Safe way to edit config.json on a remotely deployed device

Product support balenaOS
1

Hi,

I was trying to look around and could not find anything too specific relating to editing a config.json with a fail-safe option, to be able to revert to a previous state if there is an issue/mistake that may prevent the device from booting.

I came across: config.json is single point of failure and it does get corrupted often

I have looked into some of the mentioned links/articles but I wanted a confirmation from the team, is there any possible way to edit a config.json, remotely, and if there is an issue or a mistake in the edited file, to somehow revert to last known working configuration or anything along those lines?

It would not be possible to reach the device physically, if the edited configuration caused it to “break” so I am cautious of attempting to do this.

I am planning on simply adding a udev rule to the config file of a remotely deployed device if that is of any help.

Thank you! :grin:

1 Like
3

Hello @balena101 there is this project however this is no longer maintained, so use it under your consideration!

More importantly in general we will not be able to help fix an unbootable device if you edit the config.json remotely. You will need to be onsite, and likely reflash the device. So you can proceed at your own risk.

1 Like
4

Okay, great!

Thank you for that, I understand, it’s kind of a last resort type of thing but I will gladly test this out in-office to see how it works. :grin: