I only did an install with the stable Debian 12 image, until the updates and setup were complete but I am not using it. Which apps are you using? I have 2 spare Olinuxino Lime 2 boards (one alone with eMMC, one in a box with HDD), I could try to see if I have the same issues.
I’m currently using bepasty, calibre, Coturn, ejabberd, WireGuard and WordPress. I’ve also tried with fewer applications in different combinations, but it doesn’t change anything. For some time I was only with ejabberd, Coturn and WireGuard, but the behavior wasn’t different. I bought a 5V/4A power supply from olimex and replaced the stock 5V/1.2A, but nothing changed again. My box is bought in March 2021, and it is connected to a home router. I’using only 32GB SD card, which is also new. I was starting to think the problem was coming from the router, but I remembered that in the beginning when it was with Debian 10 buster, I was with the same router and had no problems. They started after the update to Debian 11 bullseye. There are several threads open on this issue, but no solution yet. I’m starting to think I’m the only one having this problem yet. I can’t change the router due to ISP requirements. I also don’t need of additional HDD/SSD drive since I’m using only 14% of my storage. The last two are the only things I haven’t tried, but I doubt they will solve the problem either. For the future, I am considering switching to a Raspberry Pi due to the positive feedback from the participants on this forum.
I’m running from the link I posted and it has been doing fine:
You are running Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) and FreedomBox version 23.6.2. FreedomBox is up to date.
Edit for apps: OpenVPN, Samba, Syncthing & Transmission
johnny:
Thank you. I’m confused by " You dial it and only then …" when you wrote:
Then you go into the router’s settings and check what the IP address of the Freedombox is (example: 192.168.0.14). You dial it and only then start waiting for the installation.
Could you explain that? Thanks !
(I know how to check the IP address of the FB in the router settings.)
I tried to install 2 versions of the FB software - bookworm on September 25, 2023 and today September 26, 2023, the nightly version of FB pioneer and neither worked. The 2 versions were:
(1) freedombox-bookworm_a20-olinuxino-lime2-armhf.img, and
(2) freedombox-stable_pioneer_a20-olinuxino-lime2-armhf.img.
I have a FreedomBox Pioneer which I purchased in March 2023. It was set up behind the router. I do not have a static IP address. I believe it was after the Debian bookworm upgrade that I was unable to access the FB web interface, although I am not sure of that. (I only successfully used the Searx application. I was trying to understand setting up and using OpenVPN and WordPress up to that point.) I checked my router and could find the FreedomBox IP address and its MAC address. Sometimes, the FB showed up as online and then it was offline but was still listed as a device by my router. My computer is a Mac OS 10.14.6. That is when I (probably mistakenly – instead of waiting a few weeks) thought that flashing a new micro sd card would solve the problem. It did not.
After downloading the .xz files, I found that I could only extract the img files using a Macintosh application “the unArchiver.” The Mac Archive utility did not work nor could I open the the 7-zip for Mac computers to work. After the extraction, I used the balenaEtcher program to flash the img file(s). The .xz file(s) were over 600 MB and the img file(s) were over 3 GB, 3.99 GB for the nightly version.
Even if I felt competent to use the command line interface with FB (which I am learning), I was not able to utilize any such suggestions. The FB isn’t connected to the router - no FB IP address and the MAC address of the FB which I know from past efforts is not listed.
That version cannot work as it is, it needs something added to it. I tried describing in Where can I download latest stable FB software? - #17 by Avron how to do with command line on a Mac. I can try finding out how to do the same with balenaEtcher but not before this week-end.
Which version do you have of this software, of balenaEtcher and of MacOS? It was working on the Mac computer that I used to test. In my recollection, that computer is something like 12 years old, it can’t get latest versions of MacOS.
I have balenaEtcher version 1.14.3 and the MacOS is 10.14.6 (Mojave) which was released in 2018.
I will try using the Mac Terminal to follow your suggestions in post # 17. Thank you very much !!
Avron,
Thank you again for the help. I tried to follow your suggestions in post # 17 with some success but was ultimately not successful in installing FreedomBox - bookworm software. (1) I used the unArchiver Mac OS software to uncompress the version of FB-bookworm file which you identified. (The Apple Archive Utility did not work) (2) I was able to identify the USB device on my Mac OS with diskutil list. (3) I was able to run the sudo dd command identifying the proper disk number and got these results:
-iMac-2:desktop mjl$ sudo dd if=freedombox-bookworm_a20-olinuxino-lime2-armhf.img of=/dev/disk3
Password:
7782400+0 records in
7782400+0 records out
3984588800 bytes transferred in 2071.333575 secs (1923683 bytes/sec).
-iMac-2:desktop mjl$ sync.
(4) I ran into a problem when I tried to run the sudo dd command on the u-boot file, getting a response that the Operation was not permitted (after a typo entering my Mac OS password):
-iMac-2:desktop mjl$ sudo dd if=u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/dev3 bs=1024 seek=8
Password:
Sorry, try again.
Password:
dd: /dev/dev3: Operation not permitted.
(5) So, I thought perhaps “/disk3” should be used as in the previous command - how could it hurt? - so I entered this command and got this result:
-iMac-2:desktop mjl$ sudo dd if=u-boot-sunxi-with-spl.bin of=/dev/disk3 bs=1024 seek=8
615+1 records in
615+1 records out
630320 bytes transferred in 0.292065 secs (2158149 bytes/sec) -iMac-2:desktop mjl$ sync
(6) HOWEVER, something went wrong when I tried to start the FB with the new micro SD card. Still cannot get to the FB. I tried to ping the FB with the IP address which had been assigned to it in the past by the router but it failed.
