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    Successful Install on Watchguard Firebox X700!

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    • B
      bruor
      last edited by

      I am attempting to do this on an X700 now,  I've modified the drive tray so I can mount a laptop IDE drive in it, installed to it as secondary master in another machine, and now attached the drive to the onboard header.   I am using an 80GB WD scorpio blue drive.

      I'm attempting to attach to the system via serial to watch it boot and perhaps configure it, however, I can't see any output.

      Do I need a straight through or null modem serial cable?  the cable I am attempting to use at the moment has part number 5184-1894 on it.

      I get random garbled text via the serial connection when using 9600 8-n-1-hardware via hyperterminal when booting the watchguard CF card.  Do I need to boot the HD installation and configure the serial console option before installing the drive in the firebox?

      UPDATE: I think I may have located the issue, I selected the Single-proc kernel while installing instead of embedded.  I will re-try the installation using the embedded kernel and update the thread with results.

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      • B
        bruor
        last edited by

        Another successful firebox conversion here!

        Installed the laptop drive in a desktop as secondary master, installed pfsense full version with EMBEDDED kernel. 
        Just finished watching the console bootup successfully without an issue at all detecting and booting from the transplanted HD.

        I will upload some pictures of how I modified the drive cage to hold the laptop drive.

        Now just to get the LCD to work and display useful information!

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        • U
          Unubtanium
          last edited by

          @bruor:

          Another successful firebox conversion here!

          Installed the laptop drive in a desktop as secondary master, installed pfsense full version with EMBEDDED kernel.   
          Just finished watching the console bootup successfully without an issue at all detecting and booting from the transplanted HD.

          I will upload some pictures of how I modified the drive cage to hold the laptop drive.

          Now just to get the LCD to work and display useful information!

          Pleased to hear this, i have one my self running now with lcd proc and it has not failed me Once. Waiting for delivery of a x500 today or tomorrow so that i can play with carp  =)    :D ;D

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          • T
            trendchiller
            last edited by

            A friend of mine has 2 WG X700 for sale…
            If anyone is interested, just mail me...
            He wants 30€ for one...

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            • U
              Unubtanium
              last edited by

              Another WatchGuard turned to the Bright side  ;D

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              • T
                trendchiller
                last edited by

                No more watchguards left, sorry..

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                • C
                  Chewna
                  last edited by

                  I am looking to do this to my x700 after i realised it doesnt do what I want it to do

                  I have put a hd into a laptop and tried to install but I am getting an error message about not enough network interfaces to setup

                  so I will try in a pc with multiple network cards in however when I then put it into the watchguard will it auto detect the drivers for the watchguard ethernet ports?

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                  • D
                    deanflyer
                    last edited by

                    Is the watchdog timeouts issue still ongoing.

                    Looking to replace my VM of pfSense with either an X700 or an Alix solution.

                    Does anyone know what the relative performance of the X700 (Celeron 1.2GHz I understand) vs the 500MHz AMD Geode CPU.

                    Thanks,

                    Dean

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                    • C
                      coldfire
                      last edited by

                      Hi everyone,

                      I was given an X700 and I decided to put pfSense on it. But I can't connect my laptop to the Guard using serial. Here's my setup :

                      • Null modem cable + USB > serial adapter
                      • Putty
                      • 115200 bits/s, 8-n-1 (I also tried lower bit-rate)

                      Putty's window is blacker than black  ???
                      Anyone got an idea on this ?

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                      • U
                        Unubtanium
                        last edited by

                        @coldfire:

                        • 115200 bits/s, 8-n-1 (I also tried lower bit-rate)

                        I had the same problem, and discovered that i was using a wrong cable.
                        And the serial settings should be : 9600 bits/s, 8-n-1

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                        • P
                          pyro_
                          last edited by

                          Does anyone know if these will take ECC ram?  A lot easier and cheaper to find 512mb ECC ram sticks then non ecc where i am

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                          • C
                            Chewna
                            last edited by

                            I have a 512MB PC100 ECC which I was going to try in it

                            Can let you know tonight

                            Just wanted to say how great this guide was for setting up my x700

                            I have been taking photos, so will do my own mini write up to aid future x700 modders :)

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                            • M
                              MMan
                              last edited by

                              @pyro_:

                              Does anyone know if these will take ECC ram?  A lot easier and cheaper to find 512mb ECC ram sticks then non ecc where i am

                              I belive normal ECC should work but registered ECC will most likely not. Haven't tested tho.

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                              • S
                                secure.boy
                                last edited by

                                Has any one made embedded image with LCDproc included for x700?

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                                • D
                                  deanflyer
                                  last edited by

                                  Purchased an X500 and will install pfSense shortly.

                                  Are there any advantages (apart from capacity) to installing on a HD as opposed to a CF card?

                                  Thanks,

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                                  • D
                                    danswartz
                                    last edited by

                                    Full unrestricted packages.

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                                      Unubtanium
                                      last edited by

                                      @secure.boy:

                                      Has any one made embedded image with LCDproc included for x700?

                                      I can make a ghost image for you if you want.  ;D

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                                      • S
                                        secure.boy
                                        last edited by

                                        @Unubtanium:

                                        @secure.boy:

                                        Has any one made embedded image with LCDproc included for x700?

                                        I can make a ghost image for you if you want.  ;D

                                        ok :)

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                                        • P
                                          PistolPete
                                          last edited by

                                          Complete and utter noob here so please be gentle!!

                                          I've managed to get lumped with a faulty X700.  I'm guessing the OS is shafted so it'd make an ideal candidate for a pfsense install.
                                          As I'm fairly Linux illiterate (about 6 months mild exposure), what would be better for me… a hdd install or a CF install?

                                          I'm wanted to use it to firewall and route with NAT my 50Mb cable connection, running Developement Web and Mail servers.

                                          TIA

                                          Pete

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                                          • C
                                            Chewna
                                            last edited by

                                            Definately the HDD option

                                            I am currently in the process of writing a little guide with photos to make things easier for those that dont understand it all

                                            Luckily I had an old external hard drive (USB powered one) which was faulty. Inside them there is basically an IDE laptop drive 2.5" and a tiny circuit board which connects the IDE HDD to a mini USB connector

                                            I plugged this into a spare 80GB IDE Laptop drive I had and plugged in a USB to mini USB.

                                            Connect the USB to a PC and disconnect any other hard drives then boot from CD and put the pfSense Live CD in, and once booted you can install to the HDD which is pretty easy if you just follow the steps

                                            PC will need 2 network ports in it though

                                            I was going to Ghost my drive, but the ghost tool I have just wanted to ghost the whole drive including empty space which was going to take hours

                                            I havent yet but my plan is to put the LCD stuff on too

                                            A further step for me is to reduce the noise of the X700 and so I researched and found the 3 fans in the back are 40mm x 10mm and the quietest ones I could find were 14DBa so I have ordered 3 of these:

                                            https://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=FG-029-SY

                                            They will arrive tomorrow, however they will have the wrong connector on them so I will have to solder the old connectors on once I have tested them

                                            I will take some more photos as I do this and once done I will post up the guide

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