What is this board??? Help!

bubbadestroy

@dmsmartins I'll follow-up on this asap. But I should have mentioned before.. where I am at on this sort of project.
I am very much still at a backshop newb.
When I skill up.. I intend to load pfsense on about all kinds of stuff.
tLdR!!TldrMEGAMANx2Drorielyedition!!!!1!::::: If it loadswindows
anything linux is possible... except , WSL... lol

links
Google Search of AMI Bios on c2358 Intel AtTOM cpu
https://www.google.com/search?q=c2358+ami+bios+winbond
ON TOPIC SOURCE SAUCE:

HOWTO:
From - OPENWRT to Velocloud
so we can take make config from openwrt to PFSENSE instead

The public BUILD SOURCE and the source AFAIK for development regarding velocloud 500-n and 520-AC Hardware; From 2014 to 2019 (pre-vmware, aka, BAREBONES related development is deployed from:
subversion (old subversion dpkg packages included with native ubuntu 14.04) open source openwrt with makemenu configs on a computer operating on ubuntu 14.04

For velocloud I guess.. Might have instructions to compile/prebuilt networking related hardware through firmware. aka. shit. For Shit. IDGAF

https://bitbucket.org/velocloud/deployment

And if reading... What you might DGAF about:
[https://bitbucket.org/velocloud/openwrt]https://bitbucket.org/velocloud/openwrt)

I found reading through code and logs useful for my attempt at loading windows and fuckin with bios over a 20dollar MPCIE msata VGA adapter... what ther fun ill have with that adapter on other routers i wonder.... (see previous post for more info on that adapter)

Possibly requires creating a stupid ass free bitbucket account, do give fake info and email with protonmail while using vpn lol support your local devs though.. netgate still keeps this niche cliche thread open... so... thats why we support devs and server maint cost.

Here and there Ive felt comfortable with fellow geeks and professionals who master and admin networks or business.. Be it assisting the cave dwelling cold server style admin or on the go deploying remotely by hand for a certified tech ninja.

Myself however, whenever working in the field, am bouncing off relative suggestions.. such as Quality Assurance Testing/Troubleshooting tips to layman (official, boss or mother ) during test, or live deployment. Be warned my syntax = if fail then troubleshoot else try variable | #! sh / syntax= basic 'if kernel bios firmware= --fucked up then end else if --force )
tldr; I'm not going to have the language down or steps to take correct, but I believe as with anything the solution is never impossible. IMO hacking is using any and all means to solve problems that by definition are unsolvable when working by the rules.

That being said. I had better clarify the spoiler above... I'll misrepresent/mix-up and often confuse Electrical Engineering fundamentals required by professionals when suggesting advice. I did however complete training in the USAF Armarent Systems Training at Shepard Airforce base, amongst other tech training, so.. if you can work with me I can probably get to the end of any problem that needs solved in a pinch.

I had no idea about Netgate commercial devices or pfsense open source other than just playing with and building linux as a server once or twice (arch, plop, ubuntu, debian/raspi.... proxmox from guide on youtube...)

But briefly for now;
This is just my personal playbook for a solution on obtaining an operating system that is OFF TOPIC. Thanks to awesome advice from the actual NETGATE forum mods and help attempting a custom PFSENSE deployment for an intel atom box.... as mentioned from the OP of this thread.

Essentially as a bootable piece of hardware with the oem defaults... It didnt matter where I attached any ,as long as you can a terminal through a console via a port to post data on power up and boot.... than this should be nothing but a matter of instructions. I was lucky. One box I had likely had been set up as a normal gateway or whatever. It posted and gave default boot operation as any barebones box would....I think. I will troubleshoot and record a bit more when I attempt to duplicate the exact steps I took to get this thing to boot windows.. for now, ill tell you..

This velocloud board and any similar DELL-EMC, Netgate, firewall router of this form factor mentioned for purpose of this thread.. is likely intel. This board has a winbond chip. Thats the first thing to debug, backup, and tinker with certainly on your rig. That is if you want to add or remove any onboard hardwares to recognize and initialize TROUGH software configuration instructions to respected GPIOs to recognize and utilize it.
It always seems backwards to me. But of course without the right BIOS and BOOT instructions; usually defaulted, nothings gonna work . Especially on these mamojammas. Half of them are setup to be admin remotely via virtualmachines. through only certain ethernet ports. Ive got so many giggabitchs worth of velocloud, palo, sd-wan, edge, dell-emc etc... development deployment related guides, scripts / code, exploits / vulns backed up from source and compiled at this point for different setups I'm more or less ready to turn this box into a nintendo ... 64.

