Watchhguard x1000 Boot Error

stephenw10

Ok, so the CF slot on the Watchguard box doesn't have the IDE DMA lines connected. That's common to many CF slots. If your card is new and fast enough it will support DMA and will be reporting to the OS and BIOS that it's DMA capable. pfSense tries to use DMA and you get errors as you're seeing.
For this reason DMA is disabled in the NanoBSD snapshots. However it isn't disabled on the Nano+VGA snapshots because those were originally built for a box that required DMA to boot. I assume you're booting the Nano+vga image because you're running the PCI card? You need to disable DMA by doing this:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/Boot_Troubleshooting#Disable_DMA_for_IDE_drives

Steve

tinkernut02

Okay got it…. disabled DMA... still stuck..trying to add line to boot loader. Keep on getting a /boot/loader.conf.local: not found. Where do I enter this text?

Stuck at this point.

After the installation, add the following line to /boot/loader.conf.local:

To disable DMA for hard drive(s):
hw.ata.ata_dma=0

To disable DMA for optical drives:
hw.ata.atapi_dma=0

stephenw10

It's not a file that's included by default you have create it. You can do this at the console (or probably via the Command screen in Diagnostics):

echo 'hw.ata.ata_dma=0' >> /boot/loader.conf.local

No need to worry about optical drives.

Steve

Edit: Yes you can do that in Diagnostics: Command Prompt:

tinkernut02

Got it finally…pfsense is booting perfectly..thank you for the help Steve... Do you have a guide on lcdproc setup..downloaded the packages and nothing on LCD.... thanks again. :P

stephenw10

It's a bit of a fiddle to setup because the lcdproc package doesn't play nicely with the sdeclcd driver that's required. There's a link in the wiki page but this is where you want to look:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,7920.msg344513.html#msg344513

Steve

tinkernut02

Thanks Steve..It worked!!!

tinkernut02

Steve,

Do you have a how to guide for WGXepc setup? Sorry to keep bugging ;D.Thanks

stephenw10

Also on the wiki page. :D
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_on_Watchguard_Firebox#Controlling_hardware_with_WGXepc
You can use Shellcmd to run it at boot.

Actually reading back through that section it could use an update. Still valid for your box though.

Steve

tinkernut02

Thanks for the help..got pfsense running but the internet is really slow. Web pages do not load or load very slowly to the point where its not usable. Strange thing YouTube loads well but other sites do not. Theres many threads here but do not know where to start. What would cause a slow internet connection?..one thing that has been bugging me is the amber light on the modem link light. It only turns amber when connected to the watchguard/pfsense. Modem is an Arris model# CM820A. My set up is ..modem to watchguard @192.168.0.1…watchguard to Cisco 3550 catalyst switch@192.168.0.24...Access Point dlink DGL 4500(DHCP disabled) @192.168.0.5...and a Linksys router as a repeater bridge flashed with ddwrt@192.168.0.2. The only rules I set were for Xbox live for the Xbox one, which actually set my Nat to open.
Thanks

stephenw10

Unusual link light on the modem sounds like it could be connected at 10Mbps or maybe half duplex. Either would indicate a failure in the speed/duplex negotiation which could definitely cause slow and erratic throughput. Check the Status: Interfaces: page for errors or collisions and the link state. The Realtek NICs in the X-Core are known to be pretty poor unfortunately, I would normally suggest trying to set a fixed speed and duplex but that may not work for you. Worth trying though.

One thing to try is putting a switch in between your modem and the X1000 if you can.

Try to confirm the throttling is at the WAN interface by downloading something on the firebox itself. At the command line:

[2.1.5-RELEASE][root@pfsense.fire.box]/root(1): fetch -o /dev/null http://109.123.87.183/speedtest.256mb
/dev/null                                     100% of  256 MB 8307 kBps 00m00s

The file is from the London test site at http://www.cloudtestfiles.net. You should choose a server local to yourself.

Steve

tinkernut02

okay changed to 100base full duplex. I also changed DNS to 8.8.8.8 …8.8.4.4. on PC ...now I'm getting improved web access..speedtest.net speeds are 34.71 download and 4.95 upload. not my usual 50 down and 5 up but an improvement. Looks like a DNS issue. Also, can't get wireless connected.

stephenw10

You tried the download test at the machine and you are seeing the low throughput there?
No errors or collisions?

Did you set it to 100Mb-FD at both ends?

Hard to say about the wireless. What's not working? DHCP? DNS? general connectivity? Do you see firewall hits in the logs?

Steve

tinkernut02

Steve thanks again for your help…I went ahead and set pfsense back to default and tried fresh setup..I was able to get it working right w/wireless. I just added googles DNS 8.8.8.8 at set up and everything started playing nice..

Borage

@stephenw10:

It's a bit of a fiddle to setup because the lcdproc package doesn't play nicely with the sdeclcd driver that's required. There's a link in the wiki page but this is where you want to look:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,7920.msg344513.html#msg344513

Steve

I fixed the problem on all my WatchGuard units by editing the following file.

/usr/local/pkg/lcdproc.inc

	define('LCDPROC_HOST','localhost');
	define('LCDPROC_PORT','13666');

My changes: See line 36

	define('LCDPROC_HOST','127.0.0.1');
	define('LCDPROC_PORT','13666');