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Mmm, it's hard to recommend hot-plugging the mSATA card. I could imagine something going badly wrong!
Better to install to mSATA in something else and move it across if you can.
Steve
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@kubato I wonder if you were to use a virgin or freshly wiped msata drive if the SATA SSD would boot and allow installation without trying to hotplug it.
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@bruor
It might work as it appears to be going through the normal boot from bootable devices. That is where I noticed that, removing the mSata and just installing a working Sata with an "full" install of pfSense. It works fine via Sata drive. I just took the xtra step of seeing if I could get it to start boot on Sata then quickly install the mSata card and allow it to be detected. As you all may know, after the bios boot picks up bootable devices, which is only a sata card, then the pfSense OS starts it does a detection again so this trick will work. I have done it tons of time and never (knock on virgin wood) messed up a mSata card or shorted out and mSata. Speaking of messing up stuff, Be xtra careful if plugging in sata power in the connector. I plugged it in backwards once and thought I blew the whole thing but, it survived and is still working and pfSense it protecting my network. -
@stephenw10 You are exactly right and I am doing everything wrong so anyone trying this it is best to stick a working copy on mSata, using another PC via mSata to Sata adapter. After full install, return it back to the Firebox T70. I really want to hack the bios and install a known password so I can get into the bios and change the boot order. I would like to know what device was used by the bios modder to read the bios. I see two and there is supposed to be another a he mentioned. Is that device plugged in via USB or directly connected to BIOS chip?
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Usually they are connected via the SPI header. I have not tried that on the T70.
It's much more convenient if you can boot something and read out the chip but I was never able to boot anything with a serial console. The HDMI header is unpopulated so...stuck at that point. It might be possible though.
Steve
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@stephenw10
I have procured a T70 and if you or someone needs the original mSata for this....it can be sent for you to "look at".
Steven please contact me via Email and we can discuss via phone or emails.
I owe a lot to the group as you all moved me off of Zyxel stuff and onto "roll your own with pfSense". -
Thanks. I've already got one though. Someone else might.
I'm not sure there's much on it we can use. What there is there is detailed in this thread, mostly here.
It would be nice to know where the LEDs are connected. I could never find them in the usual places.Steve
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Thanks for this information. Unfortunately, it looks like the 1Gb of ram is a serious limitation. I managed to blow it after I installed Squid. All said, it is still a good platform for a peek at Pfsense.
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The T70 should have 2GB of RAM.
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@stephenw10 You are absolutely correct. I missed by one key.
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Just wanted to add some additional information here.
I just did a reinstall on this box to take it to CE 2.7 from plus. During the installation I chose GPT (bios) as the partition type and can confirm that it boots without issue. I think my first install may have been MBR mode.
