pfSense on Watchguard M370

[stephenw10]

Ha. Confirmed.

Not possible to enable EIST which is disappointing but you can enable USB booting.

[nohara]

Can anyone DM me the M470 bios please?

[nohara]

@hangmansnoose001380 could you possibly provide me the unlocked bios for the M470 please?

[MH 0]

@ost0 Worked on my 570 as well, nice find, thanks.

[nohara]

@mh-0 Do you happen to have the unlocked bios? If so, could you dm me it please. Thanks!

[MH 0]

@nohara No sorry, just confirming I could log into the stock BIOS with the newly discovered standard BIOS password for the M270 / M370 / M470 / M570. Cheers.

[nohara]

@mh-0 what is the newly discovered standard BIOS password?

[MH 0]

@nohara See OST0's picture in their post a few above, I don't believe I can post the actual password.

[MH 0]

@mh-0 To follow up on my post, I got hold of 32gb of standard non ecc DDR4. Specifically "32GB PC RAM Memory Samsung 2 x 16GB DDR4-2400 UDIMM PC4-19200T-U Dual Rank x8" from Ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/225154694296

It works and I've not got a ProxMox 7 host up and running on the M570 with PFsense, multiple windows servers and an Ubuntu LTS server performing quite happily with decent performance.

I've got 2 SSD's and an HDD in it, although the HDD isn't 'in it' as such due to space constraints, I need to upgrade the HDD to a 2.5" one, the current 3.5" is too big for the case. Used a cheap Msata to sata adaptor to get a regular sata ssd running from the msata connector.

I've replaced the noisy case fans with a nocturna that is whisper quiet, I need to get a second one to ensure decent air flow. https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B071J8CZP9

[bingo600]

@mh-0 said in pfSense on Watchguard M370:

I need to upgrade the HDD to a 2.5" one

Chose wisely ....

I in 2017 , I installed a "Mechanical" Samsung 1TB 2.5" in my Linux box , as the system/root drive. Rationale was that it would be pretty much "always on" due to syslog. And that it used less power than a 3.5".

1.5 years after it died "hard" ... Found out that most "Mechanic" 2-5" was NOT intended to run 24/7.

IMHO - Get a SSD

I have a HGST 2.5" in a VMware "mini", that has been running for 4 years now , but will switch it to a SSD when it's due time.

/Bingo

[dfd1125]

I’m about to take the plunge and install OPNSense on an M470 that just recently fell out of support with Watchguard. Thanks to all for the hard work put in for this device to make this possible. I had a question related to the add on modules… has anyone attempted to get any 10g SFP+ modules to work? Is so, what cards and what adapters are needed? The Watchguard specific card is hard to find and very expensive so I’d rather find some other compatible card and rig it in somehow. Anyone done anything like this with this device series?

[Mookatroid]

@dfd1125
I have been running my M470's for quite some time with this Intel one ....

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/182885287213?epid=10029956115&hash=item2a94d0052d:g:a2QAAOSw21pflzXO&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAA4IhB5%2FTkzySfwcIHa3DMhnFmhjzICRDMzHaj29OKl6Cam50fv0kjIFfMxkXV%2FlvbRrPBg3wurDiXWGV50JDVOjHKkaXy6ONWtsO9F%2BPM%2FfLhUeJcQe6Nx31LY3RxB5tsZNf9npFhvb7mJaNg14suWtQ04caWpN4CPJQoViveWQDcO%2BWMats6%2BTHlUK%2FEOtA5V%2FLOj2x0wXRvlsQNoJ48%2BGjYZGni%2Bry91ZYzJRgSTP0qAtvIZO%2BLc4iREJtPEPCjWCMnSF9EDiZD1mBifw7oOxTpsZzbwg4fFgPyvcdoZQ3N%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR_iGuJGgYQ

... and these Axiom ones ...

SFP-10GBASE-T-AX
WG8583-AX

[dfd1125]

@mookatroid I’m actually looking for an interface card that will work with the M470, not the actual SFP modules. Is there some sort of adapter that will allow me to connect a normal PCIE card to the device? The actual Watchguard interface card is hard to find and crazy expensive. I need a minimum of 2 ports.

[stephenw10]

The slot is just a standard PCIe slot AFAIK. Just the form factor is different. You could probably make it work with one of those flexible PCIe cable adapters and some metalwork on the case.

[dfd1125]

@stephenw10 I am thinking the same thing. Is there any recommended 2 or 4 port SFP+ cards that that are fairly power efficient and work well with OPNSense that I should look for? Sorry for all the questions, I just don’t want to purchase some crap card by mistake.

[Mookatroid]

@stephenw10

@dfd1125

Yes
The interface used by the WatchGuard 4-port 10G module is a standard 8x PCI-e slot.
You can install an 8x extension cable and then plug in an Intel X520-SR1 or X520-SR2 and pfSense detects and supports this.

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[Mookatroid]

Now .... does anyone know if a VGA header is hiding somewhere on the M470 motherboard ?
:)

[stephenw10]

I don't think there is one. The Watchguard variant is quite different to the Lanner 4210 board. The VGA port location is just not present.

[MH 0]

@mookatroid I never tried to use the VGA Header (if it has one) I installed the OS in a different machine, enabled console output and then moved the drive into Watchguard and used the console connection to do all remaining setup and tweaks.

[bandit1170]

So in theory, can one now use the discovered BIOS password to set it to boot via USB and install pfSense that way? Or is it still suggested to just install outside of the Firebox?
Currently running 2.6.0 on an XTM5 with a Core2Duo E7400 and 4GB of RAM. Will have access to an M370 soon and wondering if it's worth upgrading to it. I don't feel compelled to go through the reflashing of the BIOS process, but if it works fine with the locked BIOS and the ability to set fan speeds thanks to @stephenw10, I think I'd be fine. Can you update the CPU and RAM without flashing the BIOS? What is the latest gen CPU you can add to the M370?

Or should I just figure out how to reflash the BIOS?

Thanks for all the work on this unit. Looks like it will be a huge upgrade, looking at the specs.