PfSense on Maxspeed Maxterm 8300 - problems - need advice

murugan

Hi Steve,
Thank you for the reply and the suggestion - I will try the vga image.
The previous images and non-boot problems I have related are with the images booting off the Maxspeed 8300 and connected to a Win XP SP2 box with a null modem cable and a PuTTY terminal (9600 8 N 1 - I could go higher but I thought the higher baud rates may complicate my link).
I will post back - also the boot photographs that I took
Thanks for all the help.

stephenw10

Ah well that's probably not the problem then.
Looks like you're doing everything right. :-\

Steve

dLockers

Hi.

I have a 4GB CompactFlash card installed into a MaxTerm 8300B.

I had to use Ubuntu linux in a virtual machine to get the image to write correctly.

Then you have to boot PfSense in safemode.

Then add to your config a little line to fix the read_dma error.

murugan

@dLockers:

Hi.
I have a 4GB CompactFlash card installed into a MaxTerm 8300B.
I had to use Ubuntu linux in a virtual machine to get the image to write correctly.
Then you have to boot PfSense in safemode.
Then add to your config a little line to fix the read_dma error.

Do you happen to know what the line should read? Better still, do you have a sample config file I can use to get me started - I'm using the same hardware you are using except that I've switched to a 512Mb CF but I do have a 4GB Sandisk Ultra if that will work.
I've tried "no_dma" with no success - also disabling the DMA in the BIOS doesn't seem to help.

How does the pfSense work on the Maxterm 8300? Well, OK, good, very good, excellent?
Also want to know if you overclocked the cpu in the BIOS - the 8300B has a C3 670MHz VIA processor - although the CPU reports as C3 1 Giga on boot. The BIOS does give the option (by multiplier) to overclock and was curious if thsi affected performance. It was on my list of experiments.
Thanks for your help.

fullstop

@murugan:

@dLockers:

Hi.
I have a 4GB CompactFlash card installed into a MaxTerm 8300B.
I had to use Ubuntu linux in a virtual machine to get the image to write correctly.
Then you have to boot PfSense in safemode.
Then add to your config a little line to fix the read_dma error.

Do you happen to know what the line should read? Better still, do you have a sample config file I can use to get me started - I'm using the same hardware you are using except that I've switched to a 512Mb CF but I do have a 4GB Sandisk Ultra if that will work.
I've tried "no_dma" with no success - also disabling the DMA in the BIOS doesn't seem to help.

How does the pfSense work on the Maxterm 8300? Well, OK, good, very good, excellent?
Also want to know if you overclocked the cpu in the BIOS - the 8300B has a C3 670MHz VIA processor - although the CPU reports as C3 1 Giga on boot. The BIOS does give the option (by multiplier) to overclock and was curious if thsi affected performance. It was on my list of experiments.
Thanks for your help.

murugan,

I just set up a pfSense box on a maxterm 3300, which I believe is the same as the 8300 but it originally shipped with linux and had a smaller stock CF card.

Here's what you need to do:

Pick option 7 at boot time. I think it says "escape to loader" or something like that. At the prompt there, enter:

set hw.ata.ata_dma=0
boot

After this, pfSense will boot and avoid the DMA timeouts you saw before.

Once it boots, get to a shell and do the following:

/etc/rc.conf_mount_rw
echo "hw.ata.ata_dma=0" >> /boot/loader.conf.local
/etc/rc.conf_mount_ro

After this, it should boot reliably every time.

I hope this helps.

murugan

Thanks fullstop.
In response to my other question, does the 3300 also have the overclock ability?
And have you tried it?

ceama

@murugan:

Thanks fullstop.
In response to my other question, does the 3300 also have the overclock ability?
And have you tried it?

First off thanks for all the help here getting my 8300b up and running. I did overclock mine by modifying the BIOS with modbin. I got mine to work well at 866 MHz (133 x 6.5). If anyone want the BIOS let me know. It is too big to upload here.

murugan

@ceama:

@murugan:

Thanks fullstop.
In response to my other question, does the 3300 also have the overclock ability?
And have you tried it?

First off thanks for all the help here getting my 8300b up and running. I did overclock mine by modifying the BIOS with modbin. I got mine to work well at 866 MHz (133 x 6.5). If anyone want the BIOS let me know. It is too big to upload here.

Thanks ceama.
Glad to know that there are other avenues to get my 8300b up and running at a faster speed.
I would appreciate your help on modbin and the bios for the 8300b - see my PM to you on both.
Murugan

rubantin

HELP!!!

I have a maxterm 8300. My XP has been corrupted and will not boot… Where can I get an ISO of the OS to reinstall?

murugan

@rubantin:

HELP!!!

I have a maxterm 8300. My XP has been corrupted and will not boot… Where can I get an ISO of the OS to reinstall?

There are no "ISOs" to reinstall the XP OS - the original OS was XP Embedded.
Without knowing what the error message is, I cannot say if the OS is corrupted - it's very hard to corrupt the OS as it is EWF enabled (mostly).
Also: You cannot reinstall XP Embedded by an ISO - You need to flash the CF (Compact Flash card) with an image. I don't know what model you have (8300, 8300B, etc) - it should be on a sticker on the back. Also, when you boot, the opening screen will let you know the BIOS, CPU, RAM and CF size info - let me know what it says. I also don't know what size of CF you have installed - While booting up, press the "DEL" key to get into the BIOS setup. This should let you know what size of CF and the RAM you have installed. The RAM is not important but helpful.
The reason for wanting to know what the CPU and the CF is that each image for XP Embedded is built for a certain size of CF. You can flash a smaller size image to a larger CF but not the reverse.
Let me know on the error message to determine "corruption" and the other details I have listed above and maybe I can help you install a fresh image or repair the old one.

I am a little confused: This is a pfSense forum so XP doesn't appear to be relevant.
If your BSD OS (pfSense) is corrupted, it's an easy matter to reflash the CF with the original pfSense release (eg: 1.2.3) or upgrade to the last release (eg: pfSense-2.0.2-RELEASE-size-arch-nanobsd_vga.img.gz) if you have the USB Stick that you stored the conf files on and be back and running in a matter of an hour.

Please clarify if you need XP help or pfSense help.