Stage 3: Building Your Gateway

Flash the Micro SD card with ChirpStack Gateway OS

  1. Download balenaEtcher and follow the installation instructions for your machine. balenaEtcher is an open source tool for flashing the Micro SD card.

  2. Open the ChirpStack Gateway OS webpage.

  3. Choose the Raspberry Pi image link from the Image Links section, selecting the one that matches the major version of your Raspberry Pi from the list of available SD card images.

  4. Download the file labelled chirpstack-gateway-os-base-raspberrypi{x}-{date}.rootfs.wic.gz, where {x} refers to the major version of your Raspberry Pi and the {date} references a recent date. Make sure to download the file with the .rootfs.wic.gz extension. Do not unzip or extract the file.

    Warning

    Do not download the os-full file.

  5. Plug the Micro SD card into an SD card reader (you may need an adapter) and then into your computer.

  6. The next step to take depends on your operating system.

    If you are using macOS or Linux:

    • Open balenaEtcher

    If you are using Windows:

    • Type balenaEtcher in the Windows Search bar.

    • In the menu that appears, select Run as administrator.

    • When asked Do you want to allow this app to make changes to your device, select Yes

  7. Click Flash from File.

  8. Navigate to the downloaded ChirpStack file: chirpstack-gateway-os-base-raspberrypi{x}-{date}.rootfs.wic.gz and select Open.

  9. Click Select target.

  10. On the Select Target screen, select the drive containing your Micro SD card reader. (If you are not sure which is the Micro SD card reader, remove the card reader, and the option should disappear. Reinsert it, and it reappears.)

  11. Click Select (1).

  12. Click Flash.

  13. You may need to enter your system password.

  14. After a few minutes, the process completes and the ChirpStack gateway OS is installed on the Micro SD card.

  15. Remove the Micro SD card.

  16. Locate the Raspberry Pi and make sure it is NOT plugged in.

  17. Insert the Micro SD card into the Micro SD slot on the bottom of the Raspberry Pi.

  18. Power up the Raspberry Pi.