Adding a dtoverlay to Custom Configuration Variables

Product support
1

I’m having some trouble adding a dtoverlay into the config.txt file using the custom configuration variables on the balena dashboard/cloud.

I’d like to add:

dtoverlay=gpio-shutdown,gpio_pin=3

So I create a variable named:

RESIN_HOST_CONFIG_dtoverlay

Then I assign the value as:

gpio-shutdown,gpio_pin=3

I check the config.txt on the SD card after preloading and I can’t find any dtoverlay setting. I do see the other variables like enabling spi and i2c.

dtoverlay
dtoverlay1338×244 10.7 KB

What am I doing wrong?

2

Hey there
Any chance the device runs in local mode? After modifying a config.txt variable, the device supervisor should apply the changes and reboot the device. However configuration variables defined through the API will not apply to devices in local mode. more info

4

Hey! It’s not running in local mode. So are custom variables ONLY applied AFTER the device has connected with balenaCloud first? Preloading with those variables in place won’t work?

5

Preloading a device should definitely cause the variables to be applied before connecting to the cloud, so perhaps there’s a bug in this implementation. I can check that there’s no issue there and get back to you :slight_smile:

25

Hi there @KingstonSteele,

We have confirmed internally that that file (config.txt) will be populated after the first boot of the device after preloading, regardless of connectivity. If you are inspecting the image immediately after preloading (and not on-device after boot), that would explain the behavior you are seeing. Are you able to check on a booted device?