I have two or 3 of these boxes. Certain GPIO have been modified to operate remotely through Velocloud Customer Premise Equipment 1 touch solution only. (we do not want this for this project, we don't want velocloud really. It might be fun to hack later, worth backing up an entire image of your soic8 chip that shipped with the board. flashrom ver bus pirate, raspi, beagle, ch341a or whatever the F debricking method if going that route)

So of my 3 boards. 2 are EDGE 500-n one is 520-AC. VELOCLOUD. One doesnt boot a damn thing or report output to any kind of screen( emulated or physical) via any serial to putty/com port debug or otherwise. I assume its a slave box, needing either a physical reset like an old school 30,30,30 hardware reset or even and much more fun, flash a restored bios for default barebones operation AMI bios on an intel atom c2538 .

So I'm guessing if you have tried all 3 mpcie slots with nothing else but the pcie card you'd like to boot from, or utilize... (take out the mpcie wifi card for now, replace it with the device you are trying to get AMI bios on an intel atom c2538 to utilize)
( ie.remove all livebootable USB, plug in the hidden usb2.0 serial console that reports putty data and takes keyboard (mine from only the host keyboard through putty console window, not external keyboard at first.... or vice versa! i cant remember)

I posted links in previous posts linking to what seems to be official veloclou bit bucket that has official ones used when velocloud public teams were modding openwrt software for this EDGE 500-n 520-AC HARDWARE to whatever the fuck they had in mind... with a makeconfig file to be cross compiled from a native ubuntu 14.04 machine i believe. Intel x86/64 UEFI I believe . It's all in the source. And not only used on velocloud more than likely.. workarounds and tutorials Easily found on Netgate even.

Anyway I'll post a clean solution and walkthrough as i attempt my other 500-n box which does NOT work as simply as the one that loaded windows and bios and had vga output from a MPCIE to VGA adapter installed to give physical display via VGA port monitor...
I'll post that solution AT SOME POINT
hopefully. ths post explains a bit of how i worked out what unorthodox paths I took to find a solution for me... Soic8 flash dump and reading which GPIO are enabled in bios from there might have to be how I get OTHER winbond soic8 chip to read. Thank GOD its already in a socket that can be opened up and removed instead of soldered! I might just drop the one from my other board inside and see if thats all it takes to boot it! smash F keys from keyboard (external and on the putty host machine) during boot... read out put and try some live USBs for the win!

stephenw10

For clarity (since this thread is in danger of going off into the deep grass!) what you need to run pfSense usefully on this board is a modified igb driver that will allow both attaching to the internally linked NICs and accessing the switch via them.
You can see the OpenWRT patch for that I linked in the previous post.

Steve

YourAverageHomelabber

So I got my hands one an Edge 5X0 and I got serial access through the little hidden USB on the side. I've been trying to figure out what the login is. Anyone happen to know any of the login details for the local account?

bubbadestroy

@stephenw10 said in What is this board??? Help!:

For clarity (since this thread is in danger of going off into the deep grass!) what you need to run pfSense usefully on this board is a modified igb driver that will allow both attaching to the internally linked NICs and accessing the switch via them.
You can see the OpenWRT patch for that I linked in the previous post.

Steve

Steve, thank you for letting this thread wobble around OffTopic. For myself, this was the only community with active interest and info in custom firmware development on these things.
There seems to be some forward progress in order to adapt these boxes into something close to PFsense.
Possibly soon time to migrate this whole thread to git for reference and actual builds? Once someone provides a consistent source..
...
On that note.. This link should work for anyone who wants to reference real commits for this hardware and fork to PFsense, without a bitbucket account too..

https://bitbucket.org/velocloud/openwrt/commits/?search=edge500&page=3

Working from ground up reading up from Edge500 Commit Notes on page 3 (2014); I found useful information on troubleshooting the hardware into a working build for several Velocloud models and variants.

I've learned alot about attempting a few builds, it's a fun challenge fumbling through.

Anyways, thought I'd genuinely show gratitude for letting this thread stumble through ~~What is this board???~~ Help!

I'll chime in again to mention.
Hovering cursor over development messages in the commit source could be really useful for troubleshooting reference while building a working PFsense Image for the car.

Good info like in the first commit that referenced edge500 when i searched commits..

