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Factory reset on Turris Omnia⚓︎

The Turris Omnia router has a reset button on its back panel. When you press and immediately release the reset button the router resets and boots into ordinary Turris OS (mode 1). To enter other reboot modes press the reset button and wait for LEDs to indicate the number of the desired mode. Then release the reset button.

LEDs represent a counter. The number of shining LEDs (regardless of the color) indicates the current mode. The last LED transition from green to red. When it turns red, next LED lights up and the counter is incremented. When the counter reaches 12 (number of LEDs) it starts again from 1.

When the reset button is released the LED counter blink three times to confirm the selected reset mode. If the selected mode is different from the required just press the reset button again and start the mode selection process again.

Available reset modes:

  • 1 LED: Standard (re)boot
  • 2 LEDs: Rollback to latest snapshot
  • 3 LEDs: Rollback to factory reset
  • 4 LEDs: Re-flash router from flash drive
  • 5 LEDs: Unsecure SSH on 192.168.1.1 (Omnia 2019 and newer)
  • 6 LEDs: Flash from the internet (Omnia 2019 and newer)
  • 7 LEDs: Rescue shell

Tip

Release the reset button immediately after the required number of LEDs starts shining (regardless of color). Do not unnecessarily prolong holding the reset button when the last LED is lit. By this you decrease a chance of accidentally transitioning to the next mode at the same moment when the button is released.

After the selected mode indication is performed all LEDs turn blue for a moment and then a light wave indicates the start the first stage boot during which LEDs turn green.

Warning

When LEDs turn red, it means that some highly sensitive operation is in process and data may be corrupted if it is interupted. Try not to reset router during the proccess or you might end up with corrupted filesystem. That one can be fixed using mode 4 but with complete data loss.

How reset modes work is also explained in one of our video tutorials.

Standard (re)boot⚓︎

1 LED (Power)

Router is going to reboot. During the boot process the LEDs indicate operation of assigned peripherals. When the boot process is completed all LEDs turn green for a moment and then transition back to operation indicator mode.

Rollback to latest snapshot⚓︎

2 LEDs (Power, 0)

This mode may help in situation when you lose network connectivity to your Turris Omnia router during experiments or due to any other reason that is bound to the internal state of the router. You can simply return to the latest snapshot of the running system by selecting the proper reset mode. For more information about the snapshots please visit schnapps.

During the course of the operation all LEDs are going to turn green. After a while the LEDs turn red. From this moment, the router must not be restarted or powered off. When the rollback operation is completed the router automatically restarts. Completion of the snapshot rollback process is indicated by turning all LEDs green for a moment during the boot into the selected snapshot. After that the LEDs switch back to the standard operation indicator mode.

Tip

Your current state is saved in a snapshot. You can later cheery-pick changes you still want by using Schnapps.

Rollback to factory reset⚓︎

3 LEDs (Power, 0, 1)

All data, settings and software in the internal storage of the router are erased and replaced by the factory defaults. Internally the file system rolls back to a special snapshot (the one that has been created in the factory). Please use this mode when you lose your password and all means of access to the router or when the return to the latest snapshot (mode 2) is not sufficient to repair broken system.

Indication of the process progress is the same as in case of rollback to the latest snapshot (mode 2).

Tip

Your current state is saved in a snapshot. You can later cheery-pick changes you still want by using Schnapps.

Tip

You can achieve the same results by calling schnapps rollback factory from CLI.

Re-flash router⚓︎

Warning

This operation erases all settings and all data stored in the router.

4 LEDs (Power, 0, 1, 2)

If the Turris Omnia router’s operating system is broken beyond repair or if you want to avoid long upgrades during initial setup, please use the following method for restoring the operating system image.

Download the latest version of Turris Omnia’s system image from https://repo.turris.cz/hbs/medkit/omnia-medkit-latest.tar.gz. Save the file omnia-medkit-latest.tar.gz to USB flash drive to the root directory. The Turris Omnia router supports following filesystems: ext4, Btrfs, XFS and FAT32. You can also download and put alongside md5 or sha256 file from the same URL. Connect the USB flash to the Turris Omnia router and use reset button to select mode 4 (4 LEDs).

The Turris Omnia router will rewrite internal eMMC storage with the system image from the USB flash drive.

Process of rewriting the internal storage takes considerably longer time than snapshot rollback in the previous cases. However, indication of the process progress is the same as in case of rollback to the latest snapshot (mode 2).

When the process has completed the task you may remove the USB flash.

Unsecure SSH on 192.168.1.1⚓︎

Warning

When used incorrectly, this operation exposes your Omnia unprotected on the internet. Make sure to unplug all untrusted computers and internet connection first.

Info

This mode is for now avaialble only on Omnia 2019 and newer.

5 LEDs (Power, 0, 1, 2, 3)

This mode is meant to help you debug your issues without need for serial cable or rolling back snapshots. Before entering this mode, make sure that only your computer is directly connected to LAN4 port.

When started, Omnia will set-up IPv4 network on it’s LAN4 interface with static IP address 192.168.1.1/24. Pick a random IP address from the same network (for example 192.168.1.2/24) and set it up manually on your computer. After that, you should be able to ssh as root to your router without need to enter password. You will end up in rescue mode with limited capabilities, but you have Schnapps at your disposal and you can mount rootfs from your micro SD card and do any changes you need.

After finishing your fixes, don’t forget to unmount any mounted filesystems and reboot the router.

Flash from the internet⚓︎

Warning

This operation erases all settings and all data stored in the router.

Info

This mode is for now avaialble only on Omnia 2019 and newer.

6 LEDs (Power, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4)

If the Turris Omnia router operating system is broken beyond repair or if you want to avoid long upgrades during initial setup, please use the following method for restoring the operating system image.

The Turris Omnia router will rewrite content of the internal memory with the system image downloaded from the internet.

To use this mode, you need to plug your Turris Omnia to a network where it can get internet connection using DHCP. It will try to use only the WAN port Once it gets online, it will download latest medkit from our website alongside with it’s signature. Verifies it and if everything works well, it will reflash itself.

Process of rewriting the internal memory takes considerably longer time than snapshot rollback in the previous cases.

Rescue shell⚓︎

Warning

This option is for true geeks.

7 LEDs (Power, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, WAN)

This mode allows you to enter a read-only rescue image. You can use UART serial console to connect to the router’s rescue shell.

If you accidentally enter this mode you may reset the router by briefly pressing the reset button. You can do this only in this particular mode. Do not reset the router in mode 2-4!


2021-09-20 2019-07-15