Watchguard XTM 5 Series

marian3k

Forgot to mention that my xtm 510 runs with single 4GB DDR2-800 RAM stick. I did not boot with 8GB (2x 4GB) but it might do with say 6GB when running X64 would be useful.

Corellon

Finally got the console to work, had to put together my own cable by splicing a standard serial cable into a different configuration, as mentioned it seems to be cisco standard but since I couldn't easily find pinouts here they are:

RJ45 - DB9
1 - 8
2 - 6 + 1
3 - 2
4+5 - 5
6 - 3
7 - 4
8-7

Flashed the bios, some more options seem available but a lot of them seem to be view mode only though, I'll work on the HDD install after I get more familiar with PFSense and back into FreeBSD.

Edit: once the bios is flashed the battery has to be pulled to reset to default, that unlocked all the options in the bios and allowed it to boot normally again

Thanks for the help

lolman

Hey stephenw10,
i want to step deeper in what you have done.
Can you help me with opening the bios file in amibcp?
I tryed with your .rom file from page 3 and amibcp v4.53 but i always get the error: "Couldn't open the file."
What did you do to open the bios file in amibcp?
Thanks in advance.

stephenw10

It's important to have the right version of AMIBCP. The first versions I had corrupted the BIOS pretty much every time. Unfortunately the machine I was using to run it was using XP so I retired it. It's now gathering dust so I need to get the data off it. I'll get back to you.
Did the rom file download OK, have you checked the MD5?

Steve

lolman

Yes i checked the md5 and i flashed it on my XTM 5.
Everything works.
But im interested and want to get some feelings about modifing the bios.
Thanks in advance for your reply. I'll be waiting.

mcdonnjd

I installed flashrom via pkg_add -r flashrom but I'm getting this when trying to read the original BIOS:

[2.1.3-RELEASE][root@pfSense.gorgarath.net]/root(8): flashrom -r og-bios.img
flashrom v0.9.5.2-r1515 on FreeBSD 8.3-RELEASE-p16 (i386), built with libpci 3.1
.9, GCC 4.2.1 20070719  [FreeBSD], little endian
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Found chipset "Intel ICH7/ICH7R". Enabling flash write... OK.
No EEPROM/flash device found.
Note: flashrom can never write if the flash chip isn't found automatically.

I'd like to make sure I get a valid backup before flashing the modified BIOS. But as of right now, I can't flash the modified BIOS nor make a backup. Am I missing something or a jumper on the motherboard somewhere?

stephenw10

@lolman
You have to use the 3.XX series on the XTM5 bios. I believe the 4.XX is for UEFI bios only. I started out using 3.43 but that mostly corrupted the BIOS image! Using 3.51 allowed me to edit the Superio tables and didn't corrupt the BIOS.

@mcdonnjd
Which model XTM5 do you have? It seems like it's different to those the rest of have so maybe it's one of the second generation models.

Steve

mcdonnjd

@stephenw10:

@mcdonnjd
Which model XTM5 do you have? It seems like it's different to those the rest of have so maybe it's one of the second generation models.

Steve

I was hoping you'd be the one responding as you seem to know a heck of a lot about these units. I just upped the memory to a pair of 2GB sticks and a Core2 Duo (E6550) @ 2.33GHz, though I'm thinking of downgrading one of the Core2 Quad (IRRC 3.0GHz) PCs down to a Core2 Duo once I check one to see what socket it is using.

I'm thinking I might have a different model, a later generation perhaps as I have 2 SATA power connectors on my PSU. I took some pics last night that I can post if needed. The BIOS version reported by the LCD and on the console match what you posted and I believe it's the same motherboard model, though I'd have to open it up (or check my pictures) again to be sure as I can't remember now.

On the back of it, it's a very generic XTM 5 Series and XTM 510. I don't see anything about revisions or anything to make it easy. If there's something you want me to look for or try, let me know.

Currently idling in the BIOS at 39 degrees on the CPU with the Core2 Duo. Didn't check what it was at before on the Celeron, though I only had it on at home in the living room before where it was much warmer than the server room at work. Doesn't sound like the fans are running loud either which is nice, though I can't really be sure they aren't as there's a ton of wind noise in this room already. Vcore is fluctuating at 1.319-1.334, I haven't looked up yet to see if that's in spec or not yet.

EDIT>>
I missed the label on the bottom of the chassis, Model #: NC2AE8.

