Oleksandr ShyshatskyiandClaude Opus 5
39b5cb0d0b
The script says so itself: it existed so phase 1 could ship without waiting for a cross-built opkg, and it would hand its database over when the real client arrived. pkgs/3rdparty/opkg builds that client, and anvil-opkg is in bin/patch.sh's payload roots, so the printer has opkg and the stand-in has nothing left to do. Nothing called it. bin/build-payload.py assembles the payload with the printer's own opkg inside the replica, and the test that existed only to keep ipk-install off the build path was a guard against a file that is now gone. Its five round-trip tests went with it. The shellcheck lane loses one file rather than a rule: _files() refuses a glob that matches nothing, so the two entries had to go with the script. Cherry-picked from fc98b04 on worktree-drop-ipk-install, so the two branches carry the same patch. Resolved against this branch's payload build: the host opkg that commit still described is deleted here, and the lane globs are payload/prog/ rather than prog/. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01VpUmBb4xtmnmtTosonqeNi
Reforge
Custom firmware for the FlashForge Creator 5 and Creator 5 Pro.
It installs the way a normal FlashForge update does: copy one file to a USB stick, plug it in, power the printer on. No jailbreak, no soldering, no opening the case, no ssh needed to get started — the printer's own updater does the work.
Packages are published on the Releases page — two files per release, one per model, marked pre-release while the mod is young. Help and support: the Discord.
Unofficial and unaffiliated with FlashForge. It voids your warranty and you are responsible for your machine. See Status for what has actually been tried on hardware before you flash anything.
Status
It runs on a real printer — a Creator 5 Pro, flashed and printing:
A checked box happened on that machine; an empty one has not, yet.
For everyone:
- Install and migration from stock firmware — the printer's own updater does it; your unit's factory calibration imports itself on the first boot
- Printing — gcode straight from the slicer, nothing edited
- Toolchanges — a current Klipper with real toolchanger support, in place of the 0.12-era tree FlashForge ships
- Nozzle-offset calibration
- Mainsail at
http://<printer-ip>/, with a current Moonraker behind it — anything that speaks the Klipper API works - Camera — mjpg-streamer, already on the printer; the mod just starts it
- Wifi
- HelixScreen on the printer's own screen
- Chamber heater
- Creator 5 (non-Pro) — its package builds and passes the same replica test suite, but has not touched hardware
- Going back to stock — proven on the printer replica, not yet needed on the machine. The stock package restores everything it carries; Moonraker is not in it, so the mod's build stays and keeps working — see If something goes wrong
For the tinkerer:
- ssh as root — a random password is chosen on the first install
and written to
anvil-password.txton your stick; updates keep it (make passwdbakes in your own)
Have the stock package for your model on a spare stick before you begin.
How the mod hooks in — one file, firmwareExe, with the stock boot scripts,
updater and recovery path left untouched — is
docs/how-it-works.md.
What you give up
That one file is FlashForge's whole application, so anything that lived inside
it rather than in a separate service goes with it: the FlashForge network
API on :8898, and with it FlashPrint, Orca's FlashForge profile and the
mobile app. Moonraker's API takes over — upload from OrcaSlicer or Mainsail
instead. Flashing the stock package brings the API back.
Which file do I need
Creator 5 and Creator 5 Pro are not interchangeable. The printer refuses a package built for the other model — the most common reason a flash "does nothing" — so pick the file whose name matches your machine on the Releases page:
| Your printer | The file |
|---|---|
| Creator 5 | Creator5-anvil-<date>.tgz |
| Creator 5 Pro | Creator5Pro-anvil-<date>.tgz |
Not sure which you have? On the printer: Settings → About.
How to flash
Before you start
- Put the stock FlashForge package for your model on a second stick. That stick is the undo button — see If something goes wrong.
- Read docs/hardware-testing.md first: the go/no-go checks after the flash, in order, and what means stop.
The flash
- Format a USB stick as FAT32. Not exFAT, not NTFS.
- Copy the file for your model to the root of the stick. Not in a folder. Leave the name exactly as it is — the printer looks for that pattern.
- Power the printer off.
- Plug the stick in and power the printer on. It finds the package by itself, shows the update screen and installs. This takes a few minutes.
- Wait for it to reboot on its own, then pull the stick — your root
password is on it, in
anvil-password.txt.
After the flash
Everything is on the printer's own address:
http://<printer-ip>/ |
Mainsail |
http://<printer-ip>:7125 |
Moonraker's API — what slicers upload to |
http://<printer-ip>/webcam/ |
the camera stream (mjpg-streamer on :8080) |
ssh root@<printer-ip> |
the shell — password from anvil-password.txt |
Logs worth reading, all on the data partition and all surviving a reboot:
/usr/data/anvil-install.log what the installer did
/usr/data/logs/anvil-boot.log services + UI choice at each boot
/usr/data/logs/printer.log klipper
/usr/data/logs/helixscreen.log helixscreen
Then run the go/no-go checks in docs/hardware-testing.md, in order, with the emergency stop within reach.
