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    Watchguard Firebox M400/M500

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • E
      eisenb11 @dlucas46
      last edited by

      @dlucas46 I’ve always preferred Tera Term over putty for anything involving a serial port.

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        iJay-XTM5 @MathewPope
        last edited by

        @MathewPope M400 running here with an i5-4590T and 4GB of RAM. Like some other processors swaps, this one does not reboot correctly.

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          dlucas46 @eisenb11
          last edited by

          @eisenb11

          No joy with Tera Term. Same behaviour.

          I am using the autoexec bat with the Bios file. Speed 9600 baud 8, 1 Parity None Flow Control Xon/Xoff

          Anybody else seen this behaviour? I might try a different COM port and see if that makes any difference.

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            eisenb11 @dlucas46
            last edited by

            @dlucas46 Did you edit the autoexec to change the keyboard language to English per the instructions? I believe that, as downloaded, it's set up for German or something.

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              It could be the terminal not reflecting what you type. Or the cable might not have Tx connected. Are you able to type things into the BIOS setup as expected?

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                dlucas46 @eisenb11
                last edited by

                @eisenb11

                Hi yes changed keyboard to UK.

                That was the only change.

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                • D
                  dlucas46 @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10

                  Hi,

                  It's a Cisco console cable on a prolific USB adapter.

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                    dlucas46 @stephenw10
                    last edited by

                    @stephenw10 said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:

                    It could be the terminal not reflecting what you type. Or the cable might not have Tx connected. Are you able to type things into the BIOS setup as expected?

                    Not flashed the BIOS yet, so no console output.

                    The cable works fine if I boot the pfsense install image and the install works fine.

                    This must be freedos specific

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                      eisenb11 @dlucas46
                      last edited by eisenb11

                      @dlucas46 I ran into similar problems last time when I flashed my 2nd M400. The 1st one I flashed went without a hitch following the instructions. If I remember right, I ended up having to set the BAUD rate to 115200 despite the instructions saying to use a lower rate. If I did any other rate, the text on the screen looked like Chinese characters or jibberish. It was kind of scary because the "GUI" wasn't rendering properly at the higher rate - I thought I was going to end up bricking my 2nd unit.

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                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        The terminal code in FreeDOS (and usually in the BIOS setup) is crude. It requires the additional flow control lines where as the code in pfSense does not. So it could be the cable only has three pins connected.

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                          dlucas46 @stephenw10
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10

                          I thought the Cisco branded cables were all pins connected?

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                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            I would expect them to be.
                            Can you interrupt the BIOS POST to reach the password prompt? That would show you can send something.

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                              dlucas46 @stephenw10
                              last edited by dlucas46

                              @stephenw10 said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:

                              I would expect them to be.
                              Can you interrupt the BIOS POST to reach the password prompt? That would show you can send something.

                              Except the default m400 bios has console redirect turned off so you see nothing.

                              Can you even enter the bios setup with the stock bios?

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Ah, clearly been too long! 😉

                                You might try a different client device. We have seen Macs that are unable to send data over serial. I assume you're not using a Mac but worth trying something else.

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                                  dlucas46 @stephenw10
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10 said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:

                                  Ah, clearly been too long! 😉

                                  You might try a different client device. We have seen Macs that are unable to send data over serial. I assume you're not using a Mac but worth trying something else.

                                  Nope not Mac (Windows 10) but I do have some other machines around that have hardware COM ports. Also have some Linux machines I could try.

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                                    bigbov
                                    last edited by

                                    Hi, Does anyone know the max size of cf that can be used in the m400 ?

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      An SSD is far superior in pretty much every way! 😉

                                      Every time I update mine I think it's failed because the CF is so slow.

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                                        bigbov @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 I was just keeping simple as ive previously done one of these by just putting the nanobsd image on the cf and no bios mods. Ive done many of the 32bit X750e flashing bios but for the m400 seems more complex or less clear defined instructions other than picking this forum post.

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by

                                          In many ways it's easier since you can just install to a CF card and then boot it. I'd be surprised if you can get a CF card that's too big. But I also wouldn't try to get anything bigger than, say, 16GB. 4GB is fine for most installs. If you're trying to run anything that needs more drive space you shouldn't be using CF. Be sure to enable RAM drives to preserve the CF write life.

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                                            thejames10 @Myst412
                                            last edited by

                                            @Myst412 Did this work with Fireware OS, or did you have to flash pfsense on it?

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