if (env==ARM) 0xE1A00000

Ubiquiti Unifi OS Blocks Upgrades on Unhealthy Disks
Networking | 2024-01-28 16:22:56

Ubiquiti Unifi OS devices now restrict updates to its own platform when it thinks a disk is unhealthy. This is the most pointless and infuriating UX change the Ubiquiti has made (and they've made a few terrible changes in the past).

At-risk disks are flagged:

  • Bad sectors being reported on the disk
  • Uncorrectable disk errors detected
  • Failures reported in the disk’s Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology system (SMART)
  • The disk has reached 70% of the manufacturer’s recommended read and write lifespan (SSDs)

To not allow updates to their own platform stagnates feature development, bug fixes and security enhancements. Sure, make the admin aware that they have an at-risk disk, but don't prevent them from getting your latest updates, that's just purposefully punishing your customers over things that are not their fault.

In my case, my disk was old, but still healthy. I am not sure whether the power on hours were a flag from SMART or maybe the temperature went over some arbitrary threshold they decided to implement.

I was able to work around this by manually upgrading the platform.