We are trying to install balenaOS by flashing/wipe-out the any existing OS in our Laptop (Machine) but we are unable to do so.
Machine Specs : Lenovo Thinkbook x86 64, Ubuntu as Host OS
Steps we have followed :
Created a fleet with Generic x86_64 (GPT) option
Then downloaded related OS, from add device section within that Fleet
Created a bootable USB stick via balenaEthcer
Shutdown the target device ( Lenovo Thinkbook ) , connected the bootable USB stick
Start the device, press F10/F12 to select the bootable device option
Device started with balenaOS, booting it from USB
Expected Behaviour :
After following above steps device BalenaOS should get auto flashed and the device would shutdown
Thereafter we can remove the USB stick and the device should only have balenaOS as Host OS
Actual Behaviour :
The device never shutdown by itself
If we do reboot or shutdown,
if we still have the attached USB Stick and don’t go to the bootable option via F10/F12 it always boots up the exsiting OS in my case it’s Ubuntu
if we remove the USB stick and start the device, it always boots up existing OS
Hey there thanks for joining the forum and reporting this.
We have had some other instances of this so it might be becoming a bit of a known issue. After the first boot up of balenaOS (before you reboot), are you able to log in? If so you could try running journalctl -u resin-init-flasher to get an idea of what may have gone wrong. If this works and you’re able to share the logs they may help us to debug further.
Just to add to my previous reply, you’ll have to use a ‘development’ image to be able to log in, if you’re not already. After that the username ‘root’ with no password should work.
Hi vivekdoshi,
Could you check the contents of the usb you are using to flash and tell us what you see?
If you have two partitions named flasher-bootand flasher-root then the USB has the flasher image. If you see resin-root and resin-bootthen the USB has the proper OS and that is why it’s booting from it.
Also, if you can grant support access to the device and share it with me via email, I will take a look.
Ok. So then the USB does not contain the flasher, but the OS itself. Which is not what we want. We need to figure out how they ended up there.
Please try downloading again the OS image (from the Add Device for instance) and flashing it again with balenaEtcher. Then check in your computer the contents and see if they are the flash-boot or the resin-boot.
If it’s the flash-boot, it is correct and it should proceed with the flash when booting your device from the USB.
Let us know what you find.
I Have installed Balena Etcher onto my PC SSD. Is that the right thing to do? In this methode from my main HD I tried to flash a 34 Gig Flash drive, but Balena ask to flash from URL or a File. Now that is where this old fella has stopped for any advice.
I am using Cinnamon Linux Mint 21.2, cinnamon 5.8.4, linux kernel 5.15.0-91 Generic
Thanks in Advance.