Sandra Berndt
committed 84e016c
2014-01-08
View source
added support for multiple boards to the velocloud-vc platform driver;
/sys/devices/platform/vc/board now contains the boad id;
board ids are: ve1000, edge-nexcom, edge-portwell, edge500;
unfortunatedly, the portwell dev system and nexcom boxes have identical DMI settings,
so both show up as the edge-nexcom;
edge-portwell/edge-nexcom will not have leds & reset sysfs entries;
new LEDs for station wifi are called sta1...sta3;
wifi is still the access point led;
gpio assignment needs to be finished when the real numbers are known;

bubbadestroy

@osbnet pop in a bootable USB loaded with pfsense and bypass the velocloud. ( i think the password is just hit enter though..

YourAverageHomelabber

@bubbadestroy when I try to boot pfsense and install it, after a couple of minutes it reboots. I think this is due to watchdog, which is built into the bios.. not sure though. Any thoughts?

bubbadestroy

@osbnet said in What is this board??? Help!:

@bubbadestroy when I try to boot pfsense and install it, after a couple of minutes it reboots. I think this is due to watchdog, which is built into the bios.. not sure though. Any thoughts?

check this link..

https://bitbucket.org/velocloud/openwrt/commits/?search=watchdog

First second and third commit message shows what date they added in that watchdog crap and why. looking up through the commits shows a few other work around they added I believe should help, depending on your current firmware date. The logs im referencing below shows around 2015 ... so possibly skip velocloud image all together and hit f for failsafe mode after grub screen...

I defeated it by using display port through a vga adapter that I put in one of the mpcie slots.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/353020687468?epid=1383304505&hash=item5231ac346c:g:W3YAAOSw9PZc2yMr

If you don't mind to shell out any more cash on it (id make offer to seller for 10-15 bucks).

Theres surely a software workaround like Remote Console or a VNC rather than the debug port...

or press del or tab during power on from keyboard directly hooked up to box or putty terminal?

Heres a brief snippit of things to note reading through logs posted above.

|-|=Processor Type: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU  C2358  @ 1.74GHz
Processor Speed: 1743 MHz
Total Memory: 4096MB (DDR3 1333)

USB Devices total: 0 KBDs, 0 MICE, 0 MASS, 1 HUBs

Detected ATA/ATAPI Devices...
Version 2.16.1242. Copyright (C) 2013 American Megatrends, Inc.
CASwell, Inc. COB-G800-000 Rev.:R1.00 ( 20141209 )
Press <DEL> or <TAB> to enter setup.
Press <B> to enter BBS POPUP.

GNU GRUB  version 2.02~beta2
 +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
 |*Latest Velocloud Image                                                     |
 | Force Velocloud Factory Image                                              |
 | Force Velocloud Root1                                                      |
 | Force Velocloud Root2                                                      |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

      Use the ^ and v keys to select which entry is highlighted.
      Press enter to boot the selected OS, `e' to edit the commands
      before booting or `c' for a command-line. ESC to return
      previous menu.
   The highlighted entry will be executed automatically in 0s.

Frst I would Possibly try Force Velocloud Factory Image
from grub.

Maybe that will put you at a version before watchdog was introduced into the boot process.

Otherwise... I would
Check the PDT date? My troubleshooting method is just logs , source, compare and attempt solution from a commit message.

https://bitbucket.org/velocloud/openwrt/commits/?search=5x0

Im not sure but that's the highest date I see when I do a control search through logs for dates.. .
I just compare the commit date and PDT date (2015 for this logs example and reference the appropriate commit messages regarding watchdog

  Booting `Latest Velocloud Image'

stamps: root1=0 root2=11
early console in decompress_kernel

Decompressing Linux... Parsing ELF... done.
Booting the kernel.
[    0.000000] Linux version 3.14.37 (jenkins@build-01.eng.velocloud.net) (gcc version 4.6.4 (OpenWrt/Linaro GCC 4.6-2013.05 r43222) ) #1 SMP Tue Jun 30 18:32:56 PDT 2015
[    0.000000] Command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 rootfstype=ext4 rootwait earlyprintk=serial,ttyS0,115200 panic_timeout=5 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 noinitrd vcimg=2 crashkernel=2G-:128M=|


Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz root=/dev/sda7 rootfstype=ext4 rootwait earlyprintk=serial,ttyS0,115200 panic_timeout=5 console=tty0 console=ttyS0,115200n8 noinitrd vcimg=2 crashkernel=2G-:128M

kusagi

@bubbadestroy Any luck with disabling watchdog within the bios? I have a Velocloud 510 model and ordered the pci vga adapter you linked earlier but not getting any sort of video output. Looks like they provide everything needed to compile coreboot. Based on the configs I see, its possible to disable watchdog and upload a modified coreboot to the unit but I haven't tried this yet.

bubbadestroy

@kusagi

For now from grub, possibly open c to edit command line before booting a force factory image... and/or... this is the best I can find for now.

