Watchguard Firebox M400/M500

dlucas46

So its got another reverse PCIE adaptor gold fingers, that's annoying again.

3 SATA Ports and two spare SATA power cables.

Looks like a 2.5" will go in next to the power supply nicely.

Now all we need is to see if the bios is locked down.

You may need to replace the CF card with a live install image and then install to a 2.5" hard drive. When you have Pfsense up and running you can use flashrom to dump the rom.

Can you see any USB headers on the board?

Scorch95

Any updates? ;D Just maybe hoping you got an image of pfsense running on this by now. :P

Edit: Looks like they use ECC DDR3-1600. Single 4 GB stick makes upgrading to 8GB easy.

Could pick up an i3-4130 for cheap and it adds hyper threading plus a boost from 3.2 to 3.4Ghz all the while only adding 1w to tdp making it 54w. It also gives you AES-NI support. If you're looking for more cores you'll need to go with a Xeon to keep ECC support I believe.

Guest

Looks like the battery sticker is a warning about the CMOS battery, not about any extra battery. It even uses the same font as the ones you used to get with Intel retail/OEM motherboards.

Scorch95

Any success? Any progress?

DeLorean

Attached a list of the specs of the other M models
I can add pictures of the M200 box inside, but that's a no go for pfSense box to me.
I have got such a box a month ago, but with no Sata-ports, a Freescale onboard cpu,
and those boxes use U-Bootloader to load the software from the SD card. (yes SD card, and not CF).

Grtz
DeLorean

Watchguard.jpg_thumb

revsie

Hi guys,

Sorry for the absence but I have been a little busy to say the least!

I haven't had much time to look at this but have received the console cable and also have an I5 4460T which I need to install, maybe a little overkill but low powered.

As soon as I can I will get the CPU installed and see what happens.

revsie

These people seem to think pfSense can be installed!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Watchguard-Firebox-m400-firewall-security-appliance-or-PFsense-/122868662426

DeLorean

@revsie:

These people seem to think pfSense can be installed!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Watchguard-Firebox-m400-firewall-security-appliance-or-PFsense-/122868662426

That's right.
All models above M300, like M400, M440 and M500 should be useable for pfSense.

Grtz
DeLorean

revsie

@Scorch95:

Any updates? ;D Just maybe hoping you got an image of pfsense running on this by now. :P

Edit: Looks like they use ECC DDR3-1600. Single 4 GB stick makes upgrading to 8GB easy.

Could pick up an i3-4130 for cheap and it adds hyper threading plus a boost from 3.2 to 3.4Ghz all the while only adding 1w to tdp making it 54w. It also gives you AES-NI support. If you're looking for more cores you'll need to go with a Xeon to keep ECC support I believe.

After reading your post again Scorch95 I have seen the error of my ways and ordered i3-4130.

Scorch95

I don’t believe you’ll run into any problems unless watchguard did something like the XTM8 and spec’d It without a COM1 port. I’m waiting as patiently as I can but I’m looking to upgrade from my XTM5 to either an XTM 400 or XTM 470. I’d like to get the 470 as it uses a skylake processor and a msata drive but either one will keep me good to go with 2.5 and aes-ni.

revsie

Well I might try later this evening, if I get time.

I did have 2 of these but just sold 1 for £400, they are sort after so they seem to be a little expensive. I think I was lucky to get one from work!

revsie

Well, a little further.

The i3-4130 arrived and is installed, there were no errors and the system loaded up successfully, I haven't flashed pfSense yet so it loaded the Watchguard firmware. But good news is the processor runs fine.

Scorch95

Did you add more ram or are you gonna stick with 4Gb?

revsie

Hi,

For now, stick with the 4GB, see how it all goes.

Scorch95

Any luck?

revsie

Not yet I'm afraid, had a few car troubles which have taken over and I also start a new job soon so getting ready for that!

I will get back to you as soon as I can though, I really want to get this up and running.

revsie

Well, finally had time to look at this, so far so good.

I just backed up the 4GB compact flash card, wrote the 64-bit nano image to the CF card, put it back in the Firebox M400, started up and voila!

I can connect using the front com port and I can connect to the web GUI using port 1, 0 seems to be for the WAN, haven't finished setting it up but can confirm everything seems to be ok, very simple to setup with no issues so far. Will update when I have some more info.

dlucas46

Can you install flashrom from the terminal and then make a copy of the bios please?

The exact instructions for doing so should be the same as for the xtm 5

Thanks

stephenw10

If you try to use flashrom on the M400 you will see this:

BIOS_CNTL = 0x0a: BIOS Lock Enable: enabled, BIOS Write Enable: disabled
Warning: Setting Bios Control at 0xdc from 0x0a to 0x09 failed.
New value is 0x0a.

I highly recommend not using it! Or you too can spend some fun hours in the flashrom IRC room. ;)
In the end I powered it off and it booted back fine but…

afudos or the Intel fpt tool seem to work better.

I took several backups and got different checksums each time. Not a good sign.

Also worth noting that board has a jumper to enable write access to the ME section of the flash. Didn't seem to make any difference.

All that said I did mod the BIOS and flash it back (only the BIOS section) and it was successful. Enabled console redirect. Set the fans to a rational speed. Enabled Speedstep.
The result is still password protected, I've yet to find a way to clear the password. So even though you can see the POST via serial you cannot enter the setup. :(

Steve

dlucas46

Great so it looks like watchguard really locked the bios down this time!

What limitations does the stock bios have?