Netgate Discussion Forum
    • Categories
    • Recent
    • Tags
    • Popular
    • Users
    • Search
    • Register
    • Login

    Pfsense on Watchguard x750e - Upgrade from CF to HDD?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    20 Posts 3 Posters 3.7k Views
    Loading More Posts
    • Oldest to Newest
    • Newest to Oldest
    • Most Votes
    Reply
    • Reply as topic
    Log in to reply
    This topic has been deleted. Only users with topic management privileges can see it.
    • 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

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • 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!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • 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

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • M Offline
            MacUsers
            last edited by

            Thanks for the conformation, Steve! Ordered now.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • 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!

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • 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!!

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • 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

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • 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?

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • 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

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • 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?

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • 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

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • M Offline
                            MacUsers
                            last edited by

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

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • 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

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • First post
                                Last post
                              Copyright 2025 Rubicon Communications LLC (Netgate). All rights reserved.