Installation

Install the appliance in three moves: flash Armbian on the Radxa Zero 3W, run the automated installer over SSH, then finish setup in the web UI at http://<device-ip>:8080. A manual, step-by-step reference is included at the end for anyone who prefers to install by hand.

Flash Armbian on the Radxa Zero 3W

Follow the Radxa Zero 3W official guide. In short:

apt install rkdeveloptool
rkdeveloptool db rk356x_spl_loader_ddr1056_v1.12.109_no_check_todly.bin
xz -d Armbian_community_25.11.0-trunk.334_Radxa-zero3_trixie_vendor_6.1.115_minimal.img.xz
rkdeveloptool wl 0 Armbian_community_25.11.0-trunk.334_Radxa-zero3_trixie_vendor_6.1.115_minimal.img
rkdeveloptool rd

Automated install (recommended)

After flashing Armbian and logging in as root, clone the repository and run the installer:

cd /root
git clone https://github.com/giovi321/ios-backup-machine.git
bash ios-backup-machine/install.sh

The repository is cloned to /root/ios-backup-machine/ and the application is installed to /root/iosbackupmachine/ (a flat directory holding the venv and app files).

What the installer does

• Enables I2C and SPI overlays in /boot/armbianEnv.txt
• Installs system packages (libimobiledevice, python3, wireguard-tools, and others)
• Creates a Python virtual environment and installs dependencies
• Clones and links the Waveshare e-Paper driver
• Copies application files to /root/iosbackupmachine/
• Migrates config, merging new defaults without overwriting existing settings, and reports which keys it added
• Installs the systemd units and udev rules, enables the six units the appliance needs, and starts any enabled timer instead of leaving it armed for the next boot
• Prepares the backup storage directory
• Downloads and configures the PiSugar UPS
• Runs a post-install health check
• Prompts to reboot when overlay changes were made or a release sets a reboot flag, so the always-on display daemon reloads

Complete setup in the web UI

After the script finishes, open the web UI at http://<device-ip>:8080 to complete the first-start wizard. See First backup for the wizard steps and the first backup run.

Updating

From the web UI: go to Tools > Update, click “Check for Updates”, then “Install Update”. The device reboots when the update finishes, so the web UI and the VPN are unreachable for about a minute. The e-ink shows Updating - device will reboot for the whole run.

From SSH:

bash /root/ios-backup-machine/update.sh

The update process:

• Stops all services before touching files
• Backs up the current installation, keeping the last 5 backups in /root/iosbackupmachine-backups/
• Pulls the latest code from GitHub
• Migrates config, adding new settings without overwriting your values
• Runs the installer with a post-install health check
• Restarts services, then reboots: always for a web UI update, and after a prompt over SSH when the release requires one

An update started from the web UI runs in its own systemd unit (iosbackup-update), not as a child of the web UI, so restarting the web UI partway through the install cannot cut it short. Follow it with journalctl -u iosbackup-update -f, or read /var/lib/iosbackupmachine/update.log afterwards.

Manual installation (step-by-step reference)

If you prefer to install manually, follow these steps after flashing Armbian.

Enable I2C and SPI

Edit /boot/armbianEnv.txt:

overlays=rk3568-spi3-m1-cs0-spidev rk3568-i2c3-m0
overlay_prefix=rk35xx

Reboot.

Install dependencies

apt update
apt install -y python3 python3-venv python3-pil python3-periphery \
  libimobiledevice-1.0-6 libimobiledevice-utils usbmuxd \
  wireguard-tools iptables sshpass rsync netcat-traditional \
  iw wireless-tools git

WiFi is managed through the OS’s existing netplan, systemd-networkd, and wpa_supplicant stack (the device has no NetworkManager). iw and wireless-tools read the connected SSID, and iptables is used by the WireGuard full-tunnel routing exception.

Create the Python virtual environment

python3 -m venv /root/iosbackupmachine
source /root/iosbackupmachine/bin/activate
pip install -r /root/ios-backup-machine/requirements.txt
deactivate

Clone repositories and install drivers

cd /root
git clone https://github.com/waveshareteam/e-Paper.git
git clone https://github.com/giovi321/ios-backup-machine.git
cp ios-backup-machine/app/epdconfig.py e-Paper/RaspberryPi_JetsonNano/python/lib/waveshare_epd/

The application files live under app/, the systemd units under services/, and the udev rules and the PiSugar config under config/. The installer flattens app/ into /root/iosbackupmachine/, which is why the modules import each other by bare name.

Link the driver into the venv (adjust the Python version if needed):

ln -s /root/e-Paper/RaspberryPi_JetsonNano/python/lib/waveshare_epd   /root/iosbackupmachine/lib/python3.13/site-packages/

Install systemd and udev integrations

cp ios-backup-machine/config/*.rules /etc/udev/rules.d/
cp ios-backup-machine/services/*.service ios-backup-machine/services/*.timer /etc/systemd/system/
systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable iosbackupmachine.service webui.service ntp-sync.service \
  rtc-sync.service wg-autoconnect.service
systemctl enable --now ntp-sync.timer
udevadm control --reload-rules
udevadm trigger

iosbackupmachine.service is the always-on display daemon. Those five units plus the timer are exactly what the installer enables. The rest of services/ (backup-sync.service, unplug-notify.service, usbmux-refresh.service) are one-shots started on demand by udev or the PiSugar button, so they are installed but deliberately not enabled. A sync started from the web UI runs in its own transient iosbackup-web-sync unit rather than through backup-sync.service.

ntp-sync.timer needs --now. Enabling a timer only arms it for the next boot, and the whole point of this one is to retry a clock sync that failed while the network was still coming up.

Prepare backup storage

mkdir -p /media/iosbackup
touch /media/iosbackup/.foldermarker

Configure the PiSugar UPS

Install from the official script and add the project config file:

wget https://cdn.pisugar.com/release/pisugar-power-manager.sh
bash pisugar-power-manager.sh -c release
rm /etc/pisugar-server/config.json
cp "/root/ios-backup-machine/config/[pisugar]config.json" /etc/pisugar-server/config.json

Quote that path. Unquoted, [pisugar] is a shell character class and the copy silently matches nothing. The file sets the three button gestures, the 30% auto_shutdown_level, and the soft power-off shell that lets the display daemon paint the owner screen before the board goes down.

Set the RTC time from the current time of the Radxa Zero:

apt install netcat-traditional
echo "rtc_pi2rtc" | nc -q 1 127.0.0.1 8423

Set the Radxa Zero time from the RTC at every boot:

systemctl enable rtc-sync.service

Next step

Continue to First backup to complete the first-start wizard and run your first backup.