Guide to Installing Vnish Firmware on BITMAIN Factory Firmware (Post-February 2024)

Overview

Starting from March 2024, Bitmain has restricted the installation of third-party firmware in their factory firmware. To install Vnish firmware, you must first downgrade the factory firmware to an earlier version.

For 21 series:
Download the Bitmain stock recovery image for 21 series (dated February 2024). After installation, use the VNISH TOOLKIT utility to install the Vnish firmware directly into the miner’s NAND without an SD card.

For 19/L7 series:

Download the SD recovery image corresponding to your miner model and control board type (Xilinx, Amlogic, BB, Cvitek) from our website. Once installed, you can flash the Vnish firmware using the VNISH TOOLKIT to install directly into the miner’s NAND without an SD card.

For L9 series:

It is important to flash stock firmware using recovery image, download unlock L9_recovery images for L9. Once installed, flash the Vnish firmware using the VNISH TOOLKIT directly into the miner’s NAND without an SD card.

Recovery Image Installation Guide

1. Use a USB flash drive or SD card (maximum 32GB) formatted to FAT32. For AMLOGIC control boards, a USB flash drive with an OTG adapter is recommended.
2. Extract the archive for your control board type to the root directory of the USB flash drive or SD card.
3. Insert the SD card or connect the OTG adapter with the USB flash drive to the powered-off miner.
4. Power on the miner and wait until the green LED on the front panel lights up and remains steady, indicating the firmware process has completed (typically under one minute).
5. Turn off the miner, remove the SD card or OTG adapter with the flash drive.
6. Turn on the miner’s power and wait for it to boot, then use VNISH TOOLKIT following instructions in point 11 to manually specify the model of your miner in the “Miner model” field and install pre-downloaded vnish firmware for your model and your type of control board.
7. * If the required model is not in the “Miner model” menu, then you need to leave “DETECT AUTOMATICALLY” and set pre-downloaded vnish firmware for the model used when installing the recovery image.
   Next, you will need to additionally update the miner via the Web interface with the pre-downloaded Vnish firmware for your model and your type of control board download the UPDATE Vnish nand UPDATE version from our vnish website.