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    Watchguard Firebox M400/M500

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    • D
      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! ๐Ÿ˜‰

                      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! ๐Ÿ˜‰

                        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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                        • B
                          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! ๐Ÿ˜‰

                            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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                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    Did what work exactly? Unclear what post you're asking about.

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                                      bigbov @thejames10
                                      last edited by

                                      @thejames10 Not sure what your asking.

                                      I can confirm 16GB flash did not work for me only tried one so i cant confirm it wasnt faulty but it was new.

                                      An 8GB compact flash card worked fine with an opensource freebsd based distro. I assume pfsense will work.

                                      4GB is too small one a few plugins are added.

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                                      • T
                                        thejames10 @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 Sorry, new to this!

                                        @Myst412 said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:

                                        So I wanted to add 10gb networking to a couple of PCs and I thought since there's a PCIe slot on the M400, I could just throw a card on with a female to female pcie extender and presto chango, i'd be able to get 10GBe copper on my network for a fraction of a 4 port 10GBe switch.

                                        @Myst412 said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:

                                        Worked with a 450w atx just fine. Looking for a 200-300w flexatx.

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

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                                        • chpalmerC
                                          chpalmer
                                          last edited by

                                          Ive picked up a Crucial MX500 SSD a while back and tried to use it on my M400 without success.. I am going to try again this next week. Any words of wisdom from anybody?

                                          (This box is now running on a laptop drive but started life around 2.3 if I remember right. I cannot seem to build it new no matter what Ive tried in the past.)

                                          Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                                          Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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                                          • X
                                            xxup
                                            last edited by

                                            I have a crucial mx500 working on my m400. I did nothing special to get it to work correctly.

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