Watchguard Firebox M400/M500
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This M500 may have an unlocked bios, otherwise, it would not boot from USB IIRC. I had to unlock the bios through the serial console using the password others have posted in this forum. I was able to enable USB booting after unlocking the bios and successfully booted from a USB flash drive that had the USB memstick installer (Serial Console). I chose to install pfsense on the internal CF card as I did not want to open the box. The box boots off the CF now without a fuss.
I upgraded the CPU to an i5-4590T and installed low noise fans on my M400 previously, but it hangs on reboot every single time, so I left the M500 's original configuration as is. -
@iJay-XTM5
Appreciate your feedback. I have a second M500 (I used both in datacenter in HA mode), so I can test on this as well. Yesterday did the CPU update and I'm looking forward to replace the fans as well. Unfortunately a low noise fan is expansive, so in case you have any hint please share with me.Regarding CPU temperature, it is ~60-62C in full load with the original fans.
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You can lower the fan speed existing fans to reduce the noise using WGXepc
That seems quite hot though. I assume you replaced the heatsink compound when you fitted that?
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@stephenw10 said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:
That seems quite hot though. I assume you replaced the heatsink compound when you fitted that?
Yes. I did.
What is a normal temperature on your end ?
Many thanks. -
Depends on the ambient temp I guess but for a 'T' rated CPU I expect lower. My M500 with a 4670S runs slightly cooler than that at max:
last pid: 57560; load averages: 4.20, 3.66, 2.22 up 0+00:13:56 19:53:36 187 threads: 9 running, 157 sleeping, 21 waiting CPU 0: 29.1% user, 0.0% nice, 70.9% system, 0.0% interrupt, 0.0% idle CPU 1: 29.9% user, 0.0% nice, 70.1% system, 0.0% interrupt, 0.0% idle CPU 2: 30.7% user, 0.0% nice, 69.3% system, 0.0% interrupt, 0.0% idle CPU 3: 32.7% user, 0.0% nice, 67.3% system, 0.0% interrupt, 0.0% idle Mem: 106M Active, 9212K Inact, 339M Wired, 118M Buf, 7411M Free Swap: 192M Total, 192M Free PID USERNAME PRI NICE SIZE RES STATE C TIME WCPU COMMAND 44930 root 135 0 12M 2076K RUN 2 10:53 99.97% yes 44987 root 135 0 12M 2072K CPU1 1 10:52 99.88% yes 44788 root 135 0 12M 2072K CPU0 0 10:54 99.87% yes 45189 root 135 0 12M 2068K CPU3 3 10:52 99.86% yes 0 root -60 - 0B 672K - 3 0:00 0.05% [kernel{if_config_tqg_0}] 57560 root 20 0 14M 3992K CPU2 2 0:00 0.03% top -HaSP 6 root -16 - 0B 16K pftm 0 0:00 0.02% [pf purge][24.03-RELEASE][root@m500.stevew.lan]/root: sysctl dev.cpu.0.temperature dev.cpu.1.temperature dev.cpu.2.temperature dev.cpu.3.temperature dev.cpu.0.temperature: 58.0C dev.cpu.1.temperature: 54.0C dev.cpu.2.temperature: 57.0C dev.cpu.3.temperature: 55.0CThe fans are pretty loud at that point!
[24.03-RELEASE][root@m500.stevew.lan]/root: ./WGXepc64 -f Found Firebox M400/500 Current fanspeed is 78, minimum fanspeed is 1bAlso it's the hotest day of the year today in the UK so the ambient is ~30C in my 'office'.
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@stephenw10
Many thanks for the info. I will replace the heatsink compound again. Currently I'm using a Ceramic polysynthetic thermal compound which should not be bad :) -
I wouldn't expect to need anything too special there. Just not trying to reuse the crusty stuff Lanner put on it 10 years ago!
For reference at mostly idle I see:
[24.03-RELEASE][root@m500.stevew.lan]/root: sysctl dev.cpu.0.temperature dev.cpu.1.temperature dev.cpu.2.temperature dev.cpu.3.temperature dev.cpu.0.temperature: 40.0C dev.cpu.1.temperature: 38.0C dev.cpu.2.temperature: 40.0C dev.cpu.3.temperature: 42.0C [24.03-RELEASE][root@m500.stevew.lan]/root: ./WGXepc64 -f Found Firebox M400/500 Current fanspeed is 2e, minimum fanspeed is 1b -
Don't know if anyone else has tried yet (and I have no reason to think it wouldn't work but..) I successfully upgraded to Pfsense+ on my M400 today running an i5 processor..
More to support Netgate and Pfsense than anything.. but in case anyone else is holding back.. ;)
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More news on the Intel CPUs that don't reboot properly on M400/500.
Intel i3-4350T - is also no good.
After re-reading this thread, the conclusion is that only the i3-4130 seems to work correctly.
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The i5-4670S reboots correctly. And provides a nice performance upgrade.
Not quite as low power as one of the i3-T CPUs but not much difference at low loads.
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@acsaba not sure how I missed your original posts but my Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T generally sits at 50C.. I did replace the fans with a quieter model linked earlier in this thread.. and they're not running anywhere near full speed.
This is also the first I'm seeing about some Intel CPUs not rebooting correctly.. Guess I have to do some rereading because mine seems to have that issue.
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@chpalmer In the meantime I solved the problem installing arch Linux and controlling the fan speed properly. For the moment I'm not using the WG because of the power consumption and noise, so I will convert back to the original WG firmware.
Anyhow, many thanks for sharing the info.
Keep in touch. -
@stephenw10 Thank you. I will keep looking on eBay - there are a few in the USA, but the shipping cost and exchange rate are a killer. As a home box, the i3 has plenty of power.
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@chpalmer Yep. It is a doozy of a thread, but there is tonnes (metric of course) of information in here. I never did get the VGA working, but I had a tonne of fun playing with the BIOS writer - never needed to use one before this project.
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I wonder if the i5-4670K or i5-4670 will work? There are plenty of these available. I can see that the K is only slightly slower and uses more power, but the home box has never seen more than about 40% CPU usage that I have observed.
I have just bought a i5-4670K and a i5-4670 off eBay. I will report back with the reboot test results.
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The K CPUs were usually the unlocked version preferred by overclockers. So capable of the maximum possible performance. And cost! Of course that also means many have had a hard life.
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@stephenw10
Avoid the i7-6700
Worked great until it died
At which point I realized the heatsink could not dea -
That definitely wouldn't work in the M400/M500. I assume you tried that in an Mx70?
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@stephenw10
Sorry, yes.
Mx70
The i7-6700 runs too hot for the Mx70 heatsink and eventually just cooks itself. -
Urgh, best avoid that then!
