We’ve been testing Balena OS on an IoT Gateway 8 (Compulab), but have uncovered a potential issue. Currently we use these steps to create a Debian-based production image that we flash onto our devices via USB boot.
However, once Balena OS has been flashed, this USB no longer installs the Debian production image as it does with our fresh devices. This is a major concern for us, as it effectively means we’re vendor locked.
After investigation and help from Compulab support, we suspect that the bootloader has been modified as part of the initial Balena OS.
Compulab has these steps to recover the uboot, but we’re wondering if there’s a less extreme measure - e.g. a command we can run on the base OS to force it to boot properly from the USB.
Quick update on this — I connected with our OS team and wanted to share what we’ve learned.
The Compulab IoT Gateway 8 always boots from its internal U-Boot. BalenaOS modifies that bootloader so it will only boot from USB if it detects a balenaOS image specifically. That’s why your Debian installer isn’t loading as expected after flashing balenaOS.
The good news is this doesn’t mean the device is vendor-locked — if you want to revert to your original Debian-based image, you’ll just need to re-program U-Boot using Compulab’s instructions.