Successful Install on Watchguard Firebox X700!

stephenw10 · Feb 13, 2012, 1:25 AM

Yes, sorry, it's here.

Steve

atrueresistance · Feb 13, 2012, 1:41 AM

Hey just to let you all know I picked up a cheap firebox x700 and got 2.0.1 running on it. I would like to thank stephen and the other members for helpful forum posts. I've created a tutorial on how I did it. http://simplyaccomplished.com/tutorials/firebox/index.php?view=1

m4f1050 · Feb 13, 2012, 2:52 AM

@stephenw10:

Yes, sorry, it's here.

Steve

Got it! Thanks again! :) Very happy with my FB, only thing is I had to remove LCDd (lcdproc) it was crashing the webgui and the sshd but it kept working, and without it the lcd light stays on all the time so I unplugged the lcd. Any way of turning the light off?

stephenw10 · Feb 13, 2012, 4:05 PM

I take it you were using the lcdproc-dev package? Which version? 0.93 has eliminated most of the bugs, including the one that locked you out of the web and ssh interfaces. Still a bit of tweaking to go though.
You can fall back to the old manually installed driver here.
Alternatively you can manually turn off the back light by ~~setting bit 1 at 0x379 to 0~~ like this.

Steve

Edit: Wrong data! The backlight is controlled by the strobe pin on the control port which is bit 1 at 0x37a. But it's inverted so to turn off the backlight you need to set it to 1!


[2.0.1-RELEASE][root@x-core.localdomain]/root(9): /conf/writeio 0x037a 0x01
Setting 37a to 1

peterclark4 · Feb 13, 2012, 11:29 AM

@stephenw10:

I just resurrected my X-Core box with tape and glue.
Last time I had one running it was with 1.2.3 and the serial port worked fine. Now I find with 2.0.1 it doesn't work after the bootup has finished as described by many others.
I have found this to be completely effective.
Add the following lines to /boot/loader.conf.local create the file if it doesn't exist. This file is copied across firmware updates.
console="comconsole"
comconsole_speed="115200"
This will, as you probably guessed, change your console speed to 115200 so remember to change your settings. Putting 9600 in for speed doesn't work! No idea why not. :-\

Steve

Many thanks Steve, I can confirm that this fails for me on 9600 but works on 115200.

m4f1050 · Feb 13, 2012, 2:35 PM

Did you guys try setting the baud rate under device manager and on putty? Also if you boot to BIOS on the FB you can set the baud rate but not sure if you have to. But….why go 9600 when u can go 115200? :)

m4f1050 · Feb 13, 2012, 2:43 PM

@stephenw10:

I take it you were using the lcdproc-dev package? Which version? 0.93 has eliminated most of the bugs, including the one that locked you out of the web and ssh interfaces. Still a bit of tweaking to go though.
You can fall back to the old manually installed driver here.
Alternatively you can manually turn off the back light by setting bit 1 at 0x379 to 0 like this.

Steve

Cool! Exactly what I need. Maybe this could be added to WGXepc for those that don't want to run LCDproc.. I need to setup a FreeBSD 8.1 so I can compile & stuff… Right now I have 2 things running while booting: serialbandaid.sh and WGXepc

stephenw10 · Feb 13, 2012, 4:49 PM

Try this. ;)

The two comconsole lines replace the serialbandaid script but will only run at speeds other than 9600. If you have both that probably explains why you were able to get 9600 to work.

Steve

WGXepc.c.png
WGXepc.png

m4f1050 · Feb 13, 2012, 10:56 PM

@stephenw10:

Try this. ;)

The two comconsole lines replace the serialbandaid script but will only run at speeds other than 9600. If you have both that probably explains why you were able to get 9600 to work.

Steve

Awesome! Thanks! Will be using -b off :)

m4f1050 · Feb 14, 2012, 5:19 AM

Steve, kinda off topic, but where is the first place I can run WGXepc to turn off the LCD backlight? I currently have it in /etc/rc but if there is a sooner place to run it please let us know :) Thanks!

Back to topic, I got my TP-Link 802.11n card in today and installed it on my X700! Bridged it with my LAN as stated here and I have all working. I can now ditch my Belkin wireless router! WOOT! For all of you that wish to do this you will need a pci 32-bit riser (done with ribbon cable),the TL-WN851N adapter and 2 x 50cm RP-SMA cable extensions (all from eBay)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/350261953704

http://www.ebay.com/itm/260816216698

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400182656252

Took about 5 days to get adapter and pci riser but extensions come from Hong Kong, still waiting on the extension cables, but worth it, specially when pfSense upgrades to FreeBSD 9 (which should support 802.11n)

Watchguard Firebox X700
512mb PC133 REG ECC
2gb CF card
pfSense 2.0.1
TP-Link TL-WN851N 802.11n
(still looking for drive that plugs into X700!)

KrPacMan · Feb 14, 2012, 8:37 AM

@m4f1050:

Back to topic, I got my TP-Link 802.11n card in today and installed it on my X700! Bridged it with my LAN as stated here and I have all working. I can now ditch my Belkin wireless router! WOOT! For all of you that wish to do this you will need a pci 32-bit riser (done with ribbon cable),the TL-WN851N adapter and 2 x 50cm RP-SMA cable extensions (all from eBay)

Watchguard Firebox X700
512mb PC133 REG ECC
2gb CF card
pfSense 2.0.1
TP-Link TL-WN851N 802.11n
(still looking for drive that plugs into X700!)