When I checked the router settings, the FB is not listed in the DNS Server nor in the DHCP connections. HOWEVER, I did notice that in the ARP Table, the previous IP address for the FB is listed, but no Mac address is listed. Is that informative of what’s going on?
Can you connect an HDMI display when plugging the freedombox on power? To make sure it is starting properly. In my recollection, some things appear on the screen at boot (at least u-boot, kernel starting and perhaps even a console login prompt).
Your router is not seeing the FB, that’s why there is no mac address listed. It could be a failure in the connections, port(s)/cable(s), FB/software.
You could also try disconnecting the power and battery backup (under the cover, one screw), then insert the new card & your HDMI cable.
Plug in the battery, screw the cover down, power on your monitor, connect your network cable to the FB & your router and then finally connect the power cable to the FB and as Avron mentioned, in a few seconds you should see u-boot start up, a 10 second default boot selection menu and hopefully the boot process and finally a login prompt.
At some point during this, you should notice the orange/amber (network activity) indicator light blinking on the left side of the RJ45 port and a solid green led (connection) on the right side of the port.
Once you have a solid green led on the right side, you should be able to see the FB in your router and the amber will indicate when your devices are communicating.
If you see nothing on your monitor after some minutes, check the HDMI connection, for the red glow from the power led & green glow (in the middle on the left side, visible through the case seams) and the network indicator leds.
I think there may be a hardware problem with my Pioneer FB. I followed all of the directions (except that I had never connected the battery backup). The red power light was on for the monitor and for the FB. But there was no orange/amber light, nor any green light on the RJ45 port. I checked to see if the problem was the ethernet cable or perhaps the RJ45 port on the router. I switched the cable with one that worked on another connected device and then tried a different RJ45 port which had just worked for the other device. Those were not the problem. The cable works and the port works. So… perhaps I should purchase another Pioneer FB. That’s not a big deal. But I feel bad that so much time has been provided by the community . Would you recommend getting another FB? Thanks to All.
Before doing that, I’d suggest trying the stable Pioneer image (with bullseye). If the RJ45 port lights work with it, it is not a hardware problem. The patched u-boot is because of the ethernet adapter chip, this is why I am suggesting this.
I tested the stable Lime2 image with that patch so I know it works on my Pioneer, but I did not try after doing the dd operation from the Mac so I see a small chance that there is a problem there. Another possible issue is the microSD card.
As Avron mentioned, I’d try another SD card from a different shop before purchasing a new FB.
I can’t get any brand of card or pen-drive to work reliably from my local Interspar (grocery store), but the same item from MediaMarkt (electronics store) works fine.
I also tested the link I previously posted using a new generic Ali Express card on my own FB, before I wrote on 9/22. (I have a box of cards for testing).
I can’t really help on the Mac side, as I’ve only done minor support & mdm for Apple products and no longer have access to them.
I’m not sure how u-boot is working on FB, as I haven’t had to go there (yet), but with my Linux phone, laptop and tablet, I can flash it separately.
I tried the Pioneer FB image dated 2022-1-28. I uncompressed it using the Mac OS application the unArchiver which I have been using. I did not use the command line to flash the image to a new, never used micro SD card. Instead I used balenaEtcher to flash. Followed same steps as yesterday to connect HDMI monitor to FB, ethernet cable from FB to router and then power to the FB (red power light on FB). Same results : no activity at all on the RJ45 port. (Back in April 2023 I used balenaEtcher to flash a FB version before the bookworm version and it worked). I guess I could try to use the command line to flash the Pioneer FB 2022-1-28 image but I would appreciate some guidance on that. Also, is the use of the signature file critical? Does balenEtcher somehow handle this authentication of the image file? And, in following the Command Line steps from post 17 yesterday with the bookworm image, was there any signature file run? I didn’t think so.
I don’t work for or represent FreedomBox/Olimex in any capacity, I had to state that first; I am just an extremely satisfied user of their product.
With your snarky comment “I didn’t think so”, you’ve shown yourself to be just a troll/help vampire; Everyone here has been more than helpful to you, but I’m out.
Do a simple “Google search” instead of asking basic questions, which have already been asked & answered multiple times online & are available in many places.
The device has power and the hardware is working; It is now up to you to use the almighty “Google”, have a good day. 
edit: grammar
You really misinterpreted my comment. I simply meant that I didn’t run any command about a signature file and asked whether using balenaEtcher involved that. I have received tremendous support from this community and felt bad that so much time was spent helping me. I really am sorry that you feel the way you do but I am just trying to use FreedomBox. So, I ordered another Pioneer FB yesterday.
Hey “Good Life”,
One last comment; […] I apologize for my previous comment. It was a violation of the Community Code of Conduct to be respectful and to avoid personal attacks. I do think that your previous comment and the one you subsequently made to THIS post also violated the Code Of Conduct.
Actually my screen name is in reference to a summer house/home, not “good life”.
You were even too lazy to do a simple Google search to look up a 5 letter word (dacha/дача) in order to insult me with profanity on a public forum, now what does that say about you?
Edit: punctuation