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    Pfsense on Watchguard x750e - Upgrade from CF to HDD?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    20 Posts 3 Posters 3.7k Views
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    • stephenw10S Offline
      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
      last edited by

      Yeah, CN_IDE1 is the standard IDE header. To use the CN_IDE2 connector you need, at a minimum, the adapter that connects from that to laptop drive. If you get the caddy too it's much nicer.
      For example: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271705830391

      Steve

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      • M Offline
        MacUsers
        last edited by

        Thanks Steve!
        By adapter, do you mean this: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/171126316387
        Also, can this one be used as well? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/291142771682

        I believe that's bus powered? Best!

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        • stephenw10S Offline
          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
          last edited by

          That adapter might work but it's not the same as the one I linked to. The caddy definitely won't work.

          Steve

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          • M Offline
            MacUsers
            last edited by

            Thanks Steve!

            So, I assume, the other side of the adapter (in the picture) with the caddy in eBay, that you liked, is for the CN_IDE2 to directly connect to it? Best!

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            • stephenw10S Offline
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              Yes, exactly.
              It was the same caddy used in the X-Peak which I put up some pictures of here:
              https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=25011.msg154292#msg154292
              and
              https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=25011.msg129676#msg129676

              Steve

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              • M Offline
                MacUsers
                last edited by

                Thanks for the conformation, Steve! Ordered now.

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                • M Offline
                  MacUsers
                  last edited by

                  Hi Steve,

                  The caddy arrived and it was a perfect fit. Very happy to see the HDD in the case.

                  However, it cannot really boot off it at all. If I attach the HDD to laptop, it boots off the disk without any error at all. The jumper is set to "Slave" in the HDD and it's being detected correct by the BIOS:

                  
                           Phoenix Technologies, LTD
                             System Configurations
+==============================================================================+
| CPU Type  : Genuine Intel(R) processor  Base Memory       :    640K          |
| CPU ID/uco: 0695/45                     Extended Memory   :1039360K          |
| CPU Clock : 1.30GHz                     Cache Memory      :    512K          |
|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Pri. Master Disk  : LBA,PIO 4,  512MB   Display Type      : EGA/VGA          |
| Pri. Slave  Disk  : LBA,PIO 4,40010MB   Serial Port(s)    : 3F8 2F8          |
| Sec. Master Disk  : None                Parallel Port(s)  : 378              |
| Sec. Slave  Disk  : None                DDR2 at Bank(s)   : 0 2              |
+==============================================================================+

                  but after the Memory Test, all I get a blank screen on the serial console a "Booting  OS…" on the LCD display. I followed the instruction, as you outlined here: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=56234.msg300946#msg300946 Any idea what's am I still possibly missing?

                  Best!

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                  • M Offline
                    MacUsers
                    last edited by

                    Finally worked!!!  :)

                    It was my bad to start with: Forgot to enable the serial port console and then caught by the v2.2 DMA access issues, which needs to be disabled beforehand. once these two things fixed pfSense started booting without any problem. Used a 40G Toshiba MK4026GAX.

                    I didn't have to do verbose boot or enter ufs:/dev/ad1s1a during the boot though. The only thing needs to be fixed now is the fan-speed control, which seems to be broken in 2.2 for fanctrl-new script.

                    Thanks for your help, Steve!!

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                    • stephenw10S Offline
                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                      last edited by

                      No problem.
                      You should be able boot with DMA enabled if you don't have the CF card in though. I have a box here doing that.

                      [2.2.2-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: dmesg | grep ada
ada0 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
ada0: <toshiba mk2018gap="" m1.42="" a="">ATA-5 device
ada0: Serial Number 32K60131T
ada0: 33.300MB/s transfers (UDMA2, PIO 8192bytes)
ada0: 19077MB (39070080 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
ada0: Previously was known as ad0
Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ada0s1a [rw]...</toshiba> 

                      [2.2.2-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: camcontrol negotiate /dev/ada0 -v
Current parameters:
(pass0:ata0:0:0:0): ATA mode: UDMA2
(pass0:ata0:0:0:0): ATAPI packet length: 0
(pass0:ata0:0:0:0): PIO transaction length: 8192
(pass0:ata0:0:0:0): tagged queueing: disabled
ata0: SIM/HBA version: 1
ata0: supports SDTR message
ata0: scan bus sequentially
ata0: HBA engine count: 0
ata0: maximum target: 1
ata0: maximum LUN: 0
ata0: highest path ID in subsystem: 0
ata0: initiator ID: 0
ata0: SIM vendor: FreeBSD
ata0: HBA vendor: ATA
ata0: HBA vendor ID: 0x8086
ata0: HBA device ID: 0x266f
ata0: HBA subvendor ID: 0x8086
ata0: HBA subdevice ID: 0x266f
ata0: bus ID: 0
ata0: base transfer speed: 3.300MB/sec
ata0: maximum transfer size: 131072 bytes

                      Steve

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                      • M Offline
                        MacUsers
                        last edited by

                        Already tried without the CF card in - it does't even start booting after the POST/Memory Test. Is there anything else to do in BIOS for that?

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                        • stephenw10S Offline
                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                          last edited by

                          No. I don't think so. I think the drive is configured as master and is detected as such.
                          What BIOS version are you on though? I'm running 8.1

                          Steve

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                          • M Offline
                            MacUsers
                            last edited by

                            Mine not 8.x for sure, 7b i think. Is 8 branch stable now?
                            Also, where do I get the 8.1 BIOS?

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                            • stephenw10S Offline
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              Yeah, I've seen no reported issues with it.
                              You can get it here: https://sites.google.com/site/pfsensefirebox/home/XEBIOS_81.BIN

                              Steve

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                              • M Offline
                                MacUsers
                                last edited by

                                One quick question: After flushing the BIOS, where/how do I check the BIOS version? Best!

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                                • stephenw10S Offline
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  The easiest place to check it is at the boot POST screen.
                                  It may be possible to read it with some utility from the pfSense command line, I haven't tried that. Any utilities I did use were under 8.1.
                                  You can read it from FreeDOS with the biosid command but that's less convenient.

                                  Steve

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