Hi all,
First of all, please do remove the topic if you’re not happy about it. I fully understand that, if that’s the case. I am not here trying to damage the balenaOS or the Balena Company in any way. I enjoy using the product.
I have a few devices running balenaOS, where the features from the balenaOS and Cloud, are no longer a requirement. But they’re on remote locations, so I don’t have an option to simply swap out the SD card with a fresh linux distro and a remote tunnel, or similar.
Are there a way to migrate to another distro, or strip the parts I don’t need in the balenaOS, while still keeping a remote connection? I know there’s plenty of products to solve that, but I’m not here to talk about the alternatives (!).
I know it sounds a bit crazy. But it’s not 100% un-common to hot migrate from one distro to another, in rare scenarios (CentOS to alternative, and similar cases - i know they’re not comparable in the same way).
I’ve seen a guide to migrate to Open Balena, but that’s not enought. I still need to be able to connect to the host instance, so I’m able to setup a remote connection, to be used in the future.
In short: I’m looking for suggestions, on how to migrate to another distro, or strip down the Balena-related things, from the balenaOS, so I don’t have to keep them in the Balena Cloud.
By looking around, I’ve not been able to find anyone talking about a migration like that.
Currently I can only think about one solution: Preparing a SD card image, and get a person “on location” to handle a flash. But that doesn’t match, what I’m hoping to do, one way or another, but done remotely.
I know there’s risk involved.
If you have any experince with this, I’m ready to take your suggestions and inputs. Also alternative solutions, if there’s any.