Special modes

By holding special key combinations pressed during power-on of the unit you can enter certain special modes.

Lifeboat mode

If you keep the ALT button pressed while turning the power on the unit will start in lifeboat mode.

Factory defaults

If you keep SEL and ALT buttons pressed while turning the power on a reset to factory defaults is performed, and unit enters lifeboat mode.

Safe mode

If you keep the SET button pressed while turning the power on, and keep it pressed until “SAFE” is shown in display, Internet Gate is started in safe mode, temporarily using factory default values.

Time machine mode

:!: Only dual-banked models support time-machine mode
To see if your unit does support time-machine mode check the device information page. In the Hardware, Flash ID field it must say “8+8MB” to indicate a dual-banked flash supporting time-machine mode.
If Hardware, Flash ID only lists 4MB or 8MB then your unit is not dual-banked and time machine mode is not supported.

If you keep the SEL button pressed while turning the power on, and keep it pressed unit “OLd” is shown in display, the unit is started using previous firmware and settings used before last upgrade.

Time machine mode works in the following way:
Assume you had release 5.40 in your unit before, but have upgraded to release 5.50 since. Using the time machine you can temporarily revert back to the previous release 5.40 and the configuration you once had before you upgraded. Your unit will be restored to how it was before the upgrade.

The effects are only temporary - powering the unit off and on again will result in a normal boot to current release and configuration again.

Time machine can not be used if:

  • Your unit have never been upgraded (thus there is no older firmware)
  • The last upgrade has been aborted or failed
  • Your unit has is not dual-banked (see above)
  • You use a firmware release older than 5.33

Advanced

The state of the SEL button is sampled twice during boot: once about 5 seconds after power-on and once about when CFG and RST are lit during the power-on process. The first sample decides what firmware to use, the second what configuration to use:

RST CFG RST result
- - normal boot
- SEL new firmware, old configuration
SEL - old firmware, new configuration
SEL SEL old firmware, old configuration

Thus for example if you hold SEL button pressed when turning the unit on, but release it after about 10 seconds, before CFG RST is lit, the unit will start using the old firmware that was used before the last upgrade, but your current configuration.

product_overview/special_modes.txt · Last modified: 2012/06/12 11:18 by tibor
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