Recovery¶
Factory reset¶
Two ways in, both ending in the same wipe.
The appliance stops Bambuddy, wipes its user data, forgets the first-boot marker, and reboots into a fresh setup wizard — exactly as a newly flashed card would.
| Erased | Kept |
|---|---|
| Bambuddy's database — printers, queue, history, user accounts | The operating system and Bambuddy itself |
| All uploads, archives, and timelapses | Partner branding |
| Session and encryption secrets | The registration identity, on a partner unit |
| Saved WiFi credentials | |
| Hostname, timezone, locale | |
| The appliance password | |
| SSH host keys (regenerated on next boot) |
It resets the appliance password too
A factory reset recovers a forgotten Bambuddy account, because those live in the database it erases — and it now also recovers a forgotten appliance password, the one covering the admin panel, the console, and SSH.
This changed. The password used to survive a reset, because clearing it would have left the panel failing closed on :8001 with no way back in while the wizard's password step was skippable. That step is mandatory now, so the wizard the reset reboots into is guaranteed to set a new one.
Between the reboot and the end of setup the panel answers 503. That is the wizard's window, and finishing the wizard is what reopens it. The new appliance password is written to bambuddy-password.txt on the boot partition, as on a freshly flashed card.
There is no undo, and no confirmation prompt beyond the two asks
Your print history is gone. Take a backup while things are working, not when they aren't.
There is no reset button, and no reset page in Bambuddy
Earlier appliances documented a recessed GPIO button on the case. It was never part of a shipped unit and the handler has been removed — the two paths above are the only ones. There is also no factory-reset URL anywhere inside Bambuddy itself; the reset belongs to the appliance panel on :8001, not to Bambuddy on :8000.
Lockouts¶
If you can still get in over SSH, change it in place and keep your data:
If SSH is unreachable too, a factory reset clears it and the wizard asks for a new one — at the cost of your Bambuddy data. Restore a backup afterwards.
If the card has never finished its setup wizard, the password it generated for itself is in bambuddy-password.txt on the boot partition. Power the appliance down, put the card in any computer, and read it.
The panel fails closed when /etc/bambuddy/admin-auth is missing. That is the expected state between a factory reset and the end of the setup wizard — finish the wizard on :8000 and the panel comes back.
Outside that window, set one directly:
That's Bambuddy's own account, not the appliance's. See Authentication.
When it won't come up¶
| Symptom | Try |
|---|---|
bambuddy.local doesn't resolve | Find the IP in your router's client list and use http://<ip>:8000 |
| Wizard won't advance past Welcome | It's waiting for the clock. Give it a minute with a working uplink. |
| Setup WiFi network never appears | Wait two minutes for first boot. If ethernet is plugged in, the appliance uses it and never raises the access point. |
| Bambuddy is down, panel still works | Diagnostics → Bambuddy log. Then sudo bambuddy-appliance restart. |
| Panel is down too | SSH in and check systemctl status bambuddy-admin |
| Everything is unreachable | SSH in and sudo bambuddy-appliance factory-reset, or re-flash the card |
| Random slowdowns, printer disconnects | Dashboard → check the since boot undervoltage and throttling flags. A weak USB-C supply will set them. |
Reporting a problem¶
Two support bundles exist, and a good bug report usually wants both:
- The appliance bundle, from the panel's Diagnostics tab. Host-side: service logs, container state, network configuration.
- Bambuddy's own bundle, from the System page inside Bambuddy. Application-side.
Both strip credentials before they're written, so they're safe to attach to a public issue.
File it at github.com/maziggy/bambuddy/issues. Say which appliance image version you're on — the Dashboard shows it.