WatchGuard x1000 no booting after power reset

mlucas

Hello All,

I was able to install the 2.15 Release,512mb,i386,nanobsd version onto my WatchGuard x1000. I accessed the console via Putty and setup the WAN and LAN ports, then was able to get into the Web GUI and finish the setup. It was working fine and accessing the internet.

However, after the power was cycled on the device, the box powers on, the two ports have green lights, but I can not get a DHCP ip to log into the Web UI or access the console.

The only way around this is to flash the CF card again and start the install process all over.

Any suggestion on why the device is hanging after a power reset?

Thank you,
Michael

stephenw10

Hmm, is the console working? Did you change the console baud rate to workaround the serial port quirk?

Most likely reason it doesn't come back up is that it's waiting at the interface setup screen. That happens if an interface is removed or changes name for some reason or if the box can't access the config file.
Do you have any special config options? Did you ever run 2.0.X on the box?

Steve

mlucas

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the quick reply.

I did not do anything major in the way of config. I got as far as a WAN and LAN setup one ethernet ports 0 and 1. The traffic was flowing fine.

I made the change to the boot config to fix the console access issue on at 9600 baud.

The UI told me it would reboot after one config change. When that happened, the device did not come back up after 10 minutes. So, I powered it off in hopes that a hard reset would work.

I could try going down to 2.0 to see if that is any better.

I also found a couple of notes on the x750 saying the bios needs to be flashed to support the 512mb CF cards:

http://documentation.dbernhardt.com/pfsense/article.html

Thanks,
Michael

stephenw10

That article is refering to the X-e boxes but doesn't make it clear. The X750e is a completely different platform to the X700 or X1000 like yours.
I can't think what config change would require a reboot. Maybe changing the console speed would. How did you change it?
What was the console showing when it failed to reboot?

Steve

mlucas

Hi Steve,

I followed the instructions from the pfsense site:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_on_Watchguard_Firebox

The serial port "fix" was under the "Serial Port Quirk" heading.

Thanks,
Michael

stephenw10

Ok, that perhaps needs updating now that most people are running 2.1.
Did you change the console speed in the webgui (the recommended way in 2.1) or by adding to loader.config.local?

Was there nothing on the serial console after you rebooted? Did you change the serial terminal to the new speed?

Steve

mlucas

Started from scratch again with a clean CF and v2.1 (pfSense-2.1-RELEASE-512mb-i386-nanobsd.img.gz). The install went just like before and worked great.

Ran through the setup wizard in the UI and now can I cycle the power and it will boot and come back up to a running state.

I have two issues:

1. If the firewall wants to reboot after a config change, or if I select reboot from the menu, I hear the shut down tones come from the box, but then it seems to hang and I have to power the box off and back on.

2. After the firewall has finished booting, the console is frozen. I don't see the menu and if I close my terminal (Putty) connection and reopen it, I can not get the console back.

Any suggestions or RTFM you can point me to?

Thanks,
Michael

stephenw10

1. This stems from the fact that the psu is not atx compatible. There was some discussion of this the main x700 thread. Try doing 'shutdown -r now' at the console. Does it reboot?

2. This sounds like the 'serial quirk'. You see all the bootup messages until 'bootup complete' and then nothing. Changing the board rate through the webgui should fix this. Is that what you already tried?

Steve

mlucas

I will give the serial port speed change via the UI and see if that gets me into the Console.
If that works, I will try the shutdown command.

Thanks,
Michael

mlucas

Ok, we are in business!

I updated the serial port speed in the UI to 19200 and rebooted the box using Diagnostic -> Reboot menu. I was just about to power the box off when a courier arrived and took my attention away for 15 minutes. When I got back to my desk, the firewall had successfully rebooted and I can now see the console menu.

Next trick is to get the LCD panel and alert lights working.

Is it worth upgrading the memory from 256mb to 512mb? I saw on the boot screen something about disabling APC because the memory was under 512mb.

Thanks for your help on the Steve!

Michael

stephenw10

Upgrading the ram to 512MB will make it much more usable but finding a compatible module can be difficult. I've never tried it but there are some part numbers referenced in the x700 thread.

Steve