Frequent Q&A about IEOS on EC312

Frequent Q&A about IEOS on EC312

Question 1. What is the difference between IEOS and Pure Debian OS on EC312

Answer:

IEOS(InHand Edge Operating System): IEOS is InHand Networks’ operating system based on distribution Linux for IoT ARM platform edge computers, helping customers achieve safe and stable industrial edge intelligent applications. IEOS contains InHand applications such as web configuration, dialing, routing, firewall, VPN, cloud management, etc. The system uses an A/B dual redundancy partition, which is a robust design, but the flash space for users is smaller.

Pure Debian OS: Debian OS without InHand application. All applications need to be developed by users themselves. 

Here is the feature comparison between IEOS and Pure Debian OS:

Application

IEOS

Pure Debian OS

Web GUI

Yes

No

Cellular dialing

Yes

No

Wi-Fi

Yes

No

Static route

Yes

No

Firewall

Yes

No

Open VPN

Yes

No

DeviceLive Cloud Management

Yes

No

User Storage Space

Approximately 2.2GB

Approximately 5.4GB

 


Question 2. Why is there only ~2.2GB flash for User on EC312 IEOS but the spec said 8GB flash


Answer:  The EC312 IEOS is a redundancy design for the firmware backup. With the A/B partitions, EC312 can roll back when any abnormalities or power outages during the upgrade process happen. Each partition is 2GB. 

Here is the IEOS flash partition on EC312 1GB RAM+8GB Flash.

Partition Name

File System

Start Address

Stop Address

Partition Size

Notes

uboot

FAT32

12M

52M

40M

GPT bootloader；

kernel1

EXT4

53M

309M

256M

kernel A Part: fitImage, modules, base-system, network-plugin；

rootfs1

EXT4

310M

2358M

2G

rootfs A Part: Linux distribution root file system；

kernel2

EXT4

2359M

2615M

256M

kernel B Part: fitImage, modules, base-system, network-plugin；

rootfs2

EXT4

2616M

4664M

2G

rootfs B Part: Linux distribution root file system；

configs

EXT4

4664M

4728M

64M

Configure information storage area for the OS, network, DSA；

custom

EXT4

4728M

4760M

32M

Platform privatization deployment information file

userdata

EXT4

4888M

-

User partition, upper and work layer for overlayfs; Docker working directory;

 

Question 3. Are the user applications/software/data on dual partitions?

Answer: No, the user data is stored in the userdata partition (Since EC312 IEOS is with overlay fs technology, all changes to the system will be mapped to the upper layer of the overlay.

 

Question 4. When the firmware is upgraded, why are the user applications/data not overwritten/ erased?


Answer:  Firmware upgrade only involves updating u-boot, kernel, and rootfs partitions, but nothing to do with /userdata partition

 

Question 5. When the System is reset from Web GUI, which partition(s) will be erased?

Answer: The “configs” and “userdata” partitions will be erased.


 

Question 6. How can the DeviceLive portal help me to install my APPs and manage them? For example, I want to deploy Docker on my EC312 and upgrade it.

 Answer: IEOS version, the user can manage applications via the DeviceLive portal: import, update, query, and delete. Please find details on the  DeviceLive manual:

https://help.inhand.com/portal/en/kb/articles/inhand-networks-devicelive-user-guide-v2-0#86_Project_Management