PfSense on a Riverbed Steelhead

shouptech

I did something stupid somewhere that is keeping from getting back into the BIOS, but when I was able to get into the BIOS, there were no options for LAN bypass.

I'll have to look on the main board when I get home to see what markings there are and if any indicate what model the board is.

shouptech

The board is a Jabil Circuits MNPBA000698C. I'm not having any luck finding much documentation on the board, but I can buy one for less than $30 on eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/JABIL-CIRCUIT-MOTHERBOARD-MAINBOARD-SBC-NEW-/300300470392

charliem

Yes, those are LAN bypass ports. Looking at your pics, the 4 big white things on the MB behind the ports are relays; these control if the active lines on each port are connected to the MB or to each other.

I'm not clear if the GPIO code, like Steve posted or in the bios, will directly control the state (bypassed or not), or if the GPIO simply allows or prevents bypass on power fail. I suspect the latter.

If you don't need the bypass feature, you may be able to do some hardware hacking to energize the relays directly from somewhere else on the board. I see a big 1F supercap there, and there's also an LED on the front panel to indicate bypassed condition that may provide some clues.

stephenw10

The way that LAN bypass usually works is that the relays are powered via the output from a watchdog timer. This can be in the SuperIO chip or in the southbridge chip. The design of the system is such that if the OS crashes and stops resetting the watchdog then the LAN-bypass automatically kicks in. It's usually possible to control the properties of the watchdog by setting various registers in which ever chip is running it. Alternatively it might be possible to drive it via some separate GPIO pins in parallel.

I see in your photo the board is labelled: ETON ET866 94V-0
That seems to bring up references to graphics cards though. :-\ Jabil Circuits seems to be a pcb assembly company rather than a motherboard designer so not much help as you found.

I notice that the connector in the top right of the photo is labelled J20. This implies there are are more jumpers! Are there any that we can't see in the photo?

Steve

shouptech

There does not appear to be any other jumpers on the board. I've looked for any other J# labels as well (perhaps the pins were removed) and I don't see any.

dipswitch

Where you ever able to recover the bios password? I have the same issue, trying to get into the bios…

You could force bypass off permanently by shorting the control pins to either ground or 1v8/3v3/5v

stephenw10

You have identical hardware?
https://shoup.io/project-steelwall.html

it's a little out of date these days. No need to mount RW if you're running Nano as it's always mounted RW.

Always use /boot/loader.conf.local

That hardware appears to be 32bit which means no 2.4.

Steve

Skybw89

hi

i also interested to get the two left NICs working.

someone been successful?

Thanks

stephenw10

You have access to the BIOS?

Any lan bypass or watchdog functions available there?

Otherwise you will need to switch the relays manually by flipping the control registers. Or by changing the circuit that drives them.
Are you up for a challenge? ;)

Steve

Skybw89

@stephenw10:

You have access to the BIOS?

Any lan bypass or watchdog functions available there?

Otherwise you will need to switch the relays manually by flipping the control registers. Or by changing the circuit that drives them.
Are you up for a challenge? ;)

Steve

Unfortunately there is no option in the BIOS to activate the relays manually.

I read a few posts on other Websites about bridge the relays power feedpin to an Mosfet to power them from boot.

iam a noob in things like this. But i really want to get it working. do you have some information, maybe some pictures how i had to modify the relais circuit ?

here is a picture

thank you so far

stephenw10

Ok, so to be clear there no bypass OR watchdog settings in the BIOS?

And there are no jumpers on the PCB? I can't make out any from your photo but it's not very high resolution.

You have two choices. Electrically bridge the relays by powering them from somewhere. Or, more fun IMO, try to find the GPIO that controls the relays and set it in software.

There will be typically two places that have GPIOs that could have been used, the ICH and the SuperIO chip. They may have used the parallel port but that's crude, unlikely for relays that are on the main board.

Steve

I'd go the fun route. It's way more fun. ;D

stephenw10

Yup, immensely more satisfying when (if) you get it to work. ;D

Steve

Skybw89

I took some pictures in better resolution

maybe you can see something on it

I'm afraid the real tracks are on the other side of the board. On top of that, GPIO control is done in software, so you'd have more luck poking around on the GPIO's on the shell.

stephenw10

Mmm, with no jumpers and nothing in the BIOS it's time to start poking GPIOs.

You might want to read this thread for some ideas how to do that: https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=81292.0

Steve

HarryH

Have anyone enable this bypass ports?

@HarryH:

Have anyone enable this bypass ports?

Poke the GPIOs and you'll know :-)

stephenw10

Yup, you'll have to start poking GPIO registers. Tedious but fun when it works!

I can probably offer assistance as time allows.

Steve