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    Watchguard XTM 5 Series

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • T
      TraderX
      last edited by

      Next ;) would like to unlock the bios with added features, from your experience which is the
      latest safe image I could upgrade too?

      And the cpu fans are definitely spinning up high then slows which I repasted the cpu heatsink, what else could
      be causing the high temps. The heatsink sheild are warm to hot so transfer seems effective.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        I think either of the two images linked in this thread should be fine. I've only tested the one I modified. Quite a few people have flashed that now and I haven't had any reports of failure.

        t-rexky's bios includes the modified DSDT table if you have one of the CPUs he's using.

        Flashing the BIOS is inherently risky. You have been warned etc! 😉

        Steve

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        • T
          TraderX @stephenw10
          last edited by

          Thanks Steve.

          I'm guessing the failure rate when flashing is very low, much the same as a pc motherboard
          as you say noone has reported failure? 👀

          Did I recall seeing someone or you sucessfully recovering a bricked unit with with some hardware
          or replacing the bios chip but again guessing its surface mounted

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          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            Yeah, I bricked mine a few times using an older bios editing program that had glitchy results. I recovered it using 4 resistors and a parallel port cable. I don't think I have anything with a parallel port that still work though. 😉

            The actual images available now

            Steve

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            • D
              diesel678 @stephenw10
              last edited by diesel678

              @stephenw10 Hmm.. I tried again upgrading from 2.4.1 to 2.4.3_1 and again after the update it will not boot anymore. It just gets stuck on this screen and will not boot into pfsense anymore with no console output. As it seems i can't update to 2.4.3, but 2.4.2 works fine, do you know a way to just update to 2.4.2 and not to a later version?
              0_1533839724079_screenshot.png

              chpalmerC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • chpalmerC
                chpalmer @diesel678
                last edited by

                @diesel678 said in Watchguard XTM 5 Series:

                2.4.3_1

                Ive been on 2.4.3_1 here since it was released.. What happens if you console into it?

                Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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                • D
                  diesel678 @chpalmer
                  last edited by

                  @chpalmer I can't console into it because pfsense will not boot. So there is no console output. Did you upgrade to 2.4.3_1 from 2.4.1, or did you install 2.4.3_1 straight from the start with no upgrading?

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                  • D
                    diesel678 @diesel678
                    last edited by diesel678

                    @diesel678 I tried just booting from a new install of 2.4.3 too. It boots into PFsense fine on a new install on 2.4.3, but when i try to upgrade to 2.4.3_1 it breaks again and will not boot anymore. PFsense does not boot and there is no console output except the POST info at boot. Are you using the stock bios? do i need to flash the bios?

                    0_1533905332476_ppost.png

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                    • chpalmerC
                      chpalmer
                      last edited by chpalmer

                      Im using a modified BIOS. But I did get pfsense running first back when I did it.

                      If you can read German or use Google translate a little.. I saved this page a while back and now host it for my own benefit.. http://airsignalinfrastructure.com/

                      Original but not working right now.. - http://www.triebwerk23.de/joomla/index.php/firewalls/watchguard-xtm-5-xtm-505-515-525-545-pfsense-64-bit

                      Maybe there is something there that helps.

                      Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                      Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        The BIOS modifications should make no difference there.

                        Have you tried a 2.4.4 snapshot? https://www.pfsense.org/snapshots/

                        Steve

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                        • T
                          TraderX
                          last edited by

                          Seems like I'm locked out of my 5 series running 2.43.1 yet again on admin and second account for some reason!!!

                          Though thats not my main reaspon for posting as I cant seem to see the boot menu option for single use mode using this guide to reset my password.
                          https://www.netgate.com/docs/pfsense/usermanager/locked-out-of-the-webgui.html

                          Pfsense seems to be working as I get the webgui login that I cant login but when at the console on cold boot I see the bios startup the disk confirmed at bios the green cursor flashing spinning jumping all over screen finally get the login prompt and again credentials fail.

                          So I thought I may have changed the colour font or terminal setting but to no success can get it working again.

                          I've been successfully using the box for 3mths now, using putty serial with usb2rj45 console cable which using 115200,8,1,none

                          Seems like a terminal or display issue but strange thing is (maybe red herring) but it did show the boot menu on 1 or 2 occasions

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            You can interrupt the boot loader and enter boot -s to reach single user mode too. That also requires a functioning console though.

                            Steve

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                            • T
                              TraderX @stephenw10
                              last edited by

                              So what are my option then ;(

                              I have backup up but guess I cant restore that either only rebuild the box ;(((

                              Could I have set the wrong emulation or colour in putty?

                              thanks steve

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                              • D
                                diesel678 @stephenw10
                                last edited by

                                @stephenw10 The 2.4.4 snapshot boots and works fine. Seems like only when i do upgrades does it break

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                                • stephenw10S
                                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                  last edited by

                                  So it fails again updating between 2.4.4 snapshots?

                                  Very odd if so. With nothing after the BIOS like that it seems like it's using completely the wrong console. But it should be the default serial console there.
                                  It's hard to imagine what might be changing there at upgrade.

                                  Steve

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                                  • F
                                    Fffrank
                                    last edited by

                                    I'm a complete newbie to PFSense but jumped in with both feet on a Watchguard XTM. I got everything up and running (eventually) but my hardware has been crazy unstable. I can't find anything in PFSense logs but I did record this console output as it was crashing. Anyone offer any insight?

                                    https://pastebin.com/K5p3TeD8

                                    chpalmerC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • chpalmerC
                                      chpalmer @Fffrank
                                      last edited by

                                      @fffrank said in Watchguard XTM 5 Series:

                                      Anyone offer any insight?

                                      https://pastebin.com/K5p3TeD8

                                      My guess is that its going to be hardware related. (especially since I have a few of these out there working flawlessly as do others) First thing is to clean it.. Then re-seat everything you can.. CPU, memory.. ect.. You will need some heat sink compound to do the CPU.

                                      Are you using a CF card or hard drive? Or..?

                                      Triggering snowflakes one by one..
                                      Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box.

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                                      • F
                                        Fffrank @chpalmer
                                        last edited by

                                        @chpalmer It just came in from ebay last week. I opened it up and cleaned it, upgraded the processor and ram. It's running off of a 30gb SSD.

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                                        • F
                                          Fffrank
                                          last edited by

                                          One more thought: I don't have the right serial cable to initialize my switch so I've been using all 5 of the XTMs ethernet interfaces bridged. Could this be causing the problem? It seems MUCH more stable with only 1 lan port connected.

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                                          • F
                                            Fffrank
                                            last edited by

                                            Seems to definitely be related to the drive. I've got errors and if I run a full smart scan it crashes it every time. It's a generic 30gb SSD. I had another one so I tried to install on that and had the same issues.

                                            The only other drives I had on hand were a first generation SATA 36gb WD Raptor and a very old 60gb SATA drive that I peeled out of a MacBook. Neither of them would boot no matter what bios options I tried.

                                            I'm going to purchase a new HD and try again, any recommendations? Should I stick with an SSD or is a traditional drive better?

                                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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