WatchGuard x750e Hard drive install
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Did you try my suggestion?: ufs:/dev/ad1s1a
Steve
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Indeed
mountroot> ufs:/dev/ad1s1a Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ad1s1a Loader variables: vfs.root.mountfrom=ufs:/dev/ad0s1a vfs.root.mountfrom.options=rw Manual root filesystem specification: <fstype>:<device>Mount <device>using filesystem <fstype>eg. ufs:/dev/da0s1a eg. cd9660:/dev/acd0 This is equivalent to: mount -t cd9660 /dev/acd0 / ? List valid disk boot devices <empty line="">Abort manual input t mountroot>t</empty></fstype></device></device></fstype>However no success as of yet :'(
So what next batman?
Neil
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Hmm, well try ad1s1b since that's the only other likely thing listed.
Otherwise it's back to bat cave for testing! ;)Steve
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I take it this is the root cause,
ad0: Intel check1 failed GEOM: new disk ad0 ad0: Adaptec check1 failed ad0: LSI (v3) check1 failed ad0: LSI (v2) check1 failed ad0: FreeBSD check1 failed ata0: DMA limited to UDMA33, controller found non-ATA66 cable ad1: setting UDMA33 ad1: 28615MB <ic25n030atmr04 0="" moaoad0a="">at ata0-slave UDMA33 ad1: 58605120 sectors [58140C/16H/63S] 16 sectors/interrupt 1 depth queue ad1: Intel check1 failed ad1: Adaptec check1 failed ad1: LSI (v3) check1 failed ad1: LSI (v2) check1 failed ad1: FreeBSD check1 failed ata1: Identifying devices: 00000000 ata1: New devices: 00000000</ic25n030atmr04> -
No I don't think so though info on that seems to be sparse. I think that's just FreeBSD checking for specific hardware that would require some sort of quirky handling. If you remove verbose boot logging I imagine that would not appear.
Does your harddrive have it's real geometry written on it? Does it agree with either the BIOS or the pfSesne boot log?I.e. The cause is more likely:
ad1: 58605120 sectors [58140C/16H/63S] 16 sectors/interrupt 1 depth queue GEOM: new disk ad1 GEOM: ad1s1: geometry does not match label (15h,63s != 16h,63s).So it is having a problem mounting ad1s1 (a or b)
Steve
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Does your harddrive have it's real geometry written on it? Does it agree with either the BIOS or the pfSesne boot log?
Im afraid your going to have to dumb this down, its not any of that fake geometry malarkey
**** BIOS Ver.ETAC0017 mod V1.3 console 115200 on com1 **** IDE Channel 0 Master : SanDisk SDCFJ-256 HDX 4.06 IDE Channel 0 Slave : IC25N030ATMR04-0 MOAOAD0A Phoenix Technologies, LTD System Configurations +==============================================================================+ | CPU Type : Genuine Intel(R) processor Base Memory : 640K | | CPU ID/uco: 0695/45 Extended Memory : 515072K | | CPU Clock : 1.30GHz Cache Memory : 512K | |------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Pri. Master Disk : LRG,PIO 4, 256MB Display Type : EGA/VGA | | Pri. Slave Disk : LRG,PIO 4,30007MB Serial Port(s) : 3F8 2F8 | | Sec. Master Disk : None Parallel Port(s) : 378 | | Sec. Slave Disk : None DDR2 at Bank(s) : 0 | +==============================================================================+ PCI device listing ... Bus No. Device No. Func No. Vendor/Device Class Device Class IRQ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 2 0 8086 2592 0300 Display Cntrlr 11 0 29 0 8086 2658 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI Cntrlr 9 0 29 1 8086 2659 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI Cntrlr 10 0 29 2 8086 265A 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI Cntrlr 5 0 29 3 8086 265B 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI Cntrlr 11 0 29 7 8086 265C 0C03 USB 2.0 EHCI Cntrlr 9 0 31 3 8086 266A 0C05 SMBus Cntrlr 10 1 0 0 11AB 4362 0200 Network Cntrlr 11 2 0 0 11AB 4362 0200 Network Cntrlr 12 3 0 0 11AB 4362 0200 Network Cntrlr 5 4 0 0 11AB 4362 0200 Network Cntrlr 10 5 0 0 11AB 4320 0200 Network Cntrlr 11 5 1 0 11AB 4320 0200 Network Cntrlr 12 5 2 0 11AB 4320 0200 Network Cntrlr 5 5 3 0 11AB 4320 0200 Network Cntrlr 10 5 4 0 177D 0003 1000 En/Decryption Cntrlr 11Surely its somethiing daft that i have done, i may well end up keeping the CF install i have…...
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About the only other thing I am seeing commonly in FreeBSD problem threads are odd problems caused by a bad cable. How have you attached the drive?
