Thinking about using a firebox, some questions

VooDooswe

LOL I think I've may have been a little confused reading all these threads.

The x5500e and the x6000e is not the same hardware (which i thought)

Will i be able to use the other four interfaces or should i wait for pfsense 2.1? (I think you told me earlier that people had some problems with them because of a bug in freebsd).

stephenw10

Looks exactly the same as the X5500e I have here. It's an early model (I think) as it has all the headers populated which is nice. :)

The X6000 (no e) is an X-Peak model which is different.

Write the bios flashing CF card and get the bios info. It will almost certainly be the same as mine (all have been so far).

The bug for the further 4 interfaces exists in 2.0.1 as it's still built on FreeBSD 8.1. That said I have run it with no problems, it only ever showed up for me when I was testing the throughput. I've never had a problem with it when connected to 100TX device.

There are some early builds of 2.1 (now based on FreeBSD 8.3) available if you do have problems. Though these are snapshots for testing only, here: http://iserv.nl/files/pfsense/releng83/

Steve

VooDooswe

@stephenw10:

Looks exactly the same as the X5500e I have here. It's an early model (I think) as it has all the headers populated which is nice. :)

The X6000 (no e) is an X-Peak model which is different.

Write the bios flashing CF card and get the bios info. It will almost certainly be the same as mine (all have been so far).

The bug for the further 4 interfaces exists in 2.0.1 as it's still built on FreeBSD 8.1. That said I have run it with no problems, it only ever showed up for me when I was testing the throughput. I've never had a problem with it when connected to 100TX device.

There are some early builds of 2.1 (now based on FreeBSD 8.3) available if you do have problems. Though these are snapshots for testing only, here: http://iserv.nl/files/pfsense/releng83/

Steve

Now i've flashed the bios and everything just the intall left.
I cant get it to boot my Kingston 4gb cf card (elite pro 133x)
Which image should i use?
And can you check my uploaded file if my settings are correct.
//BR
Patrik

fb.jpg_thumb

stephenw10

Try the 2.0.1 image first. I use:
pfSense-2.0.1-RELEASE-1g-i386-nanobsd.img.gz
This works fine on a 4GB card (and takes a lot less time to write!)

Remember that the bios appears at 115200 baud but the serial output from pfSense is at 9600 so you have to change your serial terminal settings.

I have no idea what the settings for your card should be, the card geometry is defined by the manufacturer. However if you first auto detected it and then set it to manual changing only the heads to 2 it should work.

Steve

VooDooswe

Lol My bad :) i had it connected at 115200 :) then that was the problem since I saw the LEDs goinging crazy :) will try it tomorrow! Your help is very much appreciated.
Nite!
BR
Patrik

power_matz

@stephenw10:

They are socket 479, pretty much any Celeron-M or Pentium-M will fit. The standard CPU is a 1.3GHz Celeron. Everything I have fitted has worked but I've had best results with the 400MHz FSB Pentium-M chips. These are fully supported by the version of powerd that ships with pfSense 2.0.X so you get full advantage of Speedstep with it's reduced heat and power consumption.

Hi,

can both be used: sl8ba or sl6n5. Bothe are Pentium M 1,7 GHz…. with 400 MHZ FSB and 479 socket.

Matthias

stephenw10

Yes.
If you have the choice go for the SL8BA, it's a Dothan core which runs cooler and twice the amount of on board cache.

In case you didn't realise you have to set the jumpers (both sets) on the motherboard to select between Banias or Dothan.

Steve

power_matz

@stephenw10:

Yes.
If you have the choice go for the SL8BA, it's a Dothan core which runs cooler and twice the amount of on board cache.

In case you didn't realise you have to set the jumpers (both sets) on the motherboard to select between Banias or Dothan.

Steve

I assume that this is discribed here in the forum, isn't it? You mean the jumpers an the side of the cpu socket?

OK, found the trhead. But what do you mean with "both sets"?

stephenw10

There are two sets of (actually DIP switches) on the board. Both have to be set if you put a Dothan CPU in the box. One set is next to the CPU socket and the other is in the centre of the motherboard.

