Setup Wizard Guide

Setup Wizard Guide

The Setup Wizard runs the first time you open http://dashusb.local. It walks you through 9 steps. You can re-run it anytime from Settings → System → Setup Wizard — your existing configuration is the starting point, and re-running it won't touch your footage unless you change drive sizes (the wizard warns you loudly before anything destructive).

1. Welcome

Confirms the device is reachable. From here you can also restore a configuration backup (a .json backup exported from a previous Dash USB install) or upload an existing dashusb.conf — either pre-fills every later step.

Click Get Started.

2. Privacy

Lists every outbound data flow Dash USB will make and asks you to confirm an Analytics opt-in choice before the wizard moves on. Both buttons carry equal visual weight — pick whichever you actually want.

• Opted out (default) — no device fingerprint ever leaves the Pi. Update checks still happen but carry no identifier.
• Opted in — a one-way salted hash of your board's serial number is attached to update-check telemetry, so we can count unique installs without double-counting reinstalls.

Either choice takes effect immediately and persists if you back out of the wizard. You can change it any time at Settings → System → Analytics opt-in. Full per-flow disclosure is on the Privacy page.

3. Network

• WiFi — configured during SD card imaging (Raspberry Pi Imager), not here. To change it later, re-flash with new settings or use nmcli over SSH.
• Device Hostname — defaults to dashusb. Leave it unless you have a reason to change. The Pi is reachable at http://<hostname>.local.
• WiFi Access Point (optional) — broadcast a WiFi network from the Pi itself (SSID, password of 8+ characters, optional IP).

4. Storage

• Dashcam Size — the virtual USB drive the car records to. Leave it at the 64 GB default. GM refuses any drive under 64 GB (it checks for ≥64 GB total with 32 GB available), so the wizard won't accept less — and bigger isn't better: everything above the dashcam drive is used for snapshots, which are your retained footage history. The car itself only ever keeps ~2 hours on the drive, so give the snapshots the rest of the card.
• External Data Drive (optional) — store recordings on a USB or NVMe drive instead of the SD card. Best for heavy users. The selected drive will be wiped.

The drive is always FAT32 — that's what GM requires, and Dash USB handles the formatting.

5. Archive

Pick where your recordings get backed up. Because the car deletes everything older than ~2 hours, the archive is the only durable copy of your footage — "None" is rarely what you want.

Option	What it is
CIFS / SMB	Network share on a Windows PC, Mac, or NAS
rsync	SSH-based file sync — for Linux/Unix servers
rclone	Cloud storage (Google Drive, S3, Backblaze, Dropbox, etc.)
NFS	Network File System — common on Linux NAS devices
None	No archiving — snapshots stay on the SD card until space runs out

For rsync, the wizard generates an SSH key for the Pi and shows you the public key to paste onto your server, then lets you test the connection. See Archive Methods for setup details for each backend.

6. Notifications

Pick one or more push notification providers. Dash USB will notify you when archiving starts, finishes, or fails, and when temperature thresholds trip.

A provider counts as enabled once you fill in its fields — there are no separate checkboxes, and the wizard flags partial fills (e.g. a Telegram chat ID without a bot token). See Notifications for the full list of providers and how to get API keys for each.

7. Security

Set a Web Username and Web Password for the web UI. Set both or neither — the wizard won't let you fill in just one.

Leave both empty to disable web auth entirely — only do this if your network is fully trusted.

8. Advanced

• Time Zone — pick yours from the searchable list, or leave it on auto (used for log timestamps and notification times).
• Archive Delay (seconds) — how long to wait after WiFi connects before archiving starts. Default 20 is fine.
• Snapshot Interval (seconds) — how often the Pi snapshots the recordings the car has written. Default 900 (15 minutes) gives ~8 capture chances per segment inside GM's 2-hour rolling-delete window. Lower it for a smaller worst-case capture gap; don't raise it above roughly half the rolling window or footage can age out before it's captured.
• Measurement System — Metric or Imperial for temperature readouts and the temperature monitor thresholds.
• Temperature Monitoring — optional Warning and Caution thresholds (push-notified), a fixed log interval, and a post-archive temperature log toggle.
• RTC Battery (Pi 5 only) — enable the Pi 5's built-in real-time clock if you've fitted a battery on the J5 header; trickle charging is offered behind an explicit "my battery is rechargeable" acknowledgement.
• System Tuning — Increase Root Size (fresh installs only), CPU Governor.
• Update Source — GitHub repo/branch used for setup downloads and OTA updates. Leave at the defaults unless you run a fork.

9. Review

Final summary of every choice. Click Apply & Run Setup to write the configuration and run setup — the Pi reboots several times during this, which is normal, and the page reconnects automatically.

Before applying, the wizard:

• Checks free space — if the proposed drive sizes don't fit, you get an inline error with a link to snapshot management instead of a wedged setup.
• Detects destructive changes — on a re-run, changing the dashcam size or the external data drive requires recreating disk images, and the wizard makes you explicitly confirm (or skip) those changes. If nothing destructive is staged, a green banner confirms your footage and snapshots are preserved.

When it finishes, the Pi comes back up at http://dashusb.local (or your custom hostname).