I am considering Balena for use in a product which seems to be a very good fit. However, after setting up my test device in BalenaCloud, in the device->actions->“BalenaOs update” section, I was not able to change the OS version since it was already on the latest.
If we installed BalenaOS on hundreds of devices in the field and then found out we needed a custom build (for example for a vendor-specific driver), would it be possible to change to that through BalenaCloud? Would it be any different if we had installed a custom build initially?
Hi, custom builds are rarely required and that most use cases, including the loading of external vendor drivers, can be achieved from a container.
Anyway, if there is a real need to update to a custom OS, you can try steps described here.
Performing manual updates using a poorly-supported process isn’t really feasable as it defeats the purpose of investing in the BalenaCloud solution.
However, I’m interested in your statement that drivers can be loaded from a container. Are you saying that kernel modules can be run in containers? Can you point to any further reading on this?