Watchguard Firebox M400/M500
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Hey all, I read through this thread till about number 300, I figured there was much smarter people on here that could help me out. Came into an M400 for free, want to load pfsense on it. What I gather from here (correct me if I'm wrong) but there is two ways that people have had success with: load an SSD and connect to Sata port and boot with the CF card removed or unlock the bios flash from CF card.
What are people thinking about upgraded processor, worth it or not? What have been some processor people have like and worked well for them?
Thanks in advance
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@nd-t it looks like you and I are in the same boat here, how did this work out for you?
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You can also just run from the CF card if you have something else to install onto it with. But be sure to use UFS, disable SWAP during the install and enable RAM disks after install if you do.
4th gen CPUs are cheap (some are very cheap!) and almost all are an upgrade from the Celeron fitted in every way. The only thing to look out for is that many cause the unit to fail to reboot for some reason which is a PITA. Search the thread for specifics.
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@stephenw10 is this assuming I have or will have to have the bios unlocked to boot from CF and disable SWAP?
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No it will boot from CF without any BIOS changes. It will run fine but upgrades are painful because CF is slow as hell!
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@stephenw10 haha that makes sense. Thanks for info, Im excited to get this thing going.
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I just installed a Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz in my M400.. It had been running the original Celeron G1820 until this last week.
Boots a bit faster.. has AES-NI now.. 4 cores now.. shows running cooler since the fans seem to be actively adjusting their speeds now. fans were always slow before.. even in the summer.
The fans are a bit more noisy and constantly adjusting now which they never did when the Celeron was in place. Celeron showed constant 40c to 45c depending on weather here.. The i5 is a constant 39c.
I have an updated BIOS on the board but cannot find the speed controls.. anyone remember where they are supposed to be?
I want to adjust them more to be constant than the up and down they are doing now.
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The fan speed controls? They should be there under thermal control. Not much to play with though IIRC.
Does it reboot correctly with that CPU?
Steve
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@chpalmer I'd replace the existing fans, they are incredibly noisy at most speeds, if you find my posts above I posted a link to the Nocturnas that fit.
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@stephenw10 Seems to boot fine. Freakin fast compared..
ioapic0 <Version 2.0> irqs 0-23 on motherboard
random: unblocking device.
FreeBSD/SMP: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)
FreeBSD/SMP: Multiprocessor System Detected: 4 CPUs
ACPI APIC Table: <ALASKA A M I>
Event timer "LAPIC" quality 600
avail memory = 6095597568 (5813 MB)
real memory = 6442450944 (6144 MB)
TSC: P-state invariant, performance statistics
VT-x: PAT,HLT,MTF,PAUSE,EPT,UG,VPID
XSAVE Features=0x1<XSAVEOPT>
Structured Extended Features3=0xc000000<IBPB,STIBP>
Structured Extended Features=0x27ab<FSGSBASE,TSCADJ,BMI1,AVX2,SMEP,BMI2,ERMS,INVPCID,NFPUSG>
AMD Features2=0x21<LAHF,ABM>
AMD Features=0x2c100800<SYSCALL,NX,Page1GB,RDTSCP,LM>
Features2=0x7ffafbff<SSE3,PCLMULQDQ,DTES64,MON,DS_CPL,VMX,SMX,EST,TM2,SSSE3,SDBG,FMA,CX16,xTPR,PDCM,PCID,SSE4.1,SSE4.2,x2APIC,MOVBE,POPCNT,TSCDLT,AESNI,XSAVE,OSXSAVE,AVX,F16C,RDRAND>
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>
Origin="GenuineIntel" Id=0x306c3 Family=0x6 Model=0x3c Stepping=3
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz (2000.04-MHz K8-class CPU)Triggering snowflakes one by one..
Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590T CPU @ 2.00GHz on an M400 WG box. -
Thanks.. I actually ordered three of those fans today so will try them.
I also replaced the version of WGXepc64 that I was running as it seems I was on a pre-m400 version.. So I can adjust my fans with that instead of mussing with BIOS.
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@chpalmer said in Watchguard Firebox M400/M500:
@stephenw10 Seems to boot fine. Freakin fast compared..
But does it reboot though? There are a large number of 4th gen CPUs that just hang at reboot even with a different BIOS etc. The i3-4160 I have does not reboot for example and that makes it painful for anything!
Steve
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But does it reboot though?
I did a reboot this morning via the GUI "reroot" reboot. Came up fine. Is there another method you want me to try? This one is my primary firewall and I have to do things after hours unless I want to join "wine hour" here.. and Im fresh out of cheese.
(for those already typing.. yes I know how to spell whine. ;) )
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After some more testing with the new CPU.. Normal reboot does hang. Reroot reboot does not. I generally do not shut this one down ever so a non issue for me.
This box is 2.6..
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Urgh. Disappointing. I wish I knew what caused that.
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Anyone run into issues with putty spitting out giberish on startup?
Downloaded Memstick installer, used balena etcher (from my understanding Balena will automatically un zip the .gz file) to flash to the same exact model CF card (Except mine is 8gb and not 4gb). Popped the CF card in, powered on the M400, used COM3 port and its just spitting out random letters and characters. -
Typically that happens if the baud rate is mismatched. It's 115200bps by default.
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@stephenw10 Yup that did it! ive been so used to cisco It never occurs to me that would ever need to change. When I get to the part where it has me select the target disk it doesn't let me select the CF card. I hit enter with the CF card highlighted and it returns the message "Not Enough Disks selected. 0 < 1 minimum" any Ideas on this?
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You can't install onto the drive you booted from. You can install to a SATA SSD after booting from CF. Or you can boot from USB and and install to CF.
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I never realized that my M400 (i3-4370T) has been sucking away 40W 24/7. Thinking about doing the BIOS upgrade to enable SpeedStep as my system is barely stressed (1% CPU at this moment). Just curious - for anyone who has already enabled SpeedStep, what kind of power savings have you seen?