I typed watchdog in the search for commits to go from bottom up of commits, depending on what version your router is on. searching for watchdog in commit looks like they start at around 2014 . This may help I hope!

https://bitbucket.org/velocloud/openwrt/commits/?search=watchdog

Re #4316 Enable CONFIG_ITCO_WDT in kernel for Rangeley watchdog.

Busybox already has the watchdog command enabled.

from a patch file, i found something on your 510 device towards bottom of commit changes for this patch. Around line 1086 and below it seems the patch for this commit adds a control from grub for 510.. so it may not need patched, try the command if they have it in code.

https://bitbucket.org/velocloud/openwrt/commits/d16d5046c0521ebd329221cb9445c7c5386ec817

grub patches for:

grub determining vc board,
factory reset handling in grub,
logo LED messaging,
watchdog timer to cover grub/kernel boot hangups,

These patches implement a new 'vc' command.
'vc board' prints board name and saves it to env var $board
'vc freset' reads the state of factory reset button (edge500), or cmos value from coreboot (edge5x0), saves to env var $freset
'vc logo 0xNTRRGGBB' flashes the LOGO LED, N=number of blinks - 1, T=blink time in 100msec, RRGGBB=color
'vc wdt 30' arms the watchdog timer in seconds

Final integration of the basic commands happens in grub.cfg, including root roll-back.

https://bitbucket.org/velocloud/openwrt/commits/4a0ca9f7589beac08822c1868d4c0765f8564b44

added watchdog control from grub;
needed to disable watchdog to run memory tests;
'vc wdt time-in-seconds' 0 means never;

I'll try myself if i get some time to go through router again.
I feel like I smashed F key after post somewhere to force failsafe settings though, and bypassed it that way.. or i did a hard wipe by good old 30-30-30 method.. i cant remember.. I did a lot of everything to this poor board!
https://www.router-reset.com/30-30-30-reset-factory-defaults-wireless-router

ryno5514

@stephenw10 I am not new to this but not this good at this, how do you apply this?

bubbadestroy

@osbnet

No promises this will solve, but possibly it will help.

Theres a bit of info in this manual that is the closest thing to this router I can (rangely and similiar bios, ports, and such) our console cable is of course hidden on the side under the hood, as usb mini port.. I posted another suggestion regarding how to work from forcing failsafe and possibly from grub selection to get command interface. then refer to watchdog timer commands here possibly.
A watchdog timer is a piece of hardware that can be used to automatically detect system anomalies and
reset the processor in case there are any problems. Generally speaking, a watchdog timer is based on a
counter that counts down from an initial value to zero. The software selects the counter’s initial value and
periodically restarts it. Should the counter reach zero before the software restarts it, the software is
resumed to be malfunctioning and the processor’s reset signal is asserted. Thus, the processor will be
restarted as if a human operator had cycled the power.
To execute the utility: enter the number of seconds to start countdown before the system can be reset.
Press start to start the counter and stop to stop the counter.
wd_tst --swt xxx (Set Watchdog Timer 1-255 seconds)
wd_tst[*] --start (Start Watchdog Timer)
wd_tst --stop (Stop Watchdog Timer)

There are two ways to enable the bypass on the system:

The LAN bypass can be turned on or off in two system states, i.e., power on (Runtime Bypass) and
power off (System Off Bypass). The following are the illustration of the possibilities of LAN bypass
configuration with respect to both power-on and power-off states.
Bypass settings in the
BIOS
System Status
Runtime LAN Bypass for Module 1 Power off LAN Bypass for
Module 1
Enabled Disabled
Power on Bypass Non-Bypass Enabled
Power off Bypass Bypass
Bypass settings in the
BIOS
System Status
Runtime LAN Bypass for Module 1 Power off LAN Bypass for
Module 1
Enabled Disabled
Power on Non-Bypass Non-Bypass Disabled
Power off Non-Bypass Non-Bypass
A watchdog timer can be used to control the LAN Bypass function dynamically by programming. Lanner
also provides sample code for bypass control with WDT via programming. For a reference utility that
contains sample code for LAN Bypass function programming, please contact Lanner’s technical support.
For thorough implementation information of Lanner Bypass and Watchdog functionalities, go to Lanner
Support website at http://www.lannerinc.com/category/1202-network-appliances to download Lanner
Bypass Implementation Manual.
For a description of the physical LAN ports equipped with this function, refer to Front Panel in Chapter 1:
Product Overview

