PfSense on Watchguard hardware
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From East London? I was bidding on that! :P
It should work fine it looks like all standard X86 hardware, a customised Lanner box. I'd be interested in any details you can provide on that box. What NICs it has for example. Any encryption hardware.
Looking at the de-manufactutring document the CPU is a Q9400 quad core model so it could eat some Watts. Also the standard PSU looks to be a 270W unit so I'd be careful with a PicoPSU. I can't see how it could use 270W though. :-\Steve
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I think it came from South London, looks like I beat you by a pound ;)
I hope it doesn't consume 270w! I was after something low powered. The heatsink is a huge copper affair :-\
Gonna plug in a normal 500w pc psu and see how that goes.
There is a unused PCI Bus header at the back on the left side of the motherboard.
The left 4 network ports are on daughter board which also has a Cavium Networks Nitrox PX CN1620 chip [[url=http://www.cavium.com/pdfFiles/NITROX_PX_PB_Rev1.3.pdf]http://www.cavium.com/pdfFiles/NITROX_PX_PB_Rev1.3.pdf]
Daughterboard connects via a PCI Express 16x connecter.1x VGA marked up on the board near CPU/Chipset - 11 pin header.
1x KB/Mouse marked up on the board near LCD ribbon connector - 6pin header.
1x SPI-ROM 10pin header
1x Sata connector on the board, next to it is a SunplusIT SATALINK SPIF223A-HF022 ic.
1x COM2 header connected to rear serial port.
Also COM1 and USB2.0 marked up on the board but no headers soldered in.
3x CPU fan headers at the rear.
1x case fan heared at the rear.
2x DDR2 Slots - 1 populated, board marked DDR2 800
10x LAN ports:- Mainboard 5x Intel 82573L NIC + 1 NIC same as daughterboard ones below
- Daughtboard 4x Intel NIC however very difficult to make out the numbers looks like 82574L or 82674L
Markings near CPU socket - FSB 1333 and MB-8750 WG1 V1.1
LCD Display sticker: VITEK DISPLAY VC220W-GGE-JC01. PCB marking 202W-REVS.1
No network relays on the boards - although solder pads and markings are there.
I've taken some pictures, how best is it to put them up on here?
Eamon
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It would probably be best to start a new thread for the XTM8 series. Have a read through the XTM5 thread or the X-peak thread to see what sort of information is useful, though all information is good. :) You can attach pictures up to 250k directly to the posts or host them yourself and link to them. I don't think you'll have much company there for a while at least. I'll certainly offer anything I can.
I doubt it will draw more than 150W absolute peak, mostly no where near that. You can almost certainly swap out the cpu for something a lot less hot if you need to. It may be they needed a relatively large PSU to get the required 3.3V current in that box it probably uses almost nothing at 12V and not much 5V.
I'm glad it went to a pfSense user. :)
Steve
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I think you need a few more posts before you can attach pictures. But when making a post in the editor it is under Advanced Options to the left and at the bottom.
:)
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Sure will do.
The info is useful for the hardware article I guess.
Seems to power up ok on a standard PC PSU - LCD reads WG Bios V1.2. Just need a CF card to boot off now.
I've already read the XTM5 thread but I'll have a look at the X-peak one you've sugested.
This unit will beat the pants off the dual PIII I was setting up for pfSense recently :P
Eamon
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I think you need a few more posts before you can attach pictures. But when making a post in the editor it is under Advanced Options to the left and at the bottom.
:)
Thanks for the info :)
Eamon
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If I take some high quality pictures of the internals of my x500/x550e/x750e/x1250e and
host them permanently somewhere would you be interested in linking to them? I know all the
x-core-e models are identical except for the additional ports but it's nice to have them to compare.Also it would be helpful to add any size restrictions for the x500/etc CF card and the fact
you can just write a CF and boot it. -
I agree pictures would be good, I have been meaning to add some myself. I haven't investigated it but I would think it preferable to store any pictures on the docs server if possible.
I haven't found a card that wouldn't boot in the X-Core. I've tried 2GB and 4GB cards. I guess since it's fairly old hardware it might have trouble with a very large CF card with an odd geometry.The existing wording is:
Booting from CF
The X-Core will boot one of the 32bit NanoBSD images written to a CF card and put in the slot. It will boot using the front serial port as console. No configuration is necessary to boot the new card.That seems reasonable to me but since I wrote it I guess it would! ::) What do you suggest?