Steve

power_matz

Is there any need to configure the system (BIOS) to get all the benefits of the new faster CPU?

BTW: can I exchange the CPU in a Firebox X700?

stephenw10

No, there are no BIOS settings required for a different cpu, just the DIP switches.

The CPU in the X700 can be swapped, quite a few users have done this. You can fit up to a 1.4GHz Tualatin Pentium 3.

Steve

corvey

@power_matz:

@stephenw10:

Yes.
If you have the choice go for the SL8BA, it's a Dothan core which runs cooler and twice the amount of on board cache.

In case you didn't realise you have to set the jumpers (both sets) on the motherboard to select between Banias or Dothan.

Steve

I assume that this is discribed here in the forum, isn't it? You mean the jumpers an the side of the cpu socket?

OK, found the trhead. But what do you mean with "both sets"?

I'm confused because people keep talking about the x5500 peak.

I just bought a plain Firebox x750e, and I want to upgrade the cpu to the lower powered POWERD functions so should I buy a SL8BA for the cpu upgrade and it will work for my x750e with only a couple of switch settings, correct? Exactly what type of DDR 400 ram NON-ECC or ECC get because I'm gonna order that, too.

Also, am I'm going to need a CF writer for my windows machine to burn a fresh Pfsense CF card for the x750e and will SanDisk SDCFH-004G-A11 do?

Thanks so much,
corvey

stephenw10

See my reply in the x550e thread.
Additionally, yes you will need a CF reader of some type to flash the image. The 4GB Sandisk card should be fine. Consider that there is very little point spending more on a faster card. It will only reduce your bootup time marginally. Once booted pfSense runs almost entirely from ram.

Steve

corvey

@stephenw10:

Quoting myself. ::)
@stephenw10:

Everything I have tried has worked, this board is not fussy.

CPUs:
SL6N7 1.3GHz Banias Celeron-M (original cpu)
SL7GL 1.5GHz Dothan Pentium-M
SL7EP 1.7GHz Dothan Pentium-M

CF:
4GB Transend
2GB Sony

Ram:
2X 1GB Nanya 6400 DDR2 (cheapest I could find on Ebay!)

Those are the components I have actually tried myself. I would expect any Pentium-M or Celeron-M to work, SL8BA should work fine. The only thing to consider is that you need to use a cpu that is directly supported by the est(4) driver in order to use speedstep (via powerd). This is because the BIOS provides no speedstep information via acpi as it would do in a laptop for example. Only the 400MHz FSB pentium-M processors are supported:

static cpu_info ESTprocs[] = {
	INTEL(PM17_130,		1700, 1484, 600, 956, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM16_130,		1600, 1484, 600, 956, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM15_130,		1500, 1484, 600, 956, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM14_130,		1400, 1484, 600, 956, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM13_130,		1300, 1388, 600, 956, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM13_LV_130,	1300, 1180, 600, 956, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM12_LV_130,	1200, 1180, 600, 956, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM11_LV_130,	1100, 1180, 600, 956, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM11_ULV_130,	1100, 1004, 600, 844, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM10_ULV_130,	1000, 1004, 600, 844, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_765A_90,	2100, 1340, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_765B_90,	2100, 1324, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_765C_90,	2100, 1308, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_765E_90,	2100, 1356, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_755A_90,	2000, 1340, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_755B_90,	2000, 1324, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_755C_90,	2000, 1308, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_755D_90,	2000, 1276, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_745A_90,	1800, 1340, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_745B_90,	1800, 1324, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_745C_90,	1800, 1308, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_745D_90,	1800, 1276, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_735A_90,	1700, 1340, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_735B_90,	1700, 1324, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_735C_90,	1700, 1308, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_735D_90,	1700, 1276, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_725A_90,	1600, 1340, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_725B_90,	1600, 1324, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_725C_90,	1600, 1308, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_725D_90,	1600, 1276, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_715A_90,	1500, 1340, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_715B_90,	1500, 1324, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_715C_90,	1500, 1308, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_715D_90,	1500, 1276, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_778_90,	1600, 1116, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_758_90,	1500, 1116, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_738_90,	1400, 1116, 600, 988, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_773G_90,	1300,  956, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_773H_90,	1300,  940, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_773I_90,	1300,  924, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_773J_90,	1300,  908, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_773K_90,	1300,  892, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_773L_90,	1300,  876, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_753G_90,	1200,  956, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_753H_90,	1200,  940, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_753I_90,	1200,  924, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_753J_90,	1200,  908, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_753K_90,	1200,  892, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_753L_90,	1200,  876, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_733JG_90,	1100,  956, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_733JH_90,	1100,  940, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_733JI_90,	1100,  924, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_733JJ_90,	1100,  908, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_733JK_90,	1100,  892, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_733JL_90,	1100,  876, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_733_90,	1100,  940, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),
	INTEL(PM_723_90,	1000,  940, 600, 812, INTEL_BUS_CLK),

