Watchguard XTM 5 Series

Smoothrunnings

Is there a bios update for the XTM 5 series?

I got two more XTM 5 series today for a really good price. But I noticed with the first one that has 4GB of RAM on it that PFSense is only seeing 3005MB and I am also experiencing some weird with the boot. After installing Pfsense onto the HD and rebooting I can see all the info on the screen after the bios, but after that when I boot the system is black with the cursor moving on the screen, the Pfsense loads up find as I it beeps normally.

So I thought maybe the bios is out of date a bit?

Thanks,

stephenw10

The XTM 5 was updated during it's lifecycle. I believe the second gen just had newer CPUs and same board but I've never had one to be sure.

What models are they?

3GB detected sounds a lot like it's running 32bit.

I have seen issues with putty where the cursor moved but doesn't write anything at a reboot. If you restart putty at the reboot it usually displays fine after that.

I'm not aware of any updated BIOS versions but I've only ever looked in the one box.

Steve

Smoothrunnings

@stephenw10:

The XTM 5 was updated during it's lifecycle. I believe the second gen just had newer CPUs and same board but I've never had one to be sure.

What models are they?

3GB detected sounds a lot like it's running 32bit.

I have seen issues with putty where the cursor moved but doesn't write anything at a reboot. If you restart putty at the reboot it usually displays fine after that.

I'm not aware of any updated BIOS versions but I've only ever looked in the one box.

Steve

CPU maybe?

It has a Celeron 440 in it. I tried a E6700 that I had kicking around but it still only shows 3005MB, the bios shows 4062MB. I am using the same version I installed on my other boxes which have Core 2 Quad 9450's and 4GB of RAM and they show 4GB of ram in PfSense.. maybe I have to redownload and flash the CF card again?

Thanks,

stephenw10

It should be pretty obvious if you're running 32bit, it reported in multiple places. That's about the only reason I can think of for seeing 3GB though.

Does it report that at the beginning of the boot also? For example (not an XTM5):

Copyright (c) 1992-2016 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
	The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE-p7 #9 5ee3f5a72da(RELENG_2_4): Fri Feb  3 13:37:02 CST 2017
    root@buildbot2.netgate.com:/builder/ce/tmp/obj/builder/ce/tmp/FreeBSD-src/sys/pfSense amd64
FreeBSD clang version 3.8.0 (tags/RELEASE_380/final 262564) (based on LLVM 3.8.0)
VT(vga): resolution 640x480
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3220 CPU @ 3.30GHz (3292.60-MHz K8-class CPU)
  Origin="GenuineIntel"  Id=0x306a9  Family=0x6  Model=0x3a  Stepping=9
  Features=0xbfebfbff <fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,pae,mce,cx8,apic,sep,mtrr,pge,mca,cmov,pat,pse36,clflush,dts,acpi,mmx,fxsr,sse,sse2,ss,htt,tm,pbe>Features2=0x3d9ae3bf <sse3,pclmulqdq,dtes64,mon,ds_cpl,vmx,est,tm2,ssse3,cx16,xtpr,pdcm,pcid,sse4.1,sse4.2,popcnt,tscdlt,xsave,osxsave,avx,f16c>AMD Features=0x28000800 <syscall,rdtscp,lm>AMD Features2=0x1 <lahf>Structured Extended Features=0x281 <fsgsbase,smep,erms>XSAVE Features=0x1 <xsaveopt>VT-x: (disabled in BIOS) PAT,HLT,MTF,PAUSE,EPT,UG,VPID
  TSC: P-state invariant, performance statistics
real memory  = 8589934592 (8192 MB)
avail memory = 8144412672 (7767 MB)</xsaveopt></fsgsbase,smep,erms></lahf></syscall,rdtscp,lm></sse3,pclmulqdq,dtes64,mon,ds_cpl,vmx,est,tm2,ssse3,cx16,xtpr,pdcm,pcid,sse4.1,sse4.2,popcnt,tscdlt,xsave,osxsave,avx,f16c></fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,pae,mce,cx8,apic,sep,mtrr,pge,mca,cmov,pat,pse36,clflush,dts,acpi,mmx,fxsr,sse,sse2,ss,htt,tm,pbe>

Steve

chpalmer

Compare your bios settings. Especially when it comes to video memory. Yours may have some memory reserved for other functions. I know mine did but no longer.. ;)

Smoothrunnings

@stephenw10:

It should be pretty obvious if you're running 32bit, it reported in multiple places. That's about the only reason I can think of for seeing 3GB though.