Steve
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Jezzz… I swear I read that section a few times and did not get it. Either I must be getting stupid or maybe
it sounds clear now that I know you can use any size card. Maybe just add "Any size CF card will boot, no
BIOS changes needed." just in case it's not me being dense.Booting from CF
The X-Core will boot one of the 32bit NanoBSD images written to a CF card and put in the slot. It will boot using the front serial port as console. No configuration is necessary to boot the new card. -
I have added something about bios settings and card size. Although I haven't read any reports of cards that were too big or some odd geometery I could imagine that might be the case.
What do you think?Steve
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I have been running a x750e for the last year without too many issues thanks to all the great info on these forums. I wish this comprehensive guide would have been available when i first started.
I just got my wiki account established so i can start to contribute, but hesitated to edit anything out of respect for all the work you put into this guide. I think some pictures would make this one of the best guides on the net for the firebox! I'm willing to help with this page, but wanted to to get your OK first.
I do see one area under X-Core-e that could use some clarification:
The X-Core-e boxes share most hardware. The X750e and X1250e are identical whilst the X550e does not have the daughter board that provides 4 additional NICs.
4X Marvell 88e8001 Gigabit NICs, sk(4) driver.
4X Marvell 88e8053 Gigabit NICs, msk(4) driver.This should be clarified to indicate that the X550e only has 10/100 ports.
Maybe some tables similar to page 11 of the manual would help? http://www.watchguard.com/help/docs/v83FireboxeSeriesHardwareGuide.pdf
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Yes I need to get my finger out and add some pictures. ::)
The X550e shares the same motherboard as the X750e and x1250e and as such has 4 Gigabit NICs. The 10/100 limit stated by Watchguard is a software restriction, I assume, when running the Watchguard OS. Watchguard uses this to differentiate between it's models and allow for upgrading across model types via software only. pfSense has no such restrictions. :)
Are you running lcdproc at all? How are you running it? I'm planning to add that section detailing the different ways to run it and recommending the hybrid startup setup I detailed here: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,7920.msg344513.html#msg344513 It's working perfectly for me but I've only had one other report, it was positive. I don't want to add any potentially bad info.
Steve
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Thanks for setting me straight on the X550e ports. I had no idea that watchguard used software to restrict them to 10/100! My offer to help with the wiki stands even if you want to review possible changes first.
Yes i installed lcdproc dev 0.5.6 from the package menu in pfsense 2.0.3. I have had problems with it not starting reliably and crashing out randomly. I doesn't affect the operation of the firewall, but i wanted to look into the cause. If i manually start it after the firebox boots, it seems to work for a while. Days later i'll look and see that it crashed again. The front panel buttons don't work at all for me on this version.
Aug 20 18:31:09 php: lcdproc: Too many errors, the client ends.
Aug 20 18:31:09 php: lcdproc: Failed to connect to LCDd process Operation timed out (60)
Aug 20 18:31:08 php: lcdproc: Too many errors, the client ends.
Aug 20 18:31:08 php: lcdproc: Failed to connect to LCDd process Operation timed out (60)
Aug 20 18:31:06 apinger: Error while feeding rrdtool: Broken pipe
Aug 20 18:30:58 php: lcdproc: Start client procedure. Error counter: (3)
Aug 20 18:30:58 php: lcdproc: Failed to connect to LCDd process Operation timed out (60)
Aug 20 18:30:57 php: lcdproc: Start client procedure. Error counter: (3)
Aug 20 18:30:57 php: lcdproc: Failed to connect to LCDd process Operation timed out (60)
Aug 20 18:30:47 php: lcdproc: Start client procedure. Error counter: (2)
Aug 20 18:30:47 php: lcdproc: Failed to connect to LCDd process Operation timed out (60)
Aug 20 18:30:46 php: lcdproc: Start client procedure. Error counter: (2)
Aug 20 18:30:46 php: lcdproc: Failed to connect to LCDd process Operation timed out (60)
Aug 20 18:30:36 php: lcdproc: Start client procedure. Error counter: (1)
Aug 20 18:30:36 php: lcdproc: Failed to connect to LCDd process Operation timed out (60)
Aug 20 18:30:35 php: lcdproc: Start client procedure. Error counter: (1)
Aug 20 18:30:35 php: lcdproc: Failed to connect to LCDd process Operation timed out (60)
Aug 20 18:30:25 php: lcdproc: Start client procedure. Error counter: (0)
Aug 20 18:30:24 php: lcdproc: Start client procedure. Error counter: (0)
Aug 20 18:30:24 LCDd: Critical error while initializing, abort.