Just a bad drive? That Hitachi must quite old by now. :-\I think I'm going to have to pull out an old laptop drive and give this a go myself. I've only tried it once, it was a long while ago and I only did it as an experiment. I don't remember it being too difficult though.
Steve
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You know what the jumper on the drive protrudes a little pit causing the IDE -> Whatever FB converter to be a little insecure (well not as tight as it could be) be right back after i have snippered it.
also i have another drive to try
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Hmm,
Nope I can't make it boot from the HD. :-
The best result I had was booting to the mountroot> prompt but the drive, ad1, wasn't detected. That was either with the setting carried over from the 2GB CF I had been using where it was detected as primary master but much smaller capacity. Or when the jumper on the drive set to slave and a CF card in the slot.
I was sure I had booted from a HD before. Maybe it was on a different Watchguard box. :-
Other users have done it successfully though. I'll have to read back through the very long thread to see if anyone posted specifics.Steve
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Success! :D but weird behaviour. :P
Ok so I have an X750e that can, reliably and repeatedly, boot from a HD connected via the rear drive bay caddy connector.
Here's what I did:
Put the drive in a laptop and boot the laptop from the pfSense 2.0.1 i386 install CD.
Select straight to install and the prompt (I), choose the default settings for everything and the SMP kernel (the standard kernel).
Boot the laptop into pfSense and setup one interface sufficient that you can reach the webgui.
In the webgui enable serial port console in System: Advanced: Admin Access:
Could you do those steps from the CLI negating any hassles with laptop NICs? Probably.
Shut down the laptop and tranfer the drive to the Watchguard box.
In order for the drive to boot at all it must be set as slave using the drive jumpers. Cable select doesn't work.
There must be a CF card in the slot. I used a random <512MB card. I haven't tried a larger card.
In the bios set everything on both drives to auto and make sure harddisk boot priority is set to the detected slave HD.
Boot the box. You will see that the green 'Storage' LED stays lit far longer than usual.
Now here's the weird part: you must select verbose boot (option 6) at the menu. The default boot won't correctly detect the HD as ad1.
When it fails at the mountroot> enter ufs:/dev/ad1s1a
The box should boot correctly from here, mine does.
When it has booted you must edit /etc/fstab and change the references to ad0 to ad1. You can do that either via the edit file page in the webgui or from the command line using: ee /etc/fstab (or vi if you're a masochist).
In order to make it boot verbose every time you need to add boot_verbose="1" to /boot/loader.conf.local. You can do it easily from the command line:echo 'boot_verbose="1"' > /boot/loader.conf.localHaving done those steps my box boots from the HD every time but I'm at a loss to explain why. :-
This may be a clue: http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=20693
I think there are two separate quirks at work here: buggy bios and FreeBSD weirdness.
It's quite possible you could remove the CF card and set the drive as master as long as you have to right CHS settings. My drive initially booted when the BIOS still had the previous settings for a 4GB CF card. It seems possible that it will boot any drive as long as it appears less than 512MB.Steve
I am using a Toshiba 20GB drive, MK2018GAP. -
Having done those steps my box boots from the HD every time but I'm at a loss to explain why. :-\
It might not be relevant but due to the extra console output a verbose boot will proceed more slowly than a standard boot, possibly giving more time for hardware to get into the state anticipated by software.
Maybe the kern.cam.delay boot variable could be used to accomplish the same result.
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Good suggestion, didn't work. ::)
I was quite confident but no dice.
More research needed.Steve
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It's been awhile since I've done this and when I did it was still just 1.2.3 version. Really the easiest and less modification needing is if you can attach a CD drive and a video card/serial console and install it directly from the Firebox.
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Most X-Core-E boxes do not have the IDE header populated as far as I know. 1 out of 4 I've looked in.
Here's the dmesg.boot from a successful boot for anyone looking for clues.
Steve
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Hi Steve,
Thanks for this I will have a go tomorrow, and let you know how it goes.
Success! :D but weird behaviour. :P
Ok so I have an X750e that can, reliably and repeatedly, boot from a HD connected via the rear drive bay caddy connector.
Here's what I did:
Put the drive in a laptop and boot the laptop from the pfSense 2.0.1 i386 install CD.
Select straight to install and the prompt (I), choose the default settings for everything and the SMP kernel (the standard kernel).
Boot the laptop into pfSense and setup one interface sufficient that you can reach the webgui.
In the webgui enable serial port console in System: Advanced: Admin Access:
Could you do those steps from the CLI negating any hassles with laptop NICs? Probably.
Shut down the laptop and tranfer the drive to the Watchguard box.
In order for the drive to boot at all it must be set as slave using the drive jumpers. Cable select doesn't work.
There must be a CF card in the slot. I used a random <512MB card. I haven't tried a larger card.