Does it report that at the beginning of the boot also? For example (not an XTM5):

Copyright (c) 1992-2016 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
	The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD is a registered trademark of The FreeBSD Foundation.
FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE-p7 #9 5ee3f5a72da(RELENG_2_4): Fri Feb  3 13:37:02 CST 2017
    root@buildbot2.netgate.com:/builder/ce/tmp/obj/builder/ce/tmp/FreeBSD-src/sys/pfSense amd64
FreeBSD clang version 3.8.0 (tags/RELEASE_380/final 262564) (based on LLVM 3.8.0)
VT(vga): resolution 640x480
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i3-3220 CPU @ 3.30GHz (3292.60-MHz K8-class CPU)
  Origin="GenuineIntel"  Id=0x306a9  Family=0x6  Model=0x3a  Stepping=9
  Features=0xbfebfbff <fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,pae,mce,cx8,apic,sep,mtrr,pge,mca,cmov,pat,pse36,clflush,dts,acpi,mmx,fxsr,sse,sse2,ss,htt,tm,pbe>Features2=0x3d9ae3bf <sse3,pclmulqdq,dtes64,mon,ds_cpl,vmx,est,tm2,ssse3,cx16,xtpr,pdcm,pcid,sse4.1,sse4.2,popcnt,tscdlt,xsave,osxsave,avx,f16c>AMD Features=0x28000800 <syscall,rdtscp,lm>AMD Features2=0x1 <lahf>Structured Extended Features=0x281 <fsgsbase,smep,erms>XSAVE Features=0x1 <xsaveopt>VT-x: (disabled in BIOS) PAT,HLT,MTF,PAUSE,EPT,UG,VPID
  TSC: P-state invariant, performance statistics
real memory  = 8589934592 (8192 MB)
avail memory = 8144412672 (7767 MB)</xsaveopt></fsgsbase,smep,erms></lahf></syscall,rdtscp,lm></sse3,pclmulqdq,dtes64,mon,ds_cpl,vmx,est,tm2,ssse3,cx16,xtpr,pdcm,pcid,sse4.1,sse4.2,popcnt,tscdlt,xsave,osxsave,avx,f16c></fpu,vme,de,pse,tsc,msr,pae,mce,cx8,apic,sep,mtrr,pge,mca,cmov,pat,pse36,clflush,dts,acpi,mmx,fxsr,sse,sse2,ss,htt,tm,pbe>

Steve

Yeah sorry. :(

I forgot I had installed the 32bit version on my CF card to do the x750e and x1250e!

All is good now.

Thanks.

billiumg

28 pages and cannot find my solution. Anyway, thanks in advance for the assist.

XTM 505 with 1GB CF (install image)
1gig RAM
60G SSD for OS
after booting and it goes for about 3 minutes, it gets stuck at ada1: Previously was known as ad4 and hangs.
tried difference drives, both 32 and 64 bit images
even tried direct install to ssd using vmware.
they all stop at the same place.

I have attached the putty screens.

all of you are Gods of the computers - long live the Gods - beer?

[firebox pfsense error.txt](/public/imported_attachments/1/firebox pfsense error.txt)

stephenw10

I don't see the putty screenshots attached can you repost them?

Steve

billiumg

thanks i put them on original post. but will add here also.

[firebox pfsense error.txt](/public/imported_attachments/1/firebox pfsense error.txt)

billiumg

so after playing with this….
i have determined it is stopping at the point after ada1: perviously was known as ad5. So what is the next part of the script?

this is where it is hanging. What is the next step? How do i fix? enable / disable. Was going to try nano image, but do not have a large enough cf card.

from a video is looking smp: ap cpu # .........

ok more weird. for kicks removed drives and just booted from CF Card and it passed the issue..... So will have to see about larger cf card later.

stephenw10

Ah, you are trying to boot the install image running from a CF card in order to install to an SSD?