1. Do you think a generic PCI riser card from a standard 1U chassis would work?
2. Do you know if the unit supports larger 512 MB/1 GB/2 GB PC133 ECC memory modules?

m4f1050 · Feb 14, 2012, 2:35 PM

@Kr^PacMan:

1. Do you think a generic PCI riser card from a standard 1U chassis would work?
2. Do you know if the unit supports larger 512 MB/1 GB/2 GB PC133 ECC memory modules?

1.Aren't generic PCI risers to the right of the case looking at it from the front of the firebox? The PCI is towards the front in the FB instead of towards the back, you would also have to remove the hd carrier cage if using a 90 deg. riser card that turns the opposite direction.

2. Unfortunately it is a hit/miss situation on the memory but my 512mb posted, maybe we should start a thread with compatible memory sticks (and maybe include pic?)

stephenw10 · Feb 14, 2012, 4:46 PM

The 815 chipset supports a maximum of 512MB per DIMM slot. Since the X-Core only has one slot that's the limit.

As mentioned the PCI slot is reversed to the direction you might expect. Though you could argue the whole board is reversed since the connections are all on the front.

Steve

Edit: Actually it looks like 512MB is the limit no matter how many slots you have:
http://download.intel.com/design/chipsets/datashts/29068801.pdf
Though it also says in there that 256MB DIMMs are the maximum but we know 512MB works.

m4f1050 · Feb 15, 2012, 12:23 AM

Interesting. It didn't cross my mind to check depending on the chipset, it does post the chipset when you do dmesg… :)

Thanks for the info, I will stop testing every 1GB stick I find... LOL Funny thing is this 512MB stick I first tried on it worked... :)

BTW, did you see the message about where to run WGXepc the soonest? A few msgs back..

stephenw10 · Feb 15, 2012, 1:52 AM

Yes and promptly forgot about it. ::)

You could try the <earlyshellcmd></earlyshellcmd>option.

By the way you mentioned accesing the bios, are you using a PCI graphics card to do that? The serial port settings that can be accessed via the LCD at boot are only uploading Watchguard firmware if it got corrupted.
I have been playing about with bios options for using console redirect and have had no problem activating it so that I can see the POST on the serial port but I can't access the BIOS because you can't send DEL via serial. I'm sure there is an alternative key or key sequence to enter setup but I can't find it.

Steve

m4f1050 · Feb 15, 2012, 5:47 PM

@stephenw10:

Yes and promptly forgot about it. ::)

You could try the <earlyshellcmd></earlyshellcmd>option.

By the way you mentioned accesing the bios, are you using a PCI graphics card to do that? The serial port settings that can be accessed via the LCD at boot are only uploading Watchguard firmware if it got corrupted.
I have been playing about with bios options for using console redirect and have had no problem activating it so that I can see the POST on the serial port but I can't access the BIOS because you can't send DEL via serial. I'm sure there is an alternative key or key sequence to enter setup but I can't find it.

Steve

Thanks for the info.

You are correct about the BIOS, I am doing it by switching the (I call it the IDE jumper) jumper that's next to the IDE cable plug and when it can't load from the IDE it sends me to the BIOS on the LCD and I then can set the console speed and a few other BIOS things there. Maybe you can do this and also do other stuff via the console with your mentioned method? Let us know, it would be nice to be able to do other stuff..

atrueresistance · Feb 17, 2012, 5:54 PM

Hey does anyone know what cpu socket a x700 uses? I'm guessing the 370. I am looking for a cpu cooler that is a little less noisy http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835230002

stephenw10 · Feb 17, 2012, 7:52 PM

Yes it's a socket 370. There is very limited space though, that's why Watchguard used a radial fan.
I have thought about using a heatpipe style cooling solution from a laptop perhaps?

Steve

m4f1050 · Feb 22, 2012, 4:16 AM

Finished product, working 802.11g Access Point (FreeBSD 8.1) and hopefully 802.11n on FreeBSD 9 if it's ever released.

stephenw10 · Mar 9, 2012, 2:07 AM

My X-Core box is failing, when I switch it on the arm/disarm led flashes green and it doesn't post.
While looking for any information on what it might be trying to tell me I cam across a couple of interesting things.
Firstly the X-Core box is pretty much identical to the fw-6650, an appliance that is marketed by various companies, e.g.
www.delvingware.com/webservices/medialibrary/media/datasheets/FW-6650-1.pdf

Secondly the motherboard in that box is the MB-X66 (the X-Core board is labled WG-X66A) but I can't find anything about that. However there is some information available on the MB-X67. A user manual is available here:
http://wenku.baidu.com/view/e04f207831b765ce05081465.html
It is an almost identical board but uses Intel NICs instead of Realtek. All the pinouts are listed and all the jumpers explained.
It looks like it might be possible to download the pdf from there but my Chinese is very bad!

No help with my led though. ::)

Steve