In the bios set everything on both drives to auto and make sure harddisk boot priority is set to the detected slave HD.
Boot the box. You will see that the green 'Storage' LED stays lit far longer than usual.
Now here's the weird part: you must select verbose boot (option 6) at the menu. The default boot won't correctly detect the HD as ad1.
When it fails at the mountroot> enter ufs:/dev/ad1s1a
The box should boot correctly from here, mine does.
When it has booted you must edit /etc/fstab and change the references to ad0 to ad1. You can do that either via the edit file page in the webgui or from the command line using: ee /etc/fstab (or vi if you're a masochist).
In order to make it boot verbose every time you need to add boot_verbose="1" to /boot/loader.conf.local. You can do it easily from the command line:echo 'boot_verbose="1"' > /boot/loader.conf.localHaving done those steps my box boots from the HD every time but I'm at a loss to explain why. :-
This may be a clue: http://forums.freebsd.org/showthread.php?t=20693
I think there are two separate quirks at work here: buggy bios and FreeBSD weirdness.
It's quite possible you could remove the CF card and set the drive as master as long as you have to right CHS settings. My drive initially booted when the BIOS still had the previous settings for a 4GB CF card. It seems possible that it will boot any drive as long as it appears less than 512MB.Steve
I am using a Toshiba 20GB drive, MK2018GAP. -
Steve, wallabybob you have been complete gents this is now up and working :-) thank you.
I have quietened it down with WGXepc, i have a sort of working LCD display though it doesn't seem to be controllable but it looks better than "booting watch os",
Regards Neil
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Excellent. :)
Steve
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Just to follow up here I had some time to run a few further tests this afternoon.
I have found:
The bios will boot from a hard drive or CF card that is set as master as long as it sees it as less than 512MB. When I say boot I mean it correctly passes the address of the MBR to the processor and the pfSense (or whatever) bootloader is run.pfSense will not be able to correctly detect and mount root unless something resembling the correct geometry is passed to it. And then only when booted in verbose logging mode, which I still find just bizarre. :-\
The procedure I outlined earlier in this thread is the only way I have found to correctly boot pfSense on ans X-Core-e box.
It's strange because GEOM has not problem seeing and mounting rooting correctly from a large CF card even though you have to fudge the CHS figures to make it less than 512MB.
It would be very intersting to look inside a Watchguard SSL box (SSL100, 500 or 1000) to see how they did it. Those boxes have HDs but I'm unsure if they had a CF as well. They might have even had a fixed bios. ;)
Steve
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About the only other thing I am seeing commonly in FreeBSD problem threads are odd problems caused by a bad cable. How have you attached the drive?
Just a bad drive? That Hitachi must quite old by now. :-\I think I'm going to have to pull out an old laptop drive and give this a go myself. I've only tried it once, it was a long while ago and I only did it as an experiment. I don't remember it being too difficult though.
Steve
I'm Currently running PFsense full install on an 80Gb HDD in an X750e with NO CF card installed.
here's the steps that i took to get the system running.
load spare 80Gb HDD into a laptop (used a HP NC6120)
load pfsense full 2.0.1 cd and boot from cd.
I was presented with an error on boot up to press R to enter recovery console or press I to enter installer mode.
Press I to enter installer mode. Pfsense installer launched.
select defaults for the VGA and Keyboard options.
select quick/standard install of PFsense. accepted defaults all way through.
selected embedded kernel. no VGA or keyboard.
Pfsense requires reboot after install. At this point shut down clean and power off laptop.
remove HDD from laptop and confirm that drive is set as master.Flash bios as per Stephenw10's instructions. using X750eB6 bios image.
reset bios after flash via the cmos reset jumper on the board.
connect to firebox via serial cable 115000 8-n-1 no flow control.
press tab to enter bios and select the option to reset bios to defaults.
Shut down Firebox and install HDD
Power on Firebox and enter bios.
Select autodetect for HDD, and accept the findings. no changes made to heads or sectors.
at this point you can enter other parts of the bios and switch off devices that are not required, (eg com2 serial port parallel port etc)
DONT Disable com1 or you will loose your connection and will have to reset bios to defaults again to get back in.
Save changes and reboot box.connect via com port at 115200 to confirm HDD detected
At PCI device listing change com port to 9600 8n1
let Pfsense boot as normal.
initial configuration done through serial, then via web configuration page.Attached image showing storage devices attached to system.
hope this helps someone.
Colin
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Ah interesting.
Differences I can see between what you did and what I did:
You used the embedded kernel, I used the standard (SMP) kernel.
You disabled stuff in the bios, I didn't.I chose to use the standard kernel since most people who want to do a full install do so because they want to use all the packages. None of which are available with the embedded kernel. Why are you using a HD?
I may have to go back and test again. Thanks for your results.
Steve