I'm not sure I've ever tried that. What image are you using there exactly?

This looks like it's a Nano+VGA image which seems wrong and also wouldn't fit on a 1GB CF card:

FreeBSD 10.3-RELEASE-p5 #0 7307492(RELENG_2_3_2): Tue Jul 19 14:11:41 CDT 2016
    root@ce23-i386-builder:/builder/pfsense-232/tmp/obj/builder/pfsense-232/tmp/FreeBSD-src/sys/pfSense_wrap_vga i386

You should definitely use a 64bit image with that hardware.

I take it you tried to boot the installer from USB and it failed?

Steve

billiumg

yes trying to install from cf card to ssd and fails. same spot no matter which method i use.
I tried both 32 and 64 bit version

pfsense-cd-memstick-serial-2.3.2-release-amd64
pfsense-cd-memstick-serial-2.3.2-release-i386

got a larger cf card today and will be working on it later to see if i can make any difference.

DeLorean

@billiumg:

yes trying to install from cf card to ssd and fails. same spot no matter which method i use.
I tried both 32 and 64 bit version

pfsense-cd-memstick-serial-2.3.2-release-amd64
pfsense-cd-memstick-serial-2.3.2-release-i386

got a larger cf card today and will be working on it later to see if i can make any difference.

Do you download these versions from the official pfSense site ?
Because on the official pfSense site, there is no pfsense-cd-…...
For a XTM5 you must use pfSense-CE-memstick-serial-release-amd64

https://nyifiles.pfsense.org/mirror/downloads/pfSense-CE-memstick-serial-2.3.2-RELEASE-amd64.img.gz

This can be placed on a 1Gb CF card, preferable a fast CF card like 80x or so.
During install don't choose "Quick / Easy Install", because it will then try to install to the CF card instead of your SSD,
you must choose "Custom Install" and accept al the suggested amounts of space.
This is the way that i have used for installing pfSense to a SSD on a XTM5

Grtz
DeLorean

@stephenw10:

The XTM 5 was updated during it's lifecycle. I believe the second gen just had newer CPUs and same board but I've never had one to be sure.

What models are they?

3GB detected sounds a lot like it's running 32bit.

I have seen issues with putty where the cursor moved but doesn't write anything at a reboot. If you restart putty at the reboot it usually displays fine after that.

I'm not aware of any updated BIOS versions but I've only ever looked in the one box.

Steve

Hi, I just got 2 gen 2 box and the board is a 7580T instead of W … version 1.2

Also the bios dates 26 April 2010, a couple of month newer that the first gen box. No apparent change to the bios from what I am reading here, still locked ...

chpalmer

@pierrelucd:

Hi, I just got 2 gen 2 box and the board is a 7580T instead of W … version 1.2

Also the bios dates 26 April 2010, a couple of month newer that the first gen box. No apparent change to the bios from what I am reading here, still locked ...

Love to have a copy of that BIOS.. ;D

I probably did and wrote over it recently. ::)

stephenw10

Smooth. ;)

DeLorean

I have the last year converted many XTM 5 boxes to run pfSense on a SSD, cpu updated to a Core2Duo,add extra ram
and all use the original Bios.
I don't see the benefits of a unlocked Bios, if everythings works with the original.

For the precious X-Core E series i have a programmer and extra spare Bios chips,
so a bad flash is easy to fix.
But since the XTM 5 series have a soldered Bios chip, the recovery from a bad flash is more hassle,
then with a X-Core E, i don't want to take the risk for ending with a red brick or a red door stop.

I'm from the principe, don't fix it, if it aint broken :-)

Grtz
DeLorean

chpalmer

@DeLorean:

I don't see the benefits of a unlocked Bios, if everythings works with the original.

Grtz
DeLorean

Im a control freak! ;D ;D

There is some advantage but not a show stopper for sure.

stephenw10

But… but... red LED. :P

chpalmer

@stephenw10:

But… but... red LED. :P

Oh yeah.. Forgot about that. ;)