’s know that the SATA SSD is at /dev/sda the drive can be partitioned.

Run the fdisk command and follow the prompts to create a logical partition. These are the answers to the prompts.

sudo fdisk /dev/sda
Add a new partition
n
The new partition should be a primary partition
p
Set the partition number
1
Set the first sector
Accept the default – press [Enter]
Set the last sector
Accept the default – press [Enter]
Remove the signature
y
Write the partition
w

Displaying the new Logical Partition

Running lsblk again show a logical partition at /dev/sda/sda1.

pi@Firewalla:~ (Gold Plus Firewalla) $ lsblk
NAME         MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
sda            8:0    0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─sda1         8:1    0 931.5G  0 part 
mmcblk0      179:0    0  29.1G  0 disk 
├─mmcblk0p1  179:1    0     1M  0 part 
├─mmcblk0p2  179:2    0   500M  0 part /boot
├─mmcblk0p3  179:3    0   4.5G  0 part /media/root-ro
├─mmcblk0p4  179:4    0   3.5G  0 part /var/lib/docker
├─mmcblk0p5  179:5    0     2G  0 part /media/home-ro
├─mmcblk0p6  179:6    0     2G  0 part /media/home-rw
├─mmcblk0p7  179:7    0     1G  0 part /log
├─mmcblk0p8  259:0    0     4G  0 part /data
└─mmcblk0p9  259:1    0   256M  0 part /boot/efi
mmcblk0boot0 179:8    0     4M  1 disk 
mmcblk0boot1 179:16   0     4M  1 disk 
zram0        252:0    0   1.9G  0 

Create a mount point for the SATA SSD

Before adding an entry to fstab, a mount point for the drive has to be created. The mount point is the directory where the data on the drive will be accessed. In this example /sata-drive is going to be the mount point but any name could be used.

sudo mkdir /sata-drive

Create a group to control access permissions

Change the group ownership of the directory so that users can access it. Create a group
called data and then add users to the new group. In this example data is group name but
any name could be used for the group.

sudo groupadd data

There is only “one” user by default on the Firewalla Gold Plus – pi.

sudo usermod -aG data pi

Change the ownership of the mountpoint.

sudo chown -R :data /sata-drive

Format the drive

Format the drive as a ext4 Linux drive.

ssd-data$ sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda1

The results should look something like this.

pi@Firewalla:~ (Gold Plus Firewalla) $ sudo mkfs -t ext4 /dev/sda1
mke2fs 1.46.5 (30-Dec-2021)
Discarding device blocks: done                            
Creating filesystem with 244190390 4k blocks and 61054976 inodes
Filesystem UUID: 1b4271f9-41b9-433f-a9e3-b8b869d30d98
Superblock backups stored on blocks: 
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208, 
        4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872, 71663616, 78675968, 
        102400000, 214990848

Allocating group tables: done                            
Writing inode tables: done                            
Creating journal (262144 blocks): done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done     

Identifying the UUID of the SATA SSD

Use blkid to determine the UUID of /dev/sda1. The UUID will be used to safely mount the
SSD after every boot.

pi@Firewalla:~ (Gold Plus Firewalla) $ blkid
/dev/mmcblk0p3: UUID="b85c6585-fed0-4670-9b84-aa...15" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="5092b152-3ea3-ee47-b754-b9228fdd83ce"
/dev/mmcblk0p2: UUID="6b7f46ff-4dd5-489a-86ae-0c...150" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="57f7bcea-320a-c343-b64b-3aeea0b6bda4"
/dev/mmcblk0p4: UUID="a388bfbd-cd07-413f-ad42-e3...8c" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="9724a787-8ad1-ab4e-a4d6-f90c2ed8c5ef"
/dev/mmcblk0p5: UUID="f9c4c352-f69b-40ea-84b9-4b...ff" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="3660adb0-eb86-4245-8a97-1f3685137ff0"
/dev/mmcblk0p6: UUID="56218b3e-2738-4a8c-9705-01...c8" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="95dc1a8d-0491-3e47-b8f1-2e79b3f11e5a"
/dev/mmcblk0p7: UUID="da357789-9c08-4e83-9ed9-f2...41" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="89b180ec-20cf-ae41-86b6-2f1668631fa2"
/dev/mmcblk0p8: UUID="c841aabc-1bf3-4807-82b6-b1...8b" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="d728af0e-1021-f54a-85c8-86389334143f"
/dev/mmcblk0p9: UUID="F4C5-D8F8" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="vfat" PARTUUID="db0db46b-5a06-3449-a3af-d6b6b612e1eb"
/dev/zram3: UUID="402c7dd8-64f4-4d3e-a2e1-a0...2c" TYPE="swap"
/dev/zram1: UUID="64634049-8801-4474-8c3a-e8...b0" TYPE="swap"
/dev/zram2: UUID="cca8a4d2-cc88-486b-9c40-c7...d6" TYPE="swap"
/dev/sda1: UUID="71f91b42-433f-41b9-a9e3-b869d8b30d98" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4" PARTUUID="217b7a91-01"
/dev/zram0: UUID="0f31a690-8ed4-408b-875c-4b...c4" TYPE="swap"