https://refine-tr.com/assets/pdf/manual/FW-7551SE-manual.pdf

stephenw10

The Lanner FW-7551SE is similar to this only in that uses the same SoC. Importantly it does not use a switch.
I would not assume anything else there applies here.

Steve

dextaslab

I've obtained a 520-AC (5x0) - the boot serial output is very different from what's listed on here.
I'm waiting for an MPCIE to PCIE convertor to add a screen. The eBay mpcie gpu link given wont post to international destinations.
So far I can get it to attempt to boot other OS's from a USB, but so far no dice.
Trying to get the source OpenWRT built is very time consuming due to the age of versions of software installed no longer being available.
Thanks to everyone on here for the valuable information :-)

dextaslab

@bubbadestroy For the 520 (5X0) this adapter works in the spare MPCIE slot across from the wireless card https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/124831255241. I used an old nVidia PCIE graphics card with it. There is no BIOS setup as seen on other devices, but surprisingly there is IPXE by default. You can install most Linux distro's, as long as they only take about 60 seconds to boot the USB and install - then the watchdog timer kicks in and reboots :-(

Pfsense boots the installer and gets just far enough to wipe the internal storage and copy a few files across before it reboots.

stephenw10

I would try to install on something else then and swap the boot media into it. Then you can try top enable the watchdog tools in that image. Does it boot from USB? mSATA? No serial console?

dextaslab

@stephenw10 Yeah It boots from USB. As a test I edited the Debian installer grub options to include nmi_watchdog=0, but it made no difference, I'll try some other options and let you know.

dextaslab

@dextaslab Nailed it! Installed Ubuntu server (Im more familiar with Debian based distros) and added the following to the rc.local:

modprobe i2c-i801
modprobe i2c-smbus
modprobe iTCO-wdt

and "nmi_watchdog=0" was added as a boot switch.

As a test it boots and runs fine from a USB. Still working on the NICs, and the wireless joins fine for now. So I guess make sure those modules are added to the Pfsense installer it should at least install OK...

bubbadestroy

@dextaslab

This is awesome. Please do post update on progress, I'd love to see some PFSense (pun intended) made from this finding!

bubbadestroy

@kusagi

Seems progress made on this thread towards PFSENSE port! See posts at bottom i.e.:

Also He did solve the issue of WatchDog Timer on a velocloud edge variant

@dextaslab said in What is this board??? Help!:

I've obtained a 520-AC (5x0) - the boot serial output is very different from what's listed on here.
I'm waiting for an MPCIE to PCIE convertor to add a screen. The eBay mpcie gpu link given wont post to international destinations.
So far I can get it to attempt to boot other OS's from a USB, but so far no dice.
Trying to get the source OpenWRT built is very time consuming due to the age of versions of software installed no longer being available.
Thanks to everyone on here for the valuable information :-)

@dextaslab said in What is this board??? Help!:

@bubbadestroy For the 520 (5X0) this adapter works in the spare MPCIE slot across from the wireless card https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/124831255241. I used an old nVidia PCIE graphics card with it. There is no BIOS setup as seen on other devices, but surprisingly there is IPXE by default. You can install most Linux distro's, as long as they only take about 60 seconds to boot the USB and install - then the watchdog timer kicks in and reboots :-(

Pfsense boots the installer and gets just far enough to wipe the internal storage and copy a few files across before it reboots.

dextaslab

@bubbadestroy I've finally gotten the source Open-WRT mostly compiled and working. I'm pretty sure about 3 of the packages were non-starters - FRR for example. All the NIC's appear to be working and are available.

After wasting so much time trying to get PFSense compiled (and failing), I needed a win! The Open-WRT kernel it's running is pretty old and the source files for the NIC weren't directly compatible with FreeBSD 12.

If there is any info/files anyone would like let me know and I'll forward what I can. I'll upload the base Open-WRT USB image when I get time.