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Solo 2 Firmware Update With Mac


If your Mac has never been used to program or update a Solo 2 (also known as V2) before, you will need to prep your computer. Initial setup below installs the necessary language driver (Rust) and then the Solo2 Client that will actually interact with your Solo 2 device. It appears complicated to the nondeveloper...but it works! Once you are complete with the Steps 1-5 of the initial setup, you will then be able to update your device. All of this is done in the default Command Line Interface (CLI) tool known as iTerm.

If you have previously installed the Rust library and the Solo2 client, than you can skip to the section 'Update the Solo 2 Firmware'.

Initial setup steps 1-5

1. Find and open your Terminal application
Go into finder and in search, type iTerm. See image below:

 

Click on iTerm (if you have never used this before, you may need to run updates).

Explore iTerm (this is your Command Line Interface, or CLI).

  • a. See the first image in slider below. The last line has the command prompt (flashing cursor). In this case, Haden’s-MBP is the name of my laptop. ~haden$ means we are currently in the file library for the user haden.  
    1. - If you type ls and hit return…it will show you all the folders in that user library (Second image in slider)
  • b. Let’s go to the desktop folder to do the solo update. To move into that directory:
        1. Type cd desktop
        2. See third image in slider and note that we are now in Hadens-MBP:desktop
  • Want to know what files are in the desktop?  
    1. Type ls again and it will show you all the files in this folder (I have way too many and need to house clean)
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  2. 2. Create your workspace
  1. a. It is important at this point, you are in the folder that you want to download your solo2 client to. You can use Desktop. I prefer separate folders, so in my Desktop I created a new folder called ‘SoloUpdates’.  
  2. b. After I created 'SoloUpdates' in my Finder window, to get there from my Desktop folder in iTerm, I had to use the cd SoloUpdates command.      See screen capture below.
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  2. 3. Download and install Rust. Solo 2 (or Solo V2) operates on the Rust language. This means, your terminal has to be able to speak in rust as well. In terminal, you will need to download this package. The command to type(or copy and paste) is:
    • curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
    1. Hit return. See first screenshot below
    2. It will eventually pause and ask for you to continue, pause or cancel install. Type 1 to continue. See second screenshot below.
    3. After about 15-30 seconds… the operation is done. See third screenshot for confirmation.
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  2. 4. Download and install the Solo2 Client. Now that your terminal can operate in rust, we need to install the solo2 software that will enable you to talk to our servers for the firmware update. This is somewhat easy, though the operation will take about 1.5 minutes. The command to type is:
  • cargo install solo2             See screen capture below
  1. After you hit enter, the screen will sequence through a series of fetching, downloading and compiling…it will eventually stop with ‘Installed package ‘solo2 v0.2.0'.
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  2. 5. Close your terminal window…and reopen! This will complete the Solo 2 client install.

Now that the initial setup is complete, you can update your Solo2 devices. Should there be another update in the near future, you can start with the update steps below.

Update the Solo 2 firmware

  1. ***If your Solo device is already registered with accounts as a 2FA device, this update will break the credentials. Please have a backup device for your accounts before running this update on your Solo 2***
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  4. 1. Remember…you have to be in the folder that you downloaded the Solo 2 client. So, if it was in desktop, you will need to enter desktopr with the cd desktop command in iTerm after you reopened the window. If you added a new folder in desktop, like I did…you will have to change directory one more time to get there.
  5. 2. Plug in your solo device…you should see a green light.
  6. 3. Verify your Solo key is visible in the CLI. The five screenshots below illustrate the following sequence.                                                       First, type command:  
    • solo2 ls  
  • 4. See the serial number…and the firmware version. Now, let’s run the update.
  1. 5. To update the firmware, type command:
    • solo2 update
    • a. Their will be a warning that this will break any current credentials on your key. If you are prepared, hit y to continue
    • b. You will be prompted to touch your button in order to confirm you want this action. Touch to confirm.
  1. 6. Congrats…you have now updated your firmware to 2:20220822.0

    7. You can verify firmware of any of your Solo2 Secure devices by using the Solo2 ls command.

    8. Repeat Steps 2-6 as necessary for each of your devices.