Before your first print: calibrate
Prints refuse to start on an uncalibrated toolchanger — by design. The sequence is short, and the first part happens without you.
-
Your unit's factory calibration imports and saves itself on the first boot (Klipper restarts once, before the screen is up).
-
Take the PEI sheet off — the calibration station sits below the bed plane — then home and calibrate:
G28 CALIBRATE_TOOL_OFFSETS SAVE_CONFIGStep by step, with every message it can refuse with: docs/calibration.md.
-
TOOLCHANGE_STATUSandTOOL_OFFSET_STATUS— every tool should show a nozzle triple and a dock position, nothing should sayNOT CALIBRATED. Then check the Z offset against a sheet of paper before trusting a first layer — Verify shows the exact moves. If the nozzle presses into the plate, stop.
The full procedure is docs/toolchange.md. Two files
under gcode/ are there for the first runs:
creator5-safe-moves.gcode (cold, nothing below Z50), then
creator5-feature-test.gcode (the real thing, two tools).
Slicer setup
OrcaSlicer, with the stock FlashForge profile left alone. The one field to
touch is Change filament G-code: clear it down to a bare Tn — the
toolchanger takes it from there. Upload through Orca's Klipper/Moonraker
target or drop the file into Mainsail. Details:
docs/toolchange.md.
Your files and the mod's files
| File | Whose |
|---|---|
/usr/data/config/printer.cfg |
Yours — never overwritten. Overrides go here, after the includes: restate only what you change, the last value wins. |
moonraker-custom.conf |
Yours — created once, never rewritten, included last so your settings win. Do not delete it. |
ff-*.cfg, printer.base.cfg, moonraker.conf |
The mod's — overwritten on every update; do not edit. |
anvil/helixscreen/config/settings.json |
Yours — everything you set on the screen. Written by HelixScreen itself; carried across updates along with helixscreen.env and its spool map. |
Upgrading
A newer release installs exactly like the first flash: stick in, power on.
Your printer.cfg with its saved calibration, moonraker-custom.conf, your
root password and everything you set on the screen survive; the ff-*.cfg
family is replaced. If a release changes helixscreen.env, yours is kept and
the new one is left beside it as helixscreen.env.mod-new.
If something goes wrong
Flash the stock FlashForge package for your model. It restores everything it carries and installs the same way — stick in, power on. Keep one on a spare stick before you start; the stock packages are published at ghzserg/FF.
The one thing it cannot bring back is FlashForge's Moonraker: the stock package does not carry it, so the mod's build stays — it works, and Mainsail is happy with it (details). The symptom table, the logs worth reading, and the factory-restore last resort are in docs/hardware-testing.md — and there are people to ask on the Discord.
Versions
| Component | Pinned at |
|---|---|
| Stock FlashForge base | 1.9.7-1.2.9-20260810, fetched from ghzserg/FF at build time |
| Klipper | a current fork (branch creator5) with the ff_* toolchanger extras |
| Mainsail | v2.18.2 |
| Moonraker | commit 9d0d09d — a commit, not a release, for a hard reason: docs/how-it-works.md |
| HelixScreen | v0.99.115-creator5.1 |
Documentation
| docs/hardware-testing.md | The on-hardware procedure, with the checks that say go or stop |
| docs/how-it-works.md | How the mod hooks into the stock firmware, and what the stock firmware does that surprises people |
| docs/toolchange.md | The toolchanger mod: the ff_* Klipper extras, the ff-*.cfg configs, and the Z offsets to get right before you print |
| docs/calibration.md | XYZ tool calibration from the operator's side: the order of commands, what each prints, and what every error means |
| docs/notes/70-error-codes.md | Every error code the firmware can raise, by subsystem |
| docs/building.md | Building your own packages from a stock FlashForge one |
| docs/testing.md | The test suite, and how we know a package does not brick a printer |
| docs/printer-replica.md | The printer replica: what is authentic, what is not |
| docs/notes/ | Reverse-engineering notes on the stock firmware, behind the toolchanger work |
| gcode/ | The two verification files for the first runs on hardware |
Credits
Built on the work of others: ghzserg/FF publishes the stock packages and factory image everything here starts from; Mainsail, Moonraker and HelixScreen are shipped as released; the toolchanger status API follows viesturz/klipper-toolchanger so tool-aware UIs work unchanged.