Aug 20 18:30:24 LCDd: sock_init: error creating socket - Address already in use
Aug 20 18:30:24 LCDd: sock_create_inet_socket: cannot bind to port 13666 at address 127.0.0.1 - Address already in use
Aug 20 18:30:24 LCDd: Using Configuration File: /usr/local/etc/LCDd.conf
Aug 20 18:30:24 LCDd: LCDd version 0.5.6 starting -
I have an X550e but I have only ever run pfSense on it. I had no idea they were ever anything but Gigabit until you pointed me at that table! That does clarify some questions from others though. Perhaps we should add something specifically mentioning that if people aren't choosing the X550e believing it isn't Gigabit.
It's very frustrating that the lcdproc-dev package doesn't start correctly, more so that it's only a problem with the sdeclcd driver. I've spent a good number of hours trying various changes and failed to get anywhere. The lcdproc client is a php script and it occasionally craps out for some reason. The original lcdproc package had a shell script that run to keep the client running but we removed it as it looked pointless. Wrong! In 2.1 there is a time limit for all php processes unless the are started especially to avoid it so that would also be an issue. Running the standard lcdproc client from shellcmd avoids all that, it's worked perfectly for me so far.
Interesting that you say the cursors buttons don't work for you. Do you know if they work at all? I have noticed that I'm running 0.5.5 on at least one box but 0.5.6 on others. All working fine. The driver hasn't changed in that time.
I'd be interested in your experience trying the hybrid method. Does it run for you? Are those instructions sufficient?Because I've been looking into this stuff for so long now it's hard for me to imagine what it must be like to try and do this for the first time, what information is needed and what is unnecessary and confusing. Right now the greatest help would be to read through the page with fresh eyes and spot what I got wrong.
I have examples of all the models here for photographic purposes I just have to arrange them suitably. I'm not really setup for product photography! ;) I'm sure I'll manage something.Steve
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Steve,
I can tell you from my experience that i believed that the x550e was only 10/100 because that's what the firebox manual said. When i bought my first firebox i purposely stayed away from buying a x550e for that reason alone. I talked with several other firebox owners and they all had the same misconception that i did. The wiki should somehow indicate that the x550e is indeed capable of gigabit with pfsense in spite of what the firebox manual states.
The front buttons on my x750e have worked in the past. I had forgotten that the lcd driver and configs did not stick before i upgraded to 2.0.3. I'll try your fix and see what happens. I have often thought about replacing the LCD with something faster, more capable, and more reliable. I wouldn't mind for the backlight to stay on, but have read about its often limited life.
I'll start looking over the wiki, and let you know if i see anything else. BTW, i just bought a x550e tonight!
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Steve,
I was going to try your fixes for lcdproc, but mine has been crash free now for about 6 days. It even starts properly upon boot. I have been rebooting the firebox everyday in an attempt to break it, but it seems solid now.
I did uninstall and re-install the package, but other than that i didn't do anything else. Have you noticed any change in yours?
Mike
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The boxes I have running currently are all using the shellcmd start method.
There have been some developments recently that may help this situation, I commented in the lcdproc-dev thread. I'm not holding out much hope.
Do you have the standard CPU in your x750e? Are you running 2.0.3?Steve
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I'm noticing the Marvel 88e8001 NICs aren't listed in the FreeBSD hardware compatibility, they work OK on the X-Core-e models?
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Yes, they work fine supported by the sk(4) driver. They're PCI though so that limits them.
Steve
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Hi,
As the Bios iso still valid? Tried downloading, looks too small a file (1 MB) and physdiskwrite.exe would fail. Tried another Bios.iso (8MB) and physdisk would succeed.
Thanks
