Watchguard Firebox M400/M500
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@stephenw10 @jriofrio If I remember correctly, I had to flash the tinylinux image onto the orignal CF card to get the machine to boot from it. I tried other CF cards but it wouldn't boot from them until I flashed the BIOS. Once it was flashed, the machine will boot from anything. You won't see the BIOS POST until it's flashed; the original BIOS doesn't output anything over serial, at least mine didn't!
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Mmm, you might just retry the CF cards you have I found it failed to boot the card I have a few times but did eventually boot it. No idea why. Cosmic rays perhaps!
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@jriofrio some bioses can lock out 'unapproved' pci cards,i could guess there could be some kind of lockout for cf cards,so maybe trying the original (with verified backup)
as for autoexec.bat,that is something that dos starts after boot (since you are headless - no keyboard/monitor),this would work if it boots but don't show serial,there would be commands exactly as you type them manually...but hard to debug if you don't see anything,it could be asking for bios file,or wrong switch or telling bad command and you never know...so if you are certain what to type with paths,you can try this,i bet there is switch to 'reset/reboot' after flashing,probably cmos clear parameter too,so you could wait for console (can't restart while flashing still works,so you need to be sure you can reset or wait long enough)
edit:cf cards also have some modes of operation(udma,pio),so maybe it just can't talk correctly to that asmedia sata bridge(asmedia are not that great,sensitive to firmware versions-talking from experience with theirs usb-sata bridges,i don't trust them),so best could be sticking to the original..maybe even adding floppy image as image to grub,that could work,but requires a bit of linux/booting knowledge,i think there must be some loader too,not sure
edit2:i finally looked at your image(sorry,too much up,didn't read it all),when it boots,you should see it there i believe,this kinda looks like it is really not booting,so getting into grub seems like great idea,maybe allowing editing for starters...(need to do in grub.cfg probably on cf /boot/grub.cfg or menu.lst)
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@korenchkin .... Hello everyone, just wanted to mention that the cable (the rj45 to db9) and a new CF card didn't work at all. Same results.
So, my only option is to flash the BIOS directly.
I was looking for guidance here (I was reading through 5he comments) but I only saw mention of the success. I was looking for a guidance and details that I should pay attention to the process.
I downloaded the program and ordered the kit.
If there is any details and or advice in how to proceed, I will be please to hear it.
Good day..... -
@jriofrio if by the kit you mean ch341,that is one awesome device,just some usual warnings,i use neoprogrammer (i hope the name is right,not at my pc),if you search for it,watch out for viruses,same for drivers,maybe use zadig(not sure),also watch for polarity/orientation of chip...
Neoprogrammer has detect chip,once it says some name,it might need to confirm/select of several choicesThe chip should be 8pin (2x4 pins),should be some 25xxx (mx25xx or similar,google for details,it will be probabli 64mbit nor flash)
The chip is either smd(usuallly)-use clip,red wire is one/dot,i would clip it first,then connect it to programmer and then usb....One important thing-use usb cable,you can plug it directly,but cable is def better
I use the kit for different things and it just works(severeal accespoints,some motherboards)...
Once you are connected,just read it and save,then either read again,save,compare,or button verify....and then you can play with flashing
Off course without power! (Better disconnect from mains,or if you have good+single ground(with flashing pc),off should be okay
And once you have the bios,do some comparison with new bios file,i suggest total commander file compare(one of the best for binary comparisons),and see if there are similar beginnings(once compression starts,it will be completely different,but boot block should be similar,at least header...or if you are stuck,upload it somewhere and we can take a look
Edit:if you want to train before,open some old wifi accesspoint or motherboard to train..if the chip is 24xx,it is just a small eeprom(other position on socket,you'll see markings),but otherwise same...
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@jriofrio said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:
@korenchkin .... Hello everyone, just wanted to mention that the cable (the rj45 to db9) and a new CF card didn't work at all.
Id have to go back and look but did you try a (light blue) Cisco cable? The ones I have do work and are fully wired.
From my rememberings.. I used an old laptop and wrote the hard drive that I installed in my M400 and then used a package to install the firmware.
I was just having too many issues trying to get the CF card to work.
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@jriofrio said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:
So, my only option is to flash the BIOS directly.
Well you can still just not flash it all all.
You can just install pfSense to the CF card in something else and then move it across. Or install to an SSD and put that in. -
Hey all,
Just for a nostalgic flashback, I thought I'd pickup an M400. :)
So I did that yesterday.
I still have my VGA adapter, so that was an unexpected bonus.
Not sure about all M400 units but the device I picked up, by factory default, has no Serial Console Redirect enabled at all. Tragic.
And even with the VGA adapter in play, so far I cannot find any way to boot from USB.
So I must digress and ponder.
If all else fails, I will push the pfSense CE installer image to the CF, boot from CF and install pfSense to SSD from there. or, do the same but flash the BIOS first via CF boot.
Always a plot twist I tell ya. -
@Mookatroid ..... Hello everyone, today I was able to take a look into the original CF card.
In old DOS os I used to modify the autoexe.bat in order to boot the way I wanted.
Does Linux has something like that in which I can make it to do something that I will be able to modify the BIOS or allows me to look into the USB sticks... Etc.
I never tried before cause Everytime that I connected to the windows PC it wanted to format it. Yesterday I put together a PC and installed Linux mint and I was able to see the m400 CF card.
Please let me know if there is anything that I could do here..... Good day -
@stephenw10 .... using the tinym400, not working
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I have tried many different ways in order to make afulnx to run but it looks like the afulnx app is not present in the image you created... let me know please. I might be doing or typing it wrong....
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@jriofrio use tab for autocomplete and ls (-la if you want 1 line for 1 item),maybe find /|grep -i afu (to find afuwhatever,that pipe before grep is on the backslash key on us keyb, -i ignore case)
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@korenchkin .... I tried what you said.... I got this
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i am not sure what you meant with use TAB to autocomplete... my bad, i didn't include find and now i got a long list of files
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@jriofrio i see you have no background in dos :)
i can clearly see afulnx_x64 (or something similar,half-hidden under message now),so use that info, tab is for when you write afu and press "tab",it will autocomplete if there are no 2 afuaa and afubb...if there are,after second tab it will list all options and you need another letter...if no autocomplete,you might have wrong path... -
@korenchkin yes, you are correct... i run the commands including the _64 and it worked.... thank you very much for your help... im happy now.
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@jriofrio happy flashing,this means first step was bios backup,now flash new and wishing good luck and good power lines :)
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@korenchkin ....Here, here :]
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question: i did manage to run the tinym400 linux and i wasn't able to make a copy of backup.rom.
ONCE I FLASHed THE BIOS, i run the command to make a backup2.rom of the flash bios.i shut the m400 box and took the ssd where i installed the tinym400 and connected it to mu linux PC, but i can't see the /opt/rom drive in order to get the copies of the rom backups.
i tried to do it through the terminal with the mkdir, mount, and all that stuff.
I was able to get into the ssd but still can get access to the opt/rom directory.linux mint disk is of not use, i see the folders but not the opt/rom directory.
is there a way i can get to those files? -
@jriofrio if it works,you dont need the bios,it is better the new one,but if you really want it,it should be in home or root(not exactly sure now with the sudo,so either /home/'username' (look at your picture,i think there was the name of user maybe),or it could be /root (if sudo works on it) ...i mean the ~ character =home