Also, do you think that either http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811994023 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817997007 would fit nicely inside so I could have a RAID-1 hard drive setup? They both probably would fit with some modifications, but curious if anyone things they would fit without having to do any work to them.

stephenw10

Hmm. Ok well the 510 is a 1st gen model. You have the same version of flashrom as everyone else, v0.9.5.2-r1515. And it looks like you're running 32bit, yes?

My box, which happens to be sat open beside me :), is also marked NC2AE8. It is also marked on the PCB 'MB-7580 W V1.0 C' and it has a small square sticker near the BIOS rom chip marked 'MB-7580 CK:9A80 2010-02-03'. The date in particular would be interesting if yours is newer.

It is possible to read the details from the BIOS rom chip if you look closely with a light (and possibly a magnifying glass!). The chip is labelled on the PCB as U34 and is immediately adjacent to a 10pin header labelled SPI-ROM1 (which is what I'm connected to in this picture)

The ROM chip in my box is marked: '25P80VG, 78227 VZ, PHL 0314' with the ST Microelectronics logo. Which agrees with what flashrom is saying:

Found ST flash chip "M25P80" (1024 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xfff00000.

Careful when putting in more powerful CPUs. The XTM5 has a smaller PSU than the standard Lanner box it's based on. Though yours is different.

Steve

mcdonnjd

@stephenw10:

Hmm. Ok well the 510 is a 1st gen model. You have the same version of flashrom as everyone else, v0.9.5.2-r1515. And it looks like you're running 32bit, yes?

Perhaps they made small changes without changing the model. It does happen, sometimes even entire chipsets get changed though they keep the same model number and revision. (Which thankfully isn't too common, but more common than it should be.)

@stephenw10:

My box, which happens to be sat open beside me :), is also marked NC2AE8. It is also marked on the PCB 'MB-7580 W V1.0 C' and it has a small square sticker near the BIOS rom chip marked 'MB-7580 CK:9A80 2010-02-03'. The date in particular would be interesting if yours is newer.

The PCB is stamped 'MB-7580 W V1.0' and the sticker is marked 'MB-7580W CK: 9880 2010-02-03'. There is also a small sticker labeled '686, AMIBIOS, C1999, YK12, 2061' that you can see in the picture.

@stephenw10:

It is possible to read the details from the BIOS rom chip if you look closely with a light (and possibly a magnifying glass!). The chip is labelled on the PCB as U34 and is immediately adjacent to a 10pin header labelled SPI-ROM1

The ROM chip in my box is marked: '25P80VG, 78227 VZ, PHL 0314' with the ST Microelectronics logo. Which agrees with what flashrom is saying:
Found ST flash chip "M25P80" (1024 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xfff00000.

Man, that is one tiny chip! Whatever happened to the nice larger BIOS chips with sockets for hot flashing and such? Those were so much nicer. lol

Anyway, the U34 chip is labeled as '25P80VG, GHAAM V5, CHN 643B' (or CHN6438, not sure, looks more like a B to me) and then the ST logo and something inside a circle that my eyes are going buggy trying to read without a microscope… I'm not sure what the white on the corner of the chip is, but it doesn't seem to be something on top as it doesn't seem to come off.

@stephenw10:

Careful when putting in more powerful CPUs. The XTM5 has a smaller PSU than the standard Lanner box it's based on. Though yours is different.

Steve

I put the Quad Core2 chip in and seem to be idling in the BIOS around 55 degrees with a lower Vcore voltage. Once I get this up and running a bit more, I'll stress test it to make sure that it won't overheat. I've already looked up some higher capacity fans on Newegg if needed. Worst case scenario with the power supply not being able to handle it, would be an unstable system correct? There's also the chance of the power supply going, but I think an unstable system that's hard to diagnose as to what's causing it to be more worse case than a dead power supply that can be replaced.

My power supply is labeled as Model: ST-220FUB-05E with total power being marked as 220W although also marked as Max 204W… Ahh, the Max is for the 204W max on the +3.3V, +5V, and +12V buses and then the 16W Max for the -12V and +5VSB buses for the 220W total max.

EDIT>>
It seems it deleted all my comments and only posted the picture, one moment while I type it all back up...
Ok, I think that I answered everything and left all the comments I did before.

IMG_20140515_153000.jpg_thumb

stephenw10

Hmm, I would have expected it to be a different chip. Like completely different, perhaps double the size as was often the case with the old style removable chips. Odd the flashrom doesn't see it. You are running it from root I assume?

You could try a 2.2 snapshot which will have a newer flashrom.

