Watchguard XTM 5 Series

unknown001

I'm please to report that with the help of people on this forum, I'm able to get Xeon L5410 to run on XTM510. Using 771 to 775 adapter.

Now, I'm looking to flash the bios. I followed directions on from earlier on this thread. I was able to download the xtm5_83 file and verified md5 matched. Before going any further and breaking the xtm5, I want to see if someone can point me in the right direction. Maybe I should just stick to the watchguard bios? After installing flashrom using the method "pkg install flashrom." I'm getting the below error. I cannot read or write to the flash device because flashrom could not detect the chip.

[2.2-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.localdomain]/root: flashrom -p internal
flashrom v0.9.7-r1711 on FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE-p4 (i386)
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.

stephenw10

Ah, that's disappointing. :(
I don't know why it might not be detecting your bios rom. Since we know it works I would suggest going back to an earlier version just to do the bios flash.
Nice work with the Xeon though. :)
50W TDP is nice, do you have any power figures for box with that installed?

Steve

unknown001

On Intel Xeon L5410
79.6 Watt at boot
66.4 Watt while running idle
Have not ran it to full capacity, because I don't know what to use on pfsense for load test. Any pointers would be appreciated.

Got some good and bad new to report about my xtm5 experience, I have two of these. One is the xtm505, this is the dead unit I was trying to revive from early post with SPI header cable. The motherboard is version 1.2 with Watchguard OS 11.5.1. I was able to bring this unit back to life and it's running xtm5_83.rom. Thanks stephenw10.

Strangely, the other unit, a xtm510 with motherboard version 1.0A (with Watchguard OS11.6.1) could not be flashed. I suspect Watchguard may have implemented some type of software lock on the bios in later Watchguard OS. Meaning that if you upgraded the Watchguard it will flash the bios with a software lock. Because I have tried multiple times with SPIPGM2 and flashrom and could not detect this bios.

Untitled.jpg_thumb

stephenw10

Unlikely a software lock but maybe a hardware lock of some kind. The reader is seeing code FFFFFF so every bit is 1. That's almost certainly because it's not reading it correctly and that could easily be because it's not powered or that some pin on the SPI connector is grounded (or requires grounding) etc. The earlier board powered the chip when it was in standby but there's no requirement for it to do that, most SPI programmers provide power so you can programme the chip even with the board completely unpowered.

Steve

chpalmer

Success!

:)

Running 4GB of DDR2 800 which I might try and replace with something closer to 1200mhz later. Or just leave it for now.

4core.jpg_thumb

stephenw10

Nice! :)
Any power consumption figures with that CPU? How does it compare with the L5410 above?

Steve

taherio

Hello watchguard gurus, I have been trying to follow the steps mentioned to get pfsense running on "xtm 505".
I am able to dd the nanobsd image to the 1GB cf card no trouble, however when I try to boot the LCD always stays at "WG Bios v1.3".
So I assume there is something that I need to do through the console to let the system boot past the bios ?
( I also tried removing the cf and putting a sata drive with nanobsd image, same results ). Will the LCD display something specific when boot is completed successfully ?

My BIGGEST problem is that I cant seem to get the console (RJ45) to serial com port working correctly ( I never dealt with RJ45 to serial before ) , I connected it to my pc using putty ( 115200 8 N 1 XOFF/XON) I also tried 9600 for speed, I tried putty on windows and ubuntu, I also tried minicom, screen and cu with no success. the closest thing I could get is some random non-readable characters that was streaming non stop for a while, I thought it could be interference with the wire of some sort ?. Then most of the time I connect to console keep rebooting and not get a single sign on putty. I tried different cable to make sure that the cable is not defected. I really ran out of ideas I feel that the answer is so simple but I am just too stupid to get it.

I would be really grateful if someone was able to give me some insight regarding how to get past this , I have read the thread but I no hint for the noobs like me :D seems like you all are experienced pfsense flashing users.

(I am also new to this forum and this is the first thing I wrote here)

stephenw10

Hi,
The LCD wont show anything else until you load the driver and program to control it in pfSense.
You shouldn't need to anything to boot pfSense other than swap out the CF card. Even with no CF card you should still see the BIOS output on the serial console. It sounds like you have a bad cable somehow.

Have you confirmed that the hardware is good by booting the Watchguard OS?