Create an Automount Entry

Create an automount entry in fstab so the drive is mounted after every reboot a line needs to be added to the fstab file. Be aware that at the time of this writing the architecture of the Firewalla Gold is such that user changes such as these are deleted and the system restored to it’s known configuration on every boot. There is a way around that where permanent changes can be made – but if you need to be told how to do that you shouldn’t be doing it.

Edit the fstab file. If you need to be told how to edit the file or install nano then you shouldn't be doing this.

sudo nano /etc/fstab

At the bottom the fstab file add an entry that contains the information about the new hardware. The UUID is from the blkid just run.

UUID=71f91b42-433f-41b9-a9e3-b869d8b30d98 /sata-drive auto nodev,nofail,x-gvfs-show 0 0

UUID= 71f91b42-433f-41b9-a9e3-b869d8b30d98 - is the UUID of the drive from above (but obfuscated in this writeup). UUID doesn’t have to be used - /dev/sda could be used -- but it's always safer to use the UUID as that will never changes where the device name may.

Save and close the file.

Testing the entry

Before rebooting the machine, test your new fstab entry.

sudo mount -a

If no errors are displayed then the fstab entry is correct and it’s safe to reboot.

QED

pi@Firewalla:~ (Gold Plus Firewalla) $ sudo fdisk -l
Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 29.12 GiB, 31268536320 bytes, 61071360 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: C0C5D63B-26C3-8F4E-826A-38BFB370AA18

Device            Start      End Sectors  Size Type
/dev/mmcblk0p1     2048     4095    2048    1M BIOS boot
/dev/mmcblk0p2     4096  1028095 1024000  500M Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p3  1028096 10465279 9437184  4.5G Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p4 10465280 17805311 7340032  3.5G Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p5 17805312 21999615 4194304    2G Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p6 21999616 26193919 4194304    2G Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p7 26193920 28291071 2097152    1G Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p8 28291072 36679679 8388608    4G Linux filesystem
/dev/mmcblk0p9 36679680 37203967  524288  256M EFI System

Disk /dev/sda: 931.51 GiB, 1000204886016 bytes, 1953525168 sectors
Disk model: NGFF SSD 1TB
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x7a91217b

Device     Boot Start        End    Sectors   Size Id Type
/dev/sda1        2048 1953525167 1953523120 931.5G 83 Linux

Disk /dev/zram0: 1.93 GiB, 2071986176 bytes, 505856 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Disk /dev/zram1: 1.93 GiB, 2071986176 bytes, 505856 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Disk /dev/zram2: 1.93 GiB, 2071986176 bytes, 505856 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Disk /dev/zram3: 1.93 GiB, 2071986176 bytes, 505856 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 4096 = 4096 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes

Why

Now there is lots of room for locally stored logs and room for docker images.  Additional memory enables memory-resident activities to be performed. 

nice

Read about the nice command.  Do everything at 19.  To be clear, doing this will eat up CPU and you will break your Firewalla. At the very least it will not work as intended and will cause unintended outcomes.

IRL

However ... in three years of running in similar ways, and working with care, we have never experienced any issues and never run into any heat issues.