How to reset a Venus GX to factory defaults?

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question

jfleissner asked May 17, '19

How to reset a Venus GX to factory defaults?

Hi,

I used root access to modify /etc/dbus-1/system.conf and made a typing error - rather put the new section

<listen>tcp:host=0.0.0.0,port=78</listen> <auth>ANONYMOUS</auth> <allow_anonymous/>

to the very end of the file instead of inside the correct section.

now my Venus is not accessible anymore. Is there a way to make a full reinstall or any other way to access the device to take the modification back?

The LED indicates a finished boot (green flashing of LED), but I doubt this is correct.

Thank you very much!

Venus GX - VGX

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jfleissner answered · May 18, 2019 at 09:09 AM

It took me a while but I got it.

- Flash beaglebone debian image to microSD

- insert microSD into device

- hold down "boot" button while applying power (to get to this the housing has to be opened, it is the button closest to the microSD-holder

- release button

wait... while booting from beaglebone original image/ microSD

- connect via SSH (Putty) to IP 192.168.7.2

- log on as root:temppwd

- mkdir disk

- sudo mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 disk

- move to ~/disk/... directory necessary and fix whatever you screwed up...

5

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gs-nz commented · May 11, 2020 at 11:16 AM

Update, as this is no longer working, and there's no need to open the box at all. Here are updated steps that I took to get this going:

You need microsd card - at least 4GB.

download from http://beagleboard.org/latest-images
Debian 9.3 2018-01-28 4GB SD IoT image for (...) SanCloud BeagleBone Enhanced (...)
filename: bone-debian-9.3-iot-armhf-2018-01-28-4gb.img.xz

Write image using BalenaEtcher (macos) or Win32 Disk Imager (windows)

Turn off Venus GX power (unplug)

With a pen/sharp object depress the "reset" hidden button next to the TANK3 GND.

THERE IS NO NEED TO OPEN THE ENCLOSURE!

Turn on Venus GX power (plug in)

Connect ethernet cable between PC/mac and VenusGX, set manual IP address to 192.168.7.99 subnet 255.255.255.0

Wait 3-4 minutes for the system to load

On PC/Mac, ping 192.168.7.99 until it responds

ssh debian@192.168.7.99
password: temppwd

sudo su -

mkdir disk
mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 disk

mkdir data
mount /dev/mmcblk1p5 data

useful links:
https://github.com/victronenergy/venus/wiki/project-bbb
https://github.com/victronenergy/venus/wiki/bbb-hardware-spec
http://beagleboard.org/latest-images

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ryanb gs-nz commented · Jul 22, 2020 at 07:27 PM

Does this solution reset the device to factory defaults, or just allow one to access the existing filesystems?

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ee21 gs-nz commented · Jul 24, 2020 at 08:40 PM

+1 I'd like some more info too @gs_nz.. I would love to nuke my VenusGX and start fresh, but this doesn't seem to do anything other than make some files accessible..

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gs-nz ee21 commented · Jul 29, 2020 at 10:36 PM

hi @ee21 & @ryanb the instructions here are to be able to boot another linux instance off SDCard and edit the files on the internal filesystem only. There is no apparent way to "factory reset" VenusGX - and "flash the firmware". I would really like Victron to make it possible to do so. I don't understand why this isn't documented/supported, it seems such a basic thing.

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ryanb gs-nz commented · Aug 04, 2020 at 08:02 PM

I've updated this comment as my previous comment was incorrect.

One CAN delete the settings.xml file in /data/conf, remove all peripherals and reboot and the Gx device will rebuild a "clean" settings.xml file for you.

One can also go a step further and delete the log files in /data/log

Local Wifi and networking details are also stored in /data/var/lib/conman - but unlikely that one would need to change these.

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Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2019-06-19T02:44:20Z

wraaski answered · Jun 19, 2019 at 02:44 AM

HI i can't find the edit i did to the file ? its not the same contens

peter

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wraaski commented · Jun 19, 2019 at 03:05 AM

found it :) it working now

log on as root:temppwd root is disable now use debian ! just sudo

- mkdir disk

- sudo mount /dev/mmcblk1p2 disk and its on mmcblk1p3 now ?

peter

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trigaut commented · May 27, 2020 at 12:43 PM

I had the same problem.

You can list all volumes that you can mount with fdisk -l.

You can mount each volume until you found the one with the bad system.conf file.

Now I create a system-local.conf file with my modifications instead of modifying the system.conf directly.

It works safely.

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Answer 2 · 2020-02-22T21:27:36Z

schwarzenbergf answered · Feb 22, 2020 at 09:27 PM

Thank you very much for sharing this.

I had a similar problem and this saved me a lot of time.

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Answer 3 · 2020-08-12T21:25:07Z

@ryanb Thank you for your post, I can confirm that removing /data/conf/settings.xml and then issuing a reboot to the VenusGX sucessfully "factory resets" the unit! This purged the two old PV inverters I had that were stuck in the list, and allowed me to re-add from scratch, fixing the HUD which was not showing the inverter before. I was almost about to replace the unit until this!

For anyone new, to perform this you must first enable superuser and SSH access from the console:

1. Set access level to Superuser

To set the root password, first set the access level to Superuser:

Go to Settings, General
Set the Access Level to User and installer, the password is ZZZ
Highlight Access Level (don't open the select page!)
Press and hold the right button of the center pad until you see the Access Level change to Superuser. Note: when working from the Remote Console, you need to use the right key on your keyboard. Pressing and holding the right button with your mouse won't work.

Now you have access to the super user features.

2. Create a root password

Go to Settings → General → Set root password. And create a root password.

Note that, for firmware version v2.00 and later, the root password will be reset by a firmware update. The reason is that the passwd file is on the rootfs, which is fully replaced by an update. More info here.

Our advice is to create a root password. But use it to login only the first time, and then install a public ssh key(s). Thereafter login with the keys.

3. Once done, turn on SSH over LAN

Go to Settings → General →SSH on LAN

4. Download and install SSH client, such as Putty

https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

5. Open an SSH connection

Enter the local IP address of your VenusOS device as the host name, select port 22 and SSH, open the connection.

Login as root, using the password you set in step 2.

6. Backup your settings.xmlfile

cp /data/conf/settings.xml /data/conf/settings.BAK

7. Erase settings.xml

rm /data/conf/settings.xml

8. Reboot your VenusOS device

Go to Settings → General →Reboot

@mvader (Victron Energy) It would sure have been nice for this to have been documented here.. That would have saved me a lot of time and headache, I'm sure there are others too from the looks of this thread.

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