Steve

chpalmer

@stephenw10:

You could try a 2.2 snapshot which will have a newer flashrom.
Steve

When I tried several weeks ago there appeared to be no flashrom under 2.2… Ill give it a try again to verify.

stephenw10

Hmm yes, I was forgetting no pkg_add etc in 2.2. Haven't explored the options here. Just add a pbi repo? Point at PC-BSD 10?

Steve

mcdonnjd

@stephenw10:

Hmm yes, I was forgetting no pkg_add etc in 2.2. Haven't explored the options here. Just add a pbi repo? Point at PC-BSD 10?

Steve

I took a quick look yesterday and looked again today, but I'm not seeing how to do this. If you could kindly point me in the right direction, I'll give this a try. Seems like all I'm finding are people talking about how repo's broke with 2.1 or something, but not seeing how to actually set it up. I'm guessing I'm just not using the right search terms.

stephenw10

Hmm, this is far more trouble than I expected. I'm probably just missing something. There seems to be no easy way of adding flashrom (or anything else) to 2.2. More research needed. ;)

Looks like you might be able to use the PC-BSD PBIs but since 10 they are 64bit only. :-\

pbi_add -r http://pbi.cdn.pcbsd.org/sysutils/flashrom/10/x64/flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64.pbi

No good for 32bit installs, which mine is. :(

Edit: Though you can do that you shouldn't. Use the pkg command instead see below.

Steve

mcdonnjd

@stephenw10:

Hmm, this is far more trouble than I expected. I'm probably just missing something. There seems to be no easy way of adding flashrom (or anything else) to 2.2. More research needed. ;)

Looks like you might be able to use the PC-BSD PBIs but since 10 they are 64bit only. :-\
pbi_add -r http://pbi.cdn.pcbsd.org/sysutils/flashrom/10/x64/flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64.pbi
No good for 32bit installs, which mine is. :(

Steve

Heh, tried to quote the message, but my phone decided to thank you instead.

Anyway, is there a DOS utility that can flash the BIOS on this perhaps? I can try loading up FreeDOS on the CF card and flashing the BIOS that way. I'd imagine this is possible as almost everyone still provides ways to flash via DOS. (HP is great with this as you can PXE boot an image with a bunch of different BIOSes and the machine automatically figures out which one is for that machine and the program can be signed with the BIOS password so no interaction is required.)

stephenw10

Thank your phone for me. ;D

There are DOS programs for doing this yes. AFUDOS I believe is the program you'd need. The problem is that these dos based tools still use some sort of graphical mode, albeit a crude one, which cannot be displayed via the serial console. To work around that you need to feed it a command line that by-passes all the user input such as we did with the X-e boxes, see:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_on_Watchguard_Firebox#Flashing_the_BIOS

I've just tried and failed to get FreeDOS to boot to the console. I'm sure I've done it before though. :-\

Steve

mcdonnjd

@stephenw10:

Thank your phone for me. ;D

There are DOS programs for doing this yes. AFUDOS I believe is the program you'd need. The problem is that these dos based tools still use some sort of graphical mode, albeit a crude one, which cannot be displayed via the serial console. To work around that you need to feed it a command line that by-passes all the user input such as we did with the X-e boxes, see:
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/PfSense_on_Watchguard_Firebox#Flashing_the_BIOS

I've just tried and failed to get FreeDOS to boot to the console. I'm sure I've done it before though. :-\

Steve

I tried one of your FreeDOS images from one of the other watchguard threads and never got the 3 beeps. Looking at the CF card though, it doesn't look like everything copied over. And now I can't seem to repartition my card back to 1GB from 16MB, so I've not tried the 64bit 2.2 yet. I need a female to female adapter for the PCI-Express slot so I can toss a video card on it. (And later, hopefully a supported crypto card.)

Would doing the pain in the butt SPI work? I'd have to hack together a cable for it and all, but if that's what I have to do, that's what I have to do.

I think I'll try playing around with trying to get FreeDOS working for now though.Or maybe a Linux distro with flashrom. Plenty of things to try. Might need to run to the store for a new CF card though. Newegg needs a local store in my middle of nowhere town… Lol

EDIT>>
Well, I got 2.2 up and running, and got the flashrom pbi installed, but it still gives the same error about no EEPROM/flash device found. Guess I'll have to try some Linux or DOS.

stephenw10

The SPI header may work but I see no reason why flashrom should recognise your chip via that rather than the internal method, which is also using SPI.

I updated my box to 64bit which you can do via the normal firmware update just change the updater URL. It is possible to install the flashrom PBI from PC-BSD as I outlined above but it seems very 'wrong'.

Edit: It IS wrong don't do it, see below.

