Successful Install on Watchguard Firebox X700!
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So you can see the bootup output from the watchguard OS via your cable?
What size cf card are you trying?Steve
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So you can see the bootup output from the watchguard OS via your cable?
What size cf card are you trying?Steve
no i don't see it on the watchguard boot up either but the watchguard boots up and the arm light turns green, and displays the uptime
i am using a 4GB card
thanks
Scalda
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Then you have a problem with your serial console setup. You should see something at 115200bps from the watchguard OS even if you're using a 3 wire serial cable.
In all likelihood the pfSense Nano images are booting ok and waiting at the initial interface setup menu.
You need to prove your serial setup with something.Steve
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I recently purchased a Watchguard Firebox X500 and a pre-configured 2GB CF card with pfSense 2.1 and the various fixes for the X-Core Fireboxes. The system booted fine with the CF card and I was able to configure the LAN port via serial connection and enable DHCP. I upgraded the CPU to the 1.4 GHz SL6C6 model and upgraded the memory to 512MB. However, only 256MB was recognized as it wasn't one of the recommended RAM modules. I also replaced the rear fans with the Scythe Mini KAZE fans. While trying to remove the original CPU I managed to snap off the plastic lever on the CPU socket. I was able to rotate the stub enough to lock the CPU down and then install a new heatsink and fan.
I purchased a cheap PCI graphics card and right-hand PCI riser so I could monitor the video output while it booted. Unfortunately, when I plugged in the video card the CPU fan would just click and not rotate and the unit would not boot. I removed the video card and riser and the unit failed to boot initially, although it did completely power on as before. After a while and numerous attempts it finally decided to boot so it appeared I was back in business.
I picked up a socket 370 to slot 1 CPU adapter that had a plastic lever and I was able to replace the broken one on the CPU socket. Since then, I have not been able to get the unit to boot. I don't think I damaged anything in the CPU socket as the top plate just snaps into place and slides back and forth when actuated by a cam on the lever. It powers on OK and the Arm/Disarm LED flashes green right from the start and never comes on red. The 10 Mbps and 100 Mbps LEDs for port 5 are off initially, but eventually both come on green. The LCD display just shows a series of black boxes.
I picked up a 2nd X500 on ebay and it arrived today. I upgraded the CPU and memory on that unit and installed the CF card from the non-booting unit. It booted up into pfSense with no problems. I disconnected the power supply cables from the mainboards on each unit and was able to connect the PSU from the bootable unit to the non-booting one and power it up. The result was the same.
I can only assume that the video card did something to the mainboard, but I don't see any fried components or smell anything that would indicate this occurred. I'm hesitant to try the video card in a PC for fear that it might cause damage.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.
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Did you set the arm/disarm light to be green in the BIOS? that's not the normal behaviour. My own X700 did something similar before failing completely. There have been several cases of bad capacitors in these boxes that prevented boot. They are all now quite old and most have seen many hours.
It could be a corrupted cmos bios data, have you tried resetting it?Steve
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I haven't done anything to the BIOS. I'm not even sure how to access it at this point. I see a jumper marked "CMOS" next to the battery. Do I remove the jumper or switch it to the other pins or what?
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Yep. To be sure, power of the box, remove the battery and move the jumper. Wait 30 seconds then put
it back.Steve
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OK, I tried that, but no change. I've tried reinstalling the original RAM, CPU, and CF card, but it still won't boot. I already tried swapping the power supplies, but that had no affect either. That pretty much leaves just the mainboard and the front panel circuits.
I didn't spend a fortune on this box, but I'd hate to see it go to waste. I picked up the 2nd X500 on ebay for just $26 plus shipping so at least I still have one working unit.
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I never recovered my box either but I ended up using the LCD from it in another unit. The PSUs can fail so that's also useful spare.
Steve
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I just picked up WatchGuard X750e off of Fleabay and working on getting extra parts for it. I've been thinking of trying out the SD to CF adapter since I have bunch of SD cards laying around. Even smaller one like 256MB that I can use to flash the BIOS with.
