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    Install PFSense on a Sophos SG appliance

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    • A
      aimnkill
      last edited by

      It is not a secret anymore: Sophos UTM SG and XG sucks! I won't continue with that "technology"!
      My support is about to end with Sophos and I have 2 SG330 and 2 SG550 which is fairly good hardware.

      Did anyone ever successfully installed PFSense on those type of Sophos appliances ? I can't try yet since there are online, and I need to know if it's possible before I get my management agree to abandon Sophos.
      It would be awesome to recycle those to PFSense ! :)

      Thanks.

      ToF !

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • oz9elsO
        oz9els
        last edited by

        As it is over a year ago you asked, you are probarbly allready up and running ;-)
        I have a Sophos SG 125 box, running the newest pfSense - It works GREAT.

        Only problem is that half of my ports reports it is "ten gigabit" ports.. The other half is working fine..

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

          Are they using the ix driver? Where are you seeing that reported?

          If you run ifconfig -vm do they actually show 10G as a media option?

          Steve

          oz9elsO 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • oz9elsO
            oz9els @stephenw10
            last edited by

            @stephenw10
            Hi Steve, thanks for your interest.
            The first 4 ports are reported as Intel 10G media ports, in the initial/config console (and are not working).
            The next 4 ports are reported as Intel Gigabit ports (em) and works fine. Besides that pfSense works great on the Sophus SG 125 box. About 300MB/s on a OpenVPN.

            Not sure which driver is used, but I will do a "ifconfig -vm", when i get home to the box.

            k.r. Niels

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            • stephenw10S
              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
              last edited by

              @oz9els said in Install PFSense on a Sophos SG appliance:

              About 300MB/s on a OpenVPN.

              Nice. What CPU does it use?
              If it reports 10G NICs they will be ix which is interesting to find next to em NICs.

              Steve

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              • oz9elsO
                oz9els
                last edited by

                The CPU is:
                CPU Type Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU C3508 @ 1.60GHz
                4 CPUs: 1 package(s) x 4 core(s)
                AES-NI CPU Crypto: Yes (active)

                Hardware crypto AES-CBC,AES-XTS,AES-GCM,AES-ICM

                The box has 8 ethernet ports (4 reported as 10Gb), one SFP port, a serial-console and 2 usb and include a dual external PSU - Quite a nice box, and only uses arround 12w in idle mode.
                I will make some photos of the inside..

                With a ifconfig -vm i get the same for all interfaces ibg1-ibg4 (marked Eth4-Eth8 on the box):

                igb0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
                options=6400bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWTSO,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
                capabilities=753fbb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,WOL_UCAST,WOL_MCAST,WOL_MAGIC,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,NETMAP,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
                ether 7c:5a:1c:78:41:f8
                hwaddr 7c:5a:1c:78:41:f8
                inet6 fe80::7e5a:1cff:fe78:41f8%igb0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
                inet 192.168.64.130 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.64.255
                nd6 options=23<PERFORMNUD,ACCEPT_RTADV,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
                media: Ethernet autoselect (1000baseT <full-duplex>)
                status: active
                supported media:
                media autoselect
                media 1000baseT
                media 1000baseT mediaopt full-duplex
                media 100baseTX mediaopt full-duplex
                media 100baseTX
                media 10baseT/UTP mediaopt full-duplex
                media 10baseT/UTP

                These interfaces work well at 1 Gb.

                The interfaces marked Eth0->Eth3 all look like this:

                ix0: flags=8802<BROADCAST,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
                options=e407bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,VLAN_HWTSO,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
                capabilities=f507bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,TSO4,TSO6,LRO,VLAN_HWFILTER,VLAN_HWTSO,NETMAP,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
                ether 7c:5a:1c:78:41:f4
                hwaddr 7c:5a:1c:78:41:f4
                nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
                media: Ethernet autoselect
                status: no carrier
                supported media:
                media autoselect
                media 10baseT/UTP
                media 100baseTX
                media 1000baseT

                I also have one more:
                enc0: flags=0<> metric 0 mtu 1536
                nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
                groups: enc

                stephenw10S 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • stephenw10S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @oz9els
                  last edited by

                  enc0 is the IPSec interface, it's created even if you don't have any IPSec tunnels.

                  Those ix NICs are exactly what I would expect for a C3K Atom. The driver might show as 'TenGigabit' in the boot log but they have 1G PHYs so are limited to 1G. Since the interfaces are created that looks good. Do they work as expected at 1Gbps?

