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balena CLI FAQ & Troubleshooting

Where is the balena CLI's configuration file located?

The per-user configuration file lives in $HOME/.balenarc.yml or %UserProfile%\_balenarc.yml, in Unix based operating systems and Windows respectively.

The balena CLI also attempts to read a balenarc.yml file in the current directory, which takes precedence over the per-user configuration file.

How do I point the balena CLI to the staging environment?

Set the BALENARC_BALENA_URL=balena-staging.com environment variable, or add balenaUrl: balena-staging.com to the balena CLI's configuration file.

How do I make the balena CLI persist data in another directory?

The balena CLI persists the session token, as well as cached assets, to $HOME/.balena or %UserProfile%\_balena. This directory can be changed by setting an environment variable, BALENARC_DATA_DIRECTORY=/opt/balena, or by adding dataDirectory: /opt/balena to the CLI's configuration file, replacing /opt/balena with the desired directory.

After burning to an SD card, my device doesn't boot

Check whether the downloaded image is incomplete (download was interrupted) or corrupted.

Try clearing the cache (%HOME/.balena/cache or C:\Users\<user>\_balena\cache) and running the command again.

I get a permission error when burning to an SD card

Check whether the SD card is locked (a physical switch on the side of the card).

I get connect ETIMEDOUT with balena tunnel

Please update the CLI to the latest version. This issue was fixed in v12.38.5. For more details, see: #2172

I get EINVAL errors on Cygwin

The errors may look something like this:

net.js:156
    this._handle.open(options.fd);
                 ^
Error: EINVAL, invalid argument

Some interactive widgets don't work on Cygwin. On Windows, PowerShell or cmd.exe are better supported. Alternative shells are listed in the README file.

I get Invalid MBR boot signature when configuring a device

This error, accompanied with something like: Expected 0xAA55, but saw 0x29FE usually indicates a corrupted device operating system image in the cache, due to bad a internet connection during the download process.

Try clearing the cache with the following command and trying again:

$ rm -rf $HOME/.balena/cache

Or in Windows:

> del /s /q %UserProfile%\_balena\cache

I get EACCES: permission denied when logging in

The balena CLI stores the session token in $HOME/.balena or C:\Users\<user>\_balena in UNIX based operating systems and Windows respectively. This error usually indicates that the user doesn't have permissions over that directory, which can happen if the CLI was executed as the root user.

Try resetting the ownership by running:

$ sudo chown -R <user> $HOME/.balena

Broken line wrapping / cursor behavior with balena ssh

Users sometimes come across broken line wrapping or cursor behavior in text terminals, for example when long command lines are typed in a balena ssh session, or when using text editors like vim or nano. This is not something specific to the balena CLI, being also a commonly reported issue with standard remote terminal tools like ssh or telnet. It is often a remote shell configuration issue (files like /etc/profile, ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, ~/.profile and the like on the remote machine), including UTF-8 misconfiguration, the use of unsupported ASCII control characters in shell prompt formatting (e.g. the $PS1 env var) or the output of tools or log files that use colored text. The issue can sometimes be fixed by simply resizing the client terminal window, or by running one or more of the following commands on the shell:

export TERMINAL=linux
stty sane
shopt -s checkwinsize
bind 'set horizontal-scroll-mode off'

Terminal multiplexer tools like GNU screen or tmux are sometimes reported to fix the issues, though at other times they are reported as the cause of the problem. They have their own configuration files to take into account.

Further reference:

If nothing seems to help, consider also using a different client-side terminal application:

  • Linux: xterm, KDE Konsole, GNOME Terminal
  • Mac: Terminal, iTerm2
  • Windows: PowerShell, PuTTY, WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)

"Docker seems to be unavailable" error when using Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)

When running on WSL, the recommendation is to install a CLI release for Linux, like the standalone zip package for Linux. However, commands like "balena build" will, by default, attempt to reach the Docker daemon at the Unix socket path /var/run/docker.sock, while Docker Desktop for Windows uses a Windows named pipe at //./pipe/docker_engine (which the Linux CLI on WSL cannot use). A solution is:

  • Open the Docker Desktop for Windows settings panel and tick the checkbox "Expose daemon on tcp://localhost:2375 without TLS".
  • On the WSL command line, set an env var:
    export DOCKER_HOST=tcp://localhost:2375
    Alternatively, use the command-line options -h 127.0.0.1 -p 2375 for commands like balena build and balena deploy.

Further reference: