Installation on a watchguard x750e with 80Gb HDD

TieT

stephenw10 Thx !

I was looking for a newer bios, because the one i have is B7.
Didn't know the XEBios_xx file was usable for the x750e.

Are there any settings i should avoid or definitely use ?

I don't want to brick the whole thing, it finally works now :D
P.S. can a mod move this to the Hardware section please ?

stephenw10

I'll start by saying that flashing the bios is inherently risky etc….. ;) So you may choose to just stick with what you're running.
As well as booting far more things the B8 BIOS has a working (to some extent) ACPI table so you get the CPU temperature on the dashboard.

The B8 BIOS is not shown in the docs because it was an experiment at first. Many people have installed it now though with no issues reported.
If you're running 2.1.5 you can flash the bios using flashrom from within pfSense. This got more complex in 2.2 because the ngpkg system is far less co-operative! You can use the FreeDOS image on a CF card and flash it from there exactly as you did the B7 bios. If you use flashrom you may have to reset the CMOS afterwards using the jumper as I don't think it can be done from the command line like you can with awdflash.

Steve

TieT

Yes I know, bios flashing is always risky…

About the ACPI table, i'm also getting the temperature read out with the B7 bios.
Or are these not the right values ?

![Status_ Dashboard.jpg](/public/imported_attachments/1/Status_ Dashboard.jpg)
![Status_ Dashboard.jpg_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Status_ Dashboard.jpg_thumb)

stephenw10

That looks about right for the original Celeron CPU. Odd I've never managed to enable ACPI in the earlier BIOS versions without bad things happening. Thinking about it though I may never have tried it with the original CPU.
Do you have 'None/ACPI' selected for the thermal sensor in System: Advanced: Miscellaneous:?

Steve

TieT

@stephenw10:

Do you have 'None/ACPI' selected for the thermal sensor in System: Advanced: Miscellaneous:?

Steve

Yes i have none/acpi in pfSense

TieT

I was searching if there is a script or program, that makes it possible to reboot the firewall with the front buttons.
Probably making use of LCDproc.

Or restart the webgui and some other cool stuff :)

If someone has experience with the LCDproc package and can point me in the right direction, would be great ! 8)

stephenw10

Ceama posted a script that does things like a while ago in the x550e thread. It uses the lcdexec command.

https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=20095.msg291392#msg291392

I've never tried it myself. It might require some modifying.

Steve

TieT

nice, thx !!

TieT

After upgrading to 2.2 I get this message when booting…

cpu0 on motherboard
est0: <enhanced speedstep="" frequency="" control="">on cpu0
est: CPU supports Enhanced Speedstep, but is not recognized.
est: cpu_vendor GenuineIntel, msr 6120f2906000f29
device_attach: est0 attach returned 6
p4tcc0: <cpu frequency="" thermal="" control="">on cpu0
pmtimer0 on isa0

Fatal trap 12: page fault while in kernel mode
cpuid = 0; apic id = 00
fault virtual address = 0x0
fault code = supervisor read, page not present
instruction pointer = 0x20:0xc0da8cf0
stack pointer = 0x28:0xc2420c28
frame pointer = 0x28:0xc2420c34
code segment = base 0x0, limit 0xfffff, type 0x1b
= DPL 0, pres 1, def32 1, gran 1
processor eflags = interrupt enabled, resume, IOPL = 0
current process = 0 (swapper)
[ thread pid 0 tid 100000 ]
Stopped at strncmp+0x20: movzbl 0(%esi),%ebx

Anybody got a clue where to start ?</cpu></enhanced>

TieT

nervermind… got it.

set vfs.root.mountfrom=ufs:/dev/ad0s1a
(because I changed my HD from slave to master)

set hw.ata.ata_dma="1"
(because I flashed the V8 bios)

@ Stephen
I also put in a SL7SM, this thing flies like crazy now :)

stephenw10

Hmm, interesting that that worked. That loader varible has been deprecated as far as I'm aware. The 2.2 Nano images are set to use DMA by default and you have to disable it if that's what you need. See:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/UpgradeGuide#Disk_Driver_Changes

Those old Pentium-M CPUs are so cheap now, great upgrade. :)

Steve

TieT

yes i read that and also tried it, but no dice…
I kept getting the error.

thx for the link on LCDproc problem.
Got it working again :)

snort also needed some softlinks in order to get it up and running again.

I searched through my heap of laptops i got lying around, and found the SL7SM :)

stephenw10

Free is the best sort of upgrade. ;D

TieT

yep ;D

Steve Evans

Hi TieT,

Add the following to your /boot/loader.conf.local file.

hint.ata.0.dev0.mode=PIO4

Remove the line that reads:

hw.ata.ata_dma="0"

You will then find your disks configured thus (see dmesg) which shows PIO on the CF (ada0) and DMA on the HDD (ada1).

ada0 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
ada0: <sandisk sdcfh-004g="" hdx="" 6.02="">CFA-0 device
ada0: Serial Number ABZ042211193008
ada0: 16.700MB/s transfers (PIO4, PIO 512bytes)
ada0: 3815MB (7813120 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 7751C)
ada0: Previously was known as ad0
ada1 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 1 lun 0
ada1: <st9402115a 3.01="">ATA-6 device
ada1: Serial Number 5PV09ZED
ada1: 100.000MB/s transfers (UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
ada1: 38154MB (78140160 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
ada1: Previously was known as ad1</st9402115a></sandisk>

I'm now getting the performance I need for my disk used for logs and caching under 2.2.

$ diskinfo -tv /dev/ad1
/dev/ad1
        512             # sectorsize
        40007761920     # mediasize in bytes (37G)
        78140160        # mediasize in sectors
        0               # stripesize
        0               # stripeoffset
        77520           # Cylinders according to firmware.
        16              # Heads according to firmware.
        63              # Sectors according to firmware.
        5PV09ZED        # Disk ident.

Seek times:
        Full stroke:      250 iter in   7.926598 sec =   31.706 msec
        Half stroke:      250 iter in   6.203416 sec =   24.814 msec
        Quarter stroke:   500 iter in   9.877891 sec =   19.756 msec
        Short forward:    400 iter in   3.476113 sec =    8.690 msec
        Short backward:   400 iter in   2.381591 sec =    5.954 msec
        Seq outer:       2048 iter in   0.197696 sec =    0.097 msec
        Seq inner:       2048 iter in   0.179296 sec =    0.088 msec
Transfer rates:
        outside:       102400 kbytes in   3.135350 sec =    32660 kbytes/sec
        middle:        102400 kbytes in   3.745807 sec =    27337 kbytes/sec
        inside:        102400 kbytes in   5.382397 sec =    19025 kbytes/sec

Steve

stephenw10

Tie isn't booting from the CF card so it may not be necessary to disable DMA at all.

Steve Evans

I see he's updated his BIOS. Missed that.

Steve

stephenw10

Yeah, seems slightly odd that he needed to do anything. :-\

TieT

I get these numbers:

[2.2-RELEASE][admin@fw1.home]/root: diskinfo -tv ad0
ad0
        512             # sectorsize
        80026361856     # mediasize in bytes (75G)
        156301488       # mediasize in sectors
        0               # stripesize
        0               # stripeoffset
        155061          # Cylinders according to firmware.
        16              # Heads according to firmware.
        63              # Sectors according to firmware.
        WD-WXEX08TJ6328 # Disk ident.

Seek times:
        Full stroke:      250 iter in  11.428668 sec =   45.715 msec
        Half stroke:      250 iter in   7.231832 sec =   28.927 msec
        Quarter stroke:   500 iter in  15.496462 sec =   30.993 msec
        Short forward:    400 iter in   5.091478 sec =   12.729 msec
        Short backward:   400 iter in   4.274550 sec =   10.686 msec
        Seq outer:       2048 iter in   0.328848 sec =    0.161 msec
        Seq inner:       2048 iter in   0.309770 sec =    0.151 msec
Transfer rates:
        outside:       102400 kbytes in   3.423876 sec =    29908 kbytes/sec
        middle:        102400 kbytes in   4.502569 sec =    22743 kbytes/sec
        inside:        102400 kbytes in   4.267557 sec =    23995 kbytes/sec

But I will test it again today and post back the results, maybe i overlooked something.

TieT

You guys where right, the line doesn't do anything and my system booted perfect when i removed it.

hw.ata.ata_dma="1"

I think it was a layer 8 problem… trying to do too much at the same time :)

these are my results now


ata0: DMA limited to UDMA33, controller found non-ATA66 cable
ada0 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
ada0: <wdc wd800beve-00uyt0="" 01.04a01="">ATA-7 device
ada0: Serial Number WD-WXEX08TJ6328
ada0: 33.300MB/s transfers (UDMA2, PIO 8192bytes)
ada0: 76319MB (156301488 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
ada0: Previously was known as ad0</wdc>

[2.2-RELEASE][admin@fw1.home]/root: diskinfo -tv ad0
ad0
        512             # sectorsize
        80026361856     # mediasize in bytes (75G)
        156301488       # mediasize in sectors
        0               # stripesize
        0               # stripeoffset
        155061          # Cylinders according to firmware.
        16              # Heads according to firmware.
        63              # Sectors according to firmware.
        WD-WXEX08TJ6328 # Disk ident.

Seek times:
        Full stroke:      250 iter in  10.765901 sec =   43.064 msec
        Half stroke:      250 iter in   8.400064 sec =   33.600 msec
        Quarter stroke:   500 iter in  15.856698 sec =   31.713 msec
        Short forward:    400 iter in   5.024369 sec =   12.561 msec
        Short backward:   400 iter in   5.086160 sec =   12.715 msec
        Seq outer:       2048 iter in   0.319964 sec =    0.156 msec
        Seq inner:       2048 iter in   0.329491 sec =    0.161 msec
Transfer rates:
        outside:       102400 kbytes in   3.433698 sec =    29822 kbytes/sec
        middle:        102400 kbytes in   3.800647 sec =    26943 kbytes/sec
        inside:        102400 kbytes in   4.714269 sec =    21721 kbytes/sec

Conclusion: need a faster disk ;D