Steve

TuxToaster

Hello all,

I've got a 505 on the way, as well as a quad core 8200S + low profile fan and heatsink. I've been digging through this thread and a couple of others, and hopefully the install will go smoothly, but I've got a few questions:

Is the max RAM allowed 4 GB or 8 GB? I see the note that the chipset supports 8, but seems like everyone is doing 2-4 GB. I'm planning on running Snort on it, so more is better. But I saw that the FW-7850 says it supports up to 8, though it sounds like that might be an optional configuration:

Up to 8 Gb of Memory: With 2 additional 240p DIMM slots this network appliance can hold a maximum 8 GB of RAM

Specifically what memory is needed? DDR2 800mhz? Or does it support something different?
I saw a comment elsewhere referencing this thread saying removing the CF card will allow USB to be booted so that you can install on to a HDD/SSD directly. Is this correct?
And finally, can we put together an updated list of versions or links to the most recent BIOS image, DSDT, WGXepc and lcdproc? This thread has only been going for 3 1/2 years, so it's kind of fun to figure out which mentions of images, etc. are the most current and which were from earlier testing.

gharris

I'd also love to see that as I'm also going to very soon be in the same type of boat.

TuxToaster

Here's what I've figured out so far:

Max memory - I did finally find the other thread where someone mentioned more memory, BUT I can't tell if he meant to say "I didn't boot with more than 4GB" meaning he didn't try, or "It didn't boot with more" meaning it failed to boot.

I did determine that what a few people have run into is that any 4GB sticks are going to either be high or low density chips, and high density is only supported on AMD platforms. So for this you'd need 4GB low density sticks, and those are not nearly as cheap or as plentiful.

I've taken the plunge and ordered 2x4GB DDR2 800mhz low density sticks at a cost of $144 to see if they work, so I'll be sure to let everyone know. If they don't, I'm definitely getting a refund, as I don't have anything else that will need them ;-)

Memory speed - Best I can tell 800Mhz is probably the best to get here. I don't think the board supports anything faster, and it appears at least other boards with the G41 chipset don't handle overclocking well, not to mention that is likely not an option on this board given the limited BIOS.
HDD - From a couple other posts it seems that the USB can be made bootable in the BIOS. I'm still not sure whether this is done by disabling the CF or a separate option, but I'll find out and make a note once my box arrives.
List of links and updates - I'll try to compile a list of the latest links I can find as well as what upgrade options appear to be supported. Then we'll see if we can get someone to update the Wiki page with it.

stephenw10

Hey,
Yikes, that's expensive! I have 1GB in my box and haven't used that yet. As I wrote in the wiki the board will take 4GB, the chipset claims to support 8GB but that might be in 4 slots. I've not tried. The FW-7580 claims to support 8GB also though and there don't appear to be any unpopultaed slots on the PCB. But as you said:

Up to 8 Gb of Memory: With 2 additional 240p DIMM slots this network appliance can hold a maximum 8 GB of RAM

I haven't actually managed to make it boot from USB though it's been a while since I tried. I've always run from CF.

There has only been one bios image posted, linked here. You don't need to flash that to run pfSense though.
The DSDT table I made, such as it is, is here. It didn't do much though and is specific to the E4500 I'm running.
LCDproc is available via the latest lcdproc-dev package.

Steve

TuxToaster

Yeah, I'm mainly concerned with memory as I'll be running Snort on multiple interfaces and I want to be sure that it's not going to have any issues. I figure a quad core 8200S plus 8 gigs should prevent any need to upgrade later, except to possibly a 9550 or a Xeon if it feels like it could use a small boost.

We'll know pretty quickly if the 8GB works or not though. I figure if it will take one 4GB stick there isn't much reason for it not to support two ;-)

Thanks for the links. I thought there was a couple other versions of the BIOS, but they may have just been references back to the same post. I'll likely do the BIOS update as others have had success with it so I don't see much risk there.

TuxToaster

OK, some good news, 8 GB is confirmed as supported as long as you're using low density DIMMs.

I'm just waiting for my processor and a spare SATA cable to show up, though I'm tempted to swipe a cable out of one of my other systems to get started so that I don't have to wait.

![XTM505 8GB.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/XTM505 8GB.png)
![XTM505 8GB.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/XTM505 8GB.png_thumb)

TuxToaster

All installed and happy! Took some work to get it to boot anything for some reason, though. I did confirm that the stock BIOS will recognize a USB flash drive, and removing the CF appears to position the USB as bootable… but no matter what I did to either the CF or the USB I couldn't seem to get it to boot either of them. It would just stop after the BIOS output with no errors or movement.