                  Steve

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • oz9elsO
                    oz9els
                    last edited by

                    Initially I could not get them to work (just after the installation) Tried to use them as WAN and LAN - They got link, but no traffic.
                    Did some testing tonight, and then it looked like they worked just fine.. I will test a bit more..
                    Will also try to scratch the config and start over, just to be sure - Perhaps the problem was elsewhere ;-).

                    k.r. Niels

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • oz9elsO
                      oz9els
                      last edited by

                      BTW, I have taken some pictures of the SG 125 inside, if anyone is interested

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • G
                        gcu_greyarea
                        last edited by

                        Hi, in the pics I saw the that the appliance is a V3 version which has the C3000 CPU.
                        I think versions prior to V3 still have the Atom C2000.

                        oz9elsO 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • oz9elsO
                          oz9els @gcu_greyarea
                          last edited by

                          @gcu_greyarea Think you are right.. I also stumbled over that fact somewhere.. ;-)

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • G
                            gcu_greyarea
                            last edited by

                            People in AU have often complained about the cost of purchasing a Netgate appliance, despite wanting to support the project...
                            E.g. a 5100 will cost between 1100-1200$ AU delivered. Purchasing from local resellers/distributors will often come at the same or higher price.
                            You can buy a brand new SG125v3 for around 850$AU, but it’ll come with a lower clock speed (C3508 vs C3558)
                            I’d love to purchase a 5100 for home use but right now cannot afford it. Obviously for a business 1200$ for a 5100 is a good price when compared to other vendors.
                            Also - i know I’m looking at hardware prices only... i also understand that pfSense’s value is in the software and community - which isn’t reflected in the hardware price....
                            I wish there was a more cost effective method for purchasing netgate appliances in AU. Maybe with the arrival of Amazon in AU there could be local stock and more competitive pricing, considering the presence of chinese mini PC’s...

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                            • M
                              mickesanda
                              last edited by

                              Hi,
                              I just installed PFsense 2.4.4 on my 2 Sophos SG330 and everything works great with the exception of the LCD.
                              I installed LCD Proc but I do not know which driver to choose. I tried almost all possible combinations without luck.
                              If anybody knows what I should choose, I would be grateful for any help.
                              Also, do I need to reboot for every driver change in order to make the new LCD driver active?

                              Thank you in advance,
                              Mike

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                @mickesanda said in Install PFSense on a Sophos SG appliance:

                                Sophos SG330

                                Depends which hardware revision, I think. It's probably the EZIO driver if it's the Portwell box.

                                You have a picture?

                                Steve

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                                • M
                                  mickesanda
                                  last edited by mickesanda

                                  Hi Steve and thank you for replying.
                                  I opened the box and it is obvious that the LCD is connected to a COM-port, it says RS232 on the circuit board. Attached i have serial number and revision. So, when I read the documentation, Portwell Ezio means I have to choose "HD44780 and compatible", but after that, I'm lost......
                                  There are a few chioces under the "com port" and a few other choices under "Connection type"
                                  All suggestions are greatly appreciated.
                                  Thx, Mike!
                                  serialno.jpg lcd.jpg
                                  If i google "GFC1602AI" as it says on the sticker I find this manufacturer:
                                  GIFAR Technology

                                  here is the tech spec for GFC1602AI from the manufacturer.PDF

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                                  • M
                                    mickesanda
                                    last edited by

                                    After a few combinations, I succeeded to achieve this:
                                    20190924_085731.jpg
                                    With these settings. Any ideas on what needs to be changed?

                                    garbled.jpg

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      Ok yeah that is the EZIO display. The driver itself should be in LCDproc but I don't think the option to select is in the package yet. You will probably have to start it separately until it is added. See: https://forum.netgate.com/post/795491

                                      Steve

                                      M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • M
                                        mickesanda @stephenw10
                                        last edited by

                                        @stephenw10 Thank you, I already read that post like 3 times and I think I understand what needs to be done. If I understand correctly, the driver is already in the package, I need to create a file called LCDd.conf under root.
                                        Unfortunately, as the other guy in the thread, I am quite novice at that(Unix, Linux, BSD). I'll try and fix it somehow.
                                        Do I need to uncheck "Enable LCDproc at startup" or just choose default settings?

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                                        • stephenw10S
                                          stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                          last edited by stephenw10

                                          Yes disable it in the package and use a shellcmd to start it instead so you can use a custom lcdd.conf file.

                                          M 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • M
                                            mickesanda @stephenw10
                                            last edited by

                                            @stephenw10 I'll give it a try. I purchased 2 X XG-1537 HA for 1 month ago as a replacement for the Sophos SG330. They are way faster and better than Sophos.
                                            So far I'm happy with my choice. So these old Sophos machines are in no way in production, just my curiosity that needs to be satisfied.

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