Install on G30W (x86)
About 20 minutes. You boot the G30W from a USB stick, then copy the firmware to its internal disk. This erases the internal disk.
You need
Section titled “You need”- The G30W, a monitor (HDMI) and a USB keyboard. You only need them for the boot menu.
- A USB stick of 1 GB or more. It will be erased.
- A computer with an Ethernet port
- The UEFI image (
…-combined-efi.img.gz) from the console download page - balenaEtcher on your computer
1. Make a USB stick
Section titled “1. Make a USB stick”Open balenaEtcher, select the .img.gz file as is (no need to unzip it), select the USB stick, and click Flash.
2. Boot the G30W from the USB stick
Section titled “2. Boot the G30W from the USB stick”- Plug the USB stick, keyboard and monitor into the G30W, then power it on.
- Press the boot-menu key repeatedly (usually F7 or F11) and choose the USB stick. If no menu appears, press Del to open the BIOS setup and pick the USB stick under Boot.
- Secure Boot is off from the factory. If you turned it on, turn it off in the BIOS. OpenWrt doesn’t support it.
OpenWrt is now running from the USB stick.
3. Copy the firmware to the internal disk
Section titled “3. Copy the firmware to the internal disk”Connect your computer to ETH0 (the left-most port; the labels are printed on the case). Your computer gets an address from the G30W. Then, on your computer (Terminal on macOS/Linux, PowerShell on Windows):
scp -O openwrt-*-combined-efi.img.gz root@192.168.1.1:/tmp/ssh root@192.168.1.1There’s no password yet, so press Enter if you’re asked for one. Then, on the G30W:
zcat /tmp/openwrt-*-combined-efi.img.gz | dd of=/dev/nvme0n1 bs=1M conv=fsyncpoweroffgzip: trailing garbage ignored is expected. It’s the signature attached to the image.
No SSH? You can also take the NVMe drive out, put it in a USB M.2 enclosure, and write the image to it with balenaEtcher directly.
4. Start from the internal disk
Section titled “4. Start from the internal disk”- Remove the USB stick (and the monitor and keyboard if you like), then power the G30W on.
- Connect the internet to ETH1. Keep your computer on ETH0.
- Open
http://192.168.1.1. Under System → Administration, set a root password.
The G30W turns itself on when power comes back after an outage.
5. Bind it
Section titled “5. Bind it”Continue with Bind and manage.
| Port (case label) | Role |
|---|---|
| ETH0 | LAN, 192.168.1.0/24 |
| ETH1 | WAN (internet) |
| ETH2, ETH3 | Unassigned. Add them to the LAN under Network → Interfaces → Devices → br-lan if you need them. |
Serial console
Section titled “Serial console”The RJ45 Console port gives you a shell even when the network is down. Use 115200 baud, 8N1
(on macOS: screen /dev/cu.usbserial-… 115200).
- The firmware itself uses about 120 MB of the disk. On first start, the rest of the disk is set up as
/srvfor local storage. It survives firmware upgrades. - To upgrade later, use System → Backup / Flash Firmware in the admin page with Keep settings checked. The binding is kept.