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Migrating the system to a microSD card on Turris 1.x routers⚓︎

This guide walks you through creating a new system that runs fully from a microSD card; the onboard memory chips are not utilized. The new system will run the newest Turris OS and U-Boot.

Requirements⚓︎

You will need:

  • a Turris 1.0 or Turris 1.1 router,
  • a microSD card with at least 8 GB free storage,
  • an internet connection,
  • a screwdriver.

Flashing system on microSD card⚓︎

This step can be done on any Linux-running computer with an internet connection. This means you can also use your Turris 1.x router itself, if you choose to do so, skip to the Inserting a microSD card step and come back after you insert the microSD card into your router.

Insert the microSD card into a computer running Linux. Open a terminal and run the microSD card formatting script as an argument, passing it the microSD device path (e.g., /dev/mmcblk0). The script has to be run with root privileges because it formats the disk. 

cd /tmp
wget https://gitlab.nic.cz/turris/misc/-/raw/master/turris1x-sd/turris1xsdimg -O turris1xsdimg && chmod +x turris1xsdimg
./turris1xsdimg /dev/mmcblk0

Inserting a microSD card⚓︎

You will need to unplug the router from the power supply. You need to unscrew a few screws from the top cover of the router to remove it. The microSD card slot is located underneath the RAM slot. Very cautiously remove the RAM from its slot by pressing the clips on both sides, and the RAM should pop out by itself. Then you can insert the microSD card slowly and without using force.

RAM module with inserted RAM

If the card is in its place, you can now put back the RAM, top cover, and plug the power cord into the router.

RAM module without RAM and inserted SD card

Switch boot location to microSD card⚓︎

Turn off your Turris 1.x router. Locate the SW1 switch on your router and change its state to 011010. After you turn on your router again, you should boot into the new system on the microSD card.

SW1 switch in state 011010

To verify that the system is running from the microSD card, run the mount command and check its output.

You should see this in the output:

/dev/mmcblk0p1 on / type btrfs