I ultimately ended up plugging in a USB to SATA cable to the hard drive (which was a little tight since I didn't want to remove the HDD from the Watchguard) and booted the same USB stick on a laptop. While it did boot, I ended up reflashing the USB once more with the non-serial version so that I could actually run the installer, then installed to the drive in the Watchguard.

It didn't have a problem booting from the HDD installation, luckily, so I set up a barebones config from the command line so that I'd have a network connection, grabbed the updated BIOS image and flashed it, racked the box, and then restored my modified config file and switched my connections over.

So, to sum up some lessons learned:

Upgrading to a Core2Quad 8200S and 8GB of RAM (two 4GB DDR2 800mhz low density sticks) worked perfectly without any other changes or tweaks necessary.
The stock BIOS did recognize both the HDD and USB just by plugging them in and booting.
Removing the CF card will cause the BIOS to set either the USB or HDD as bootable. Whether or not it will actually boot from them is another story…. ;-)
Flashing the BIOS worked perfectly. However, flashrom now requires you to specify the programmer to be used for flashing, so the command line becomes:

flashrom -w xtm5_83.rom --programmer internal

At least in my case, the CMOS did need to be cleared after flashing the BIOS for settings to be changed.
The "user password" was still set in the BIOS, though it didn't cause any problems, I made sure to clear it just in case.
I wanted to use lcdproc-dev directly so that I could try out the screens from the UI. As others have pointed out, the client has issues connecting to the server, which appears to be because localhost resolves to ::1. But if you haven't set up IPv6, the server won't be listening there. So I simply commented out the ::1 entry in /etc/hosts as I'm not using IPv6 on this network at all, and lcdproc thus far appears to be working without issue.

I think that about covers it. I'll follow up here if I run into any trouble or come up with anything fun, as I plan on fiddling with the lcdproc a bit at some point to at least see if I can make it a bit less finicky if/when time permits.

22213w

Hi All,

Just trying to read everything I can but I have a question about Stock BIOS or Flashrom. Can I upgrade the CPU to a Xeon and Menory using the Watchguard Stock BIOS or do I need to flash the Bios with Flashrom…..

Thanks

TuxToaster

It is not necessary to flash the BIOS unless you want to make use of speedstep or specific features.

I upgraded both the RAM and processor before touching the BIOS to verify that everything was working, and it had no problem detecting them. Keep in mind that you will likely need to do some modifications to the processor and socket to do the Xeon, but the Core2 processors are supported natively.

22213w

Thanks TuxToaster for you speedy reply. I'm currently try to win a xtm 5 on ebay now. As for modifications to the Xeon chip or socket it is my understanding the socket is a lga775 as per the link below and this guy is running a Xeon 3370 Quad Core with 4x 3GHz. Please take a look at the web page you need to use chrome to translate to english and tell me what you think….

http://www.triebwerk23.de/joomla/index.php/firewalls/watchguard-xtm-5-xtm-505-515-525-545-pfsense-64-bit

Thanks

TuxToaster

Good luck with the bid! As for the Xeon, it looks like a 3370 would actually work, as it is a LGA775 socket. Many of the Xeons are 771 sockets and have to be modified slightly to work.

So the 3370 will fit, the main concern I think anyone would have is the power usage, as it is a 95W TDP, as opposed to the 65W CPU that the machine is shipped with. The motherboard does indeed support it, but the power supply and cooling system are smaller than those in the system that the Watchguard was based on. I know a few others here have reported similar processors worked for them. You would just want to be cautious of the power usage and heat, particularly if the box is under a heavy traffic load.

It's worth noting that there is no fan directly over the CPU, there are two fans at the back of the case and the enclosure goes over both and the heatsink, but under extreme temperatures that may not move heat away from the CPU surface as quickly as a fan directly on the heatsink might, so it might pose problems down the road. I actually looked at putting in a low profile heatsink with fan on it, but it was slightly too tall to fit in the case.

As others have said, this is probably not a big issue and will likely work, but just some things to think about.

stephenw10

The FW-7580 that the XTM5 is based on was rated for 95W CPUs but it had more fans and a bigger PSU. I haven't fitted anything >65W myself.
I personally think that the ducted cooling solution used by Lanner/Watchguard is much better than a fan on the CPU directly. It may allow the CPU the become slightly hotter but it keeps everything else much cooler by extracting the hot air from the case.

Steve