Anybody tried using it with the WG?
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The adapter and SD card would have to be capable of working in IDE mode in oreder to appear like a HD. I'm not sure it would, but I haven't tried it. ;)
The X750e is part of the next generation X-e boxes covered by a different thread. This thread is for the original X-Core boxes.Steve
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My bad. Thanks for pointing it out. :)
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Looks like I could be wrong about the SD-CF adapter though:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,69618.0.htmlSteve
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Is it safe to assume the fireboxes use type I CF cards (ie 3mm thick)?
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Yes, they're type 1 though people have run Microdrives so I guess type 2 would also fit if you could find any.
Steve
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Looks like I could be wrong about the SD-CF adapter though:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,69618.0.htmlSteve
Damn…I just ordered a couple of regular SanDisk 256MB and 4GB CF cards a few minutes ago. Ah well. No big deal. I spent alot of time googling and thought for sure it's a flat no on the SD to CF being bootable.
Need to find out which adapter he used.
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I'm not really sure where the problem lies, but I've tried to accommodate just about every individual aspect that I can think of to no avail.
I'm running (or at least trying to run) a Firebox Core x700. Originally, mine came with a 32MB CF and no HDD.
Following many different sets of instructions, I've tried writing the pfSense images to 1GB and smaller, all the way down to a 64MB card. (Trying not to overwrite the 32MB card, as I know it boots and it's near too small anyway.)
The system will not boot from it. The LCD shows an error. Only corrupt characters display vis serial console.
Tried different cards. Tried different image writing utilities. Tried terminal in Linux and Mac OS X. No luck.
Tried the same with some really small 2GB and 6GB IDE laptop drives. No luck.
Tried changing the master / slave jumper with the HDD test. No luck.
Tried many different Null Modem cables and literally every setting combination I could think of for HyperTerm on XP. No luck.
The system boots ok and LCD says it's ok too when using the original Watchguard CF.
My 1GB CF would be ideal to start with, as it's the biggest on hand.
About the only thing I've not confirmed is the pinout of a known working Null Modem cable. (And I can do so if someone can confirm such.)
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Right so it's probably the wrong cable or a bad connection somewhere.
Boot the Watchguard CF and use that to check your serial terminal setup. At 115200bps you should see the entire boot sequence and be able to login at the end.What image exactly are you writing to the card? Please give a link. The 1GB CF card should be fine. The smallest card you can use is 512MB so what were you writing to the 64MB card?
Steve
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Just wanted to pop in and say thanks for this amazing resource.
Customer was moving offices and an x500 that was about to go into the dumpster seemed like too much hardware to waste so I grabbed it. Obviously I didn't want to deal with the licensing and limited features, so I was thrilled to see people had pfSense running on these boxes and not just made it "work", but had done so with relatively great success.
The only issue I had (And I spent a good 5 hours troubleshooting it, sadly :-[) was a poor serial connection. I had an issue somewhat similar to the poster above where I'd get nothing but gibberish after flashing the bios, on any baud using any combination of settings. Damn near thought I bricked my device as even the fallbacks weren't responding. Finally reseat my serial connection (And let it lie on the table rather than freely dangling) and got it working. Seemed I had to reseat it almost every restart after that, but since getting pfSense booted the first time I've yet to see the issue.
Aside from that, it went as smooth as I could have ever imagined. pfSense installed great, configuration was simple and error free, even lcdproc and WGXepc both worked for me on the first attempt, also error free.
Hell, installing DD-WRT was more troublesome than this.
Thanks again!
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Just to point this out for anyone else reading this: there is no reason flash the bios on the X-Core box (X500, X700, X1000, X2500). And in fact I don't believe there are any modified bios images available. If you attempted to flash the bios image from the X-e box it will have simply failed in the background, though you may not have seen any errors because the flashing program is using a graphical mode.
Anyway glad to see another box rescued from landfill. :)
Steve