You cannot install the PBI directly you must fetch it first. You must disable the signature check. Then when it's installed you must call it using the full path it does not seem to integrate in any useful way even after a rehash.


[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(8): fetch http://pbi.cdn.pcbsd.org/sysutils/flashrom/10/x64/flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64.pbi
flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64.pbi                    100% of 5349 kB 1999 kBps 00m03s
[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(9): pbi_add -i flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64.pbi
PBI Information for: flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64
-----------------------------------------------------
Name: flashrom
RootInstall: NO
Version: 0.9.7_1
Built: 20140206 190737
Prefix: /usr/pbi/flashrom-amd64
Author: flashrom Team
Website: http://www.flashrom.org/
Arch: amd64
FbsdVer: 10.0-RELEASE
CreatorVer: 1.0
ArchiveCount: 648
ArchiveSum: e22c43317551cb41703add247953ccbeb277957f9444003d09586ec22aa67f9a
Signature: Bad
License: GPLv2
AutoUpdate: NO

[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(12): pbi_add --no-checksig flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64.pbi 
Verifying Checksum...OK
Extracting to: /usr/pbi/flashrom-amd64
Installed: flashrom-0.9.7_1

[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(14): rehash
[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(15): flashrom
flashrom: Command not found.

[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(18): /usr/pbi/bin/flashrom -p internal
flashrom v0.9.7-r1711 on FreeBSD 10.0-STABLE (amd64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Found chipset "Intel ICH7/ICH7R". Enabling flash write... OK.
Found Micron/Numonyx/ST flash chip "M25P80" (1024 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xfff00000.
No operations were specified.

~~If you choose to use this method I would definitely recommend reinstalling afterwards or at least switching to the other slice if you're running Nano.~~ Just don't!

Steve

mcdonnjd

@stephenw10:

The SPI header may work but I see no reason why flashrom should recognise your chip via that rather than the internal method, which is also using SPI.

I updated my box to 64bit which you can do via the normal firmware update just change the updater URL. It is possible to install the flashrom PBI from PC-BSD as I outlined above but it seems very 'wrong'.

You cannot install the PBI directly you must fetch it first. You must disable the signature check. Then when it's installed you must call it using the full path it does not seem to integrate in any useful way even after a rehash.
[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(8): fetch http://pbi.cdn.pcbsd.org/sysutils/flashrom/10/x64/flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64.pbi
flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64.pbi                    100% of 5349 kB 1999 kBps 00m03s
[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(9): pbi_add -i flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64.pbi
PBI Information for: flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64
-----------------------------------------------------
Name: flashrom
RootInstall: NO
Version: 0.9.7_1
Built: 20140206 190737
Prefix: /usr/pbi/flashrom-amd64
Author: flashrom Team
Website: http://www.flashrom.org/
Arch: amd64
FbsdVer: 10.0-RELEASE
CreatorVer: 1.0
ArchiveCount: 648
ArchiveSum: e22c43317551cb41703add247953ccbeb277957f9444003d09586ec22aa67f9a
Signature: Bad
License: GPLv2
AutoUpdate: NO

[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(12): pbi_add --no-checksig flashrom-0.9.7_1-amd64.pbi 
Verifying Checksum...OK
Extracting to: /usr/pbi/flashrom-amd64
Installed: flashrom-0.9.7_1

[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(14): rehash
[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(15): flashrom
flashrom: Command not found.

[2.2-ALPHA][root@pfsense.localdomain]/tmp(18): /usr/pbi/bin/flashrom -p internal
flashrom v0.9.7-r1711 on FreeBSD 10.0-STABLE (amd64)
flashrom is free software, get the source code at http://www.flashrom.org

Calibrating delay loop... OK.
Found chipset "Intel ICH7/ICH7R". Enabling flash write... OK.
Found Micron/Numonyx/ST flash chip "M25P80" (1024 kB, SPI) at physical address 0xfff00000.
No operations were specified.
If you choose to use this method I would definitely recommend reinstalling afterwards or at least switching to the other slice if you're running Nano.

Steve

As I said, I got 2.2 installed and flashrom installed as well, but it still did not work. I then tried a couple different ways of getting FreeDOS booted, but none of them seemed to work. I'm putting 2.1.3 back on the CF card now and going to get it configured and then make a backup of it so I can stop having to go through the setup every time after trying something different.

Out of curiosity, do you have a jumper on J10? Mine doesn't have one. J11 seems required to be able to turn on, and J2 was on pins 2&3. J14 has no jumper across any of the 3 pins. Is this the same as what you have there?