I have only ever tried up to 2GB of ram, I think I have previously said the chipset won't support more but there is often bad info on this stuff. It's standard non-ecc ddr2. You almost certainly won't need more than 2GB anyway.
Watchguard's X****-e boxes all have the same board. The above applies to them all. The peak-e was originally far more expensive, hardly ever appears on ebay and offers no advantage for pfSense really.
Core duo will definitely not work. 32bit only I'm afraid.

Steve

Thank you, Steve. I never used CF before, only USB sticks. So I guess I'm going to have to buy one of those, too. I just purchased this one as it was dirt cheap:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200708277134?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

I don't think 64bit is needed anyway and I take it that there are no dual core cpus are available for this x750e model, then. The reason I ask is because I saw some 478 pin Pentium-M dual core versions. A single core 1.7ghz should be strong enough for my needs. It's a must that that I get a cpu with speedstep though because I am concerned with power usage. That SL8BA is the best I can get with speedstep for this Firebox x750e? Any better model numbers for these mobile cpus, like one with a 4 or 8meg cache or HT perhaps?

stephenw10

There are faster compatible cpus. The Pentium-M 765 is probably the best you could get at 2.1GHz. However they almost never appear for sale and they command a very high price when they do. Just not worth it.
Although there are dual core cpus that phisically fit and are basically two pentium-m chips in one package they aren't electrically compatible.
If power is your highest priority there are low power and ultra low power pentium-m cpus but I've never seen one that is socketed, though it seems they may have been available:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Pentium_M_microprocessors

Steve

corvey

What about this SL7F3, it is 1.4ghz with only TDP 10 watts for 10 bucks on Ebay… It even has speedstep. Do you think it'll be strong enough and will work with the x750e? All of those other low powered ones they want like between 50 to 130 bucks for them; that's crazy.

stephenw10

It should work. I.e. the voltage regulator on the board has to be able to go down to those low voltages but that shouldn't be a problem. It may not be any actual power saving over a standard Pentium-M. If you look at the voltage it's not any lower that some other CPUs, it's the high voltage that is lower. If your chip is running at idle most of the time (like mine is) then this may not save power. It would be interesting to find out though.
It will be faster than the standard Celeron CPU. It's clocked higher, has more cache and more recent core revision.

This would depend on you being able to get this CPU in a Socket 479 package and NOT a FC-µBGA. Personally I have never seen a LV Pentium-M that wasn't soldered to the board.

Steve

corvey

Ah dang.. That cpu I was looking at is bga and not a socket type, crap.

corvey

Steve:

Hey, you said you have the x750e down to 22 watts at idle here:

http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,37022.0.html

That's exactly what I'm looking to do to with mine and that sounds like great news to me. So this is possible? What exactly were your steps to obtain this, did you buy a PicoPSU or something? Which CPU code number are you running with?

stephenw10

That was using a Chinese dc-dc power supply, like a picoPSU but bigger.
http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,20095.msg170839/topicseen.html#msg170839

Steve