Watchguard XTM 5 Series
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Hi Peter, can please you give me some more details aubout the VGA cable?
I need to have the same!Regards
Christian
- The on-board VGA header definitely works, and it works very well. I made a custom cable with a connector I got from digiKey and it's been extremely useful in playing with the box. The front USB ports work well with USB keyboards and mice as well, so the box becomes a fully functional PC with on-board video.
Cheers,
Peter. -
If you use Y splittercables, then you can combine all the fan connectors to 1 connector,
and connect this connector to the chassis fan connector on the mainboard, then you can use WGXepc64 to lower the fanspeed as low as you want.
Keep in mind, that lowering the fanspeed too much, the cpu temp will raise under load.Grtz
DeLoreanI was initially hoping to have independent control of the fans based on temperature, but perhaps I can get to a balanced medium.
Thanks for the response, I'll get splitter cables ordered.iJay
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Hi everyone! Thanks for all the info in here. With it, I've managed to convert an XTM 515 to a very nice Sophos box. However, I keep getting stuck on upgrading the memory. I've tried everything I see here and nothing is working. Does anyone have a link or part number for the memory I will need? Would be super awesome! Don't think Amazon is going to let me return anything else for another 10 years probably.
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"Just worked" with whatever I've put in it though I've never tried to get it to run 8GB. Not sure I've ever tried 4GB either, I just used what was at hand.
Currently running 2x Nanya NT1GT64U8HB0BY-25D, 1GB 2RX8 PC-2-6400U-666.
Steve
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"Just worked" with whatever I've put in it though I've never tried to get it to run 8GB. Not sure I've ever tried 4GB either, I just used what was at hand.
Currently running 2x Nanya NT1GT64U8HB0BY-25D, 1GB 2RX8 PC-2-6400U-666.
Steve
Thanks, Steve! That helps a lot. That's different than what I've been trying to use.
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Hi Peter, can please you give me some more details aubout the VGA cable?
I need to have the same!Regards
Christian
Hi Christian,
Sure. I originally wanted to make an adapter cable but then decided that it was not worth it since I'd be only using it temporarily. So I ended up cutting one end off a standard DB15 VGA cable and soldering the pins to a connector that was not meant to be soldered to. If you do the same, make sure that you remove the pins from the connector before soldering to avoid the plastic meting. The connector I ordered was DigiKey P/N 609-2736-ND. It is the right type to fit the board header. When you make the cable, the pinout to use is as follows:
| **DB15 pin ** | Header Pin |
| 1 | 1 |
| 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 5 |
| 4 | N/C |
| 5 | N/C |
| 6 | 2 |
| 7 | 4 |
| 8 | 6 |
| 9 | N/C |
| 10 | 10 |
| 11 | N/C |
| 12 | 11 |
| 13 | 7 |
| 14 | 9 |
| 15 | 12 |Hope that helps,
Peter. -
have just grabbed a watchguard xtm 515
Has thrown a 60gb hdd into it to pfsense.has tried to put "pfSense-CE-memstick-serial-2.4.3-RELEASE-amd64.img" onto the CF card. When it's loaded, it's get stuck on line: Trying two mount root from ufs: / dev / ufs / FreeBSD_Install [ro, noatime] …
Full log: https://pastebin.com/Q5eitjBZ
Sometimes I do not get any console output and just a black screen after bios screen. Where it does something behind it can i see on the cursor.The bios is the stock "WG BIOS 1.3"
Have tried to format the disk, second disk, look in bios for settings (view only mode ..)
Have tried to load "pfSense-CE-2.3.5-RELEASE-4g-amd64-nanobsd.img" into hdd - but without success and stuck in last line - Log: https://pastebin.com/ahY7NgsPWhat can i do to put pfsense 2.4.3 on the watchguard?
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That's the point where it switches to the primary only console. Are you sure you used the serial memstick image? If you have used the standard VGA image that's exactly what you would see.
Steve
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That's the point where it switches to the primary only console. Are you sure you used the serial memstick image