I’m following the LoRaWAN gateway workshop with RAK on Udemy and I’ve tried multiple ways to install the OS but it just won’t boot properly to install.
Tried natively from. Balena site, throught the cloud, with and without wifi and with RaspPi imager program.
It just won’t work.
Hello, if you are trying to install balenaOS on a Pi5, you might find our Getting Started Guide useful: Getting started: Raspberry Pi 5 and Node.js | balena
Although it ultimately covers running a Node.js application, everything through the “Create a release” section should be applicable to any project using balenaOS.
Let us know if you run into any problems following this guide, or if it is not describing what you are trying to do.
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@ATCproductions welcome to the balena community!
Once you will have the device properly running on balenaCloud, try to run this application in your fleet.
Let us know if you need more help!
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Hey @alanb128
Thank you for sending this my way. I went through this with Node.js, Python and Rust, still no luck.
I finally decided to click on the troubleshoot link and I saw this sentence. (see image). This whole time I had the Pi5 connected to a monitor and I never saw a logo or anything, just blank.
I tried using the Raspberry Pi Imager and still no luck.
I have a 64GB samsung SD & 256GB SanDisk SD old/brand new from box this morning.
They both work because I was able to install Ubuntu 24/Arch/PiOS using BalenaEtcher & Pi Imager.
I think there’s something wrong with the BalenaOS with Pi5
Edit:
I’m also on MacOS 15.3.1 and using Etcher 1.19.25
Hey @mpous
Thank you for sharing. I can push this to the cloud and I see the release/application. At the moment I’m just having BalenaOS + Raspberry Pi 5 issues. If you see my reply to @alanb128, you’ll see my response.
We are looking into possible issues in the recent Pi 5 balenaOS releases. Can you try using a 5.x version of the OS and see if that works for you? (such as 5.3.22)
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Hey @alanb128
Thank you for getting back to me. My apologies for not trying this sooner. 5.3.22 does work with a Raspberry Pi 5 w/16GB using the updated Balena Etcher 2.1.0.
BTW BalenaOS 6.4.1+Rev1 with Etcher 2.1.0 does not work either. I saw that was available and tried, it failed.
Next I shall see if the basic station-docker from @mpous is compatible with the older OS.
Shall I mark your last statement as a solution even though it’s for the older OS?
Hey @mpous
This error might be for you: " basicstation ERROR: Missing configuration, either force key-less CUPS with USE_CUPS=1 or define valid TC_KEY, CUPS_KEY or TTS_PERSONAL_KEY and TTS_USERNAME"
Using the 5.3.22 on a Pi5 due to the only OS working. I’m guessing this error is also causing not to populate a Tag with the EUI. So I can’t add to the TTN at the moment.
Hey @alanb128,
Did something wild, I updated my Pi5 through BalenaCloud from 5.3.22 to 6.4.2+Rev1 and it worked. I decided to do a clean install starting with 6.4.2+Rev1 but won’t work. Went back and redid the older OS version and upgraded again and worked. I wonder if it’s a Etcher issue.
I am still having the configeration issue though. Won’t populate the EUI. Trying to see if I can push soething to the Pi to populate this. Not sure if I need to target the host os or the basicstation.
Hey @mpous,
After getting the Pi5 to update, I decided to push the git project you sent me. This is a new error: [Warning] Failed to generate deltas due to an internal error; will be generated on-demand when I pushed it to BalenaCloud.
Good actually very nice
I got through…mostly. The challenges to have the latest and greatest 
For a Raspberry Pi 5 16GB + RAK5146 SPI (US 915) (using MacOS)
Requirements =
BalenaOS 5.3.22
Balena Etcher 2.1.0
Update to 6.4.3+ through Balena Cloud
For the “Release” add the ‘The Things Stack’: balenaHub - IoT embedded device apps, edge computing resources, and developer tools
Then you’ll get a EUI and can register the gateway.
So pretty much the original instrustions are still good/“correct” for now. Updated software/repo do not work.
I’ve updated the devices varibales and sad to say, my device stays disconnected on TTN.
Even though I can’t confirm this, I think the RAK5146 isn’t being recognized.
I’ve been doing this by my main boot on the SD card. I have the Pi SSD and can dual boot, when logging into PiOS, the RAK5146 is recongnized and can be configured.
Might have to accept soon that I just may be too early with the latest hardware.
Edit:
- Updated OS version
- I wanted to see if I can access the RAK5146 through the terminal on Balena Cloud and you cannot.
- ERROR while accessing the terminal to the Basicstation:
Error response from daemon: Container 9860a1645a4b5de84675ce995669b99d955dc7ed277560c490d5db8d26ce2b3c is restarting, wait until the container is running
Error response from daemon: Container 9860a1645a4b5de84675ce995669b99d955dc7ed277560c490d5db8d26ce2b3c is restarting, wait until the container is running
Edit/Update: Just tried this “Release”;GitHub - xoseperez/standalone-lorawan-gateway-balena: Deploys the The Things Stack LoRaWAN Network Server Open Source Edition, BasicStation and Backend tools using Balena.
This had some success to where it did populate the EUI and some much other features have applied and because accessible. Sadly I didn’t know how to connect TTN to the unit due to don’t know where to apply the API Key from TTN to the gateway. The device variables have changed.
Sadly I think I reached my dead end due to what I know about setting up a gateway.
Hey @pritazio
If you’re in the same boat as myself, please see my latest update.