Symantec Security Gateway 5420

emerio

One odd thing I did notice was that when ACPI was not disabled and pfSense was booting (or trying to) the LCD display statistics! It gave me load information and allowed the use of the front panel. I haven't been able to get back to that point with pfSense booting but it looks promising. I have no idea where it was getting the stats from, however.

focalguy

Yes, that is interesting. I forgot I did the same thing with disabling ACPI but maybe I didn't look at the LCD panel before I made that change. Did you notice any problems with booting without ACPI disabled? I feel like I missed the key press once before changing the device.hints file and it still booted.

I've tried LCDproc but I still can't get it working. I'd be interested if you can get that displaying correctly. Seems like it's not choosing the correct output device.

emerio

Without ACPI disabled the boot failed. It would hang at disk mount.

When your box is booted does it still say Symantec 1.03 OK on the LCD?

focalguy

Ok. I found another one of these boxes in the back so I'll be setting it up again and I'll check out the ACPI thing again.

Yes, my box does say that exact message on the LCD screen from when the power is turned on.

Unplug the COM port cable that is located near the external com port connector – this seems to drive the external display in which trying to run a console can be a bit confusing at times

I'm also not sure about these instructions. I haven't noticed any difference when that cable is unplugged or plugged in.

emerio

LCD update…

I was able to write to the LCD display. The actual device (on my box anyways) is /dev/cuad1

From SSH I entered "echo "test" > /dev/cuad1" and it will show up on the bottom line of the LCD.

I also changed the LCDProc file /usr/local/pkg/lcdproc.inc. I made the change below.

case "com2":
$realport = "/dev/cuad1";
break;

So, we just need a driver that simply echos to this device statistics that we want....

emerio

@focalguy:

Unplug the COM port cable that is located near the external com port connector – this seems to drive the external display in which trying to run a console can be a bit confusing at times

I'm also not sure about these instructions. I haven't noticed any difference when that cable is unplugged or plugged in.

Hasn't caused me any trouble either.

focalguy

Good work getting LCD working! I was actually looking at that file the other day but ran out of time before I tried any changes. Have you tried all the drivers to see if one works?

Hopefully I'll have a chance to try out the LCD tomorrow.

emerio

I tried a few. I was looking for a simple "driver" in lcdproc.inc but none seem to do the trick. Seems like it would be incredibly easy to write a driver for this but I am out of steam for today.

focalguy

Any luck on the driver emerio? I haven't been able to test the LCD panel any more but I did get it to display by echoing the same command you had.

I posted some detailed instructions on my blog for this install. ~~Hoping to get it into the wiki eventually~~ It's now in the wiki here: http://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Install_pfSense_on_Symantec_5420_Security_Gateway. Hope that will help someone. Only difference is a few photos on my blog.
http://blog.oliverhansen.com/index.php/2009/11/18/install-pfsense-on-symantec-5420-security-gateway/

emerio

Nice addition to the wiki 8) I haven't messed with the LCD since it is locked away in a room in the basement. I did hook up a pertellian x2040 USB to the box. Supposedly this uses the hd44780 which is in LCDProc. I could not get this to work, either.

emerio

Is anyone making use of the PCI slot?

emerio

Just thought I would comment on the running power usage of this. I used a kill-a-watt which reads 100 watts running usage.

jimp

100W? Yowza that is a lot.

I've had normal PCs (small form factor) that only ran in the mid 30s.

emerio

I am guessing that since we turn off ACPI in our boot up combined with any BIOS settings that would disable power management we have those results. I am not sure what is using so much juice! It is just a celeron with an HD…

emerio

Just to add to the versatility of this box is that I was able to load ClearOS (Linux) on this box in much the same fashion. One problem is that you'll have to use a terminal session to configure the NICs.

Tego

I picked up a couple of 5420s after reading this thread. THX!
After installing I re-enabled ACPI on one box. On boot the box prints out to the
LCD (Only shows up when ACPI is enabled). The box seems to run OK with ACPI
as long as I don't use the console port. When/if I get time I'll put the Symantec drive
back in and see if I can find out more about the LCD (and possibly the front "buttons").

mr_clark

May have made a stupid purchase but I picked up a 5420 on ebay that doesn't power on. Let's see if I can get it working and I'll post my results here….

Has anybody tried 2.0 Beta on one of these?

emerio

Yet another upgrade to this post.

I am using the pyramid driver with LCDProc and can see the load. The display works sort of. What drivers are other people using? Any?

Also, in terms of upgrades, I have put a 2.6 GHZ Pentium 4 in my box (533 MHz). A moment of sheer terror when I fired it up the first time. It didn't boot. When I rebooted it again it booted up just fine. I assume the BIOS is catching the change and waiting for input which it never gets because I don't have the console hooked up.

mr_clark

My non-booting 5420 arrived today. Popped open the case and hooked up a full size power supply and the unit boots great! To top it all off, I opened the power supply and I couldn't see the usual signs of a dead power supply (blown capacitors, etc) so I tested the fuse with my multimeter and it looks like the problem is just a blown fuse. Unfortunately, nobody in my small town here carries the 20mm 5A fuses so I had to order some in and they won't be here until Thursday.

Oh well. I'm glad that my purchase wasn't a complete waste of money.

One question, has anybody tried adding more RAM to one of these? Any issues?

Thanks.

mr_clark

The power supply went POP with a new fuse. So definitely a problem there. Picked up a replacement PS on Ebay. Now I've got a project for the weekend to get this installed and running.

Couple of questions:

Has anybody had further luck with getting the LCD working? Any instructions?
Anybody know of a quieter fan that can be used on the CPU? That blower is darn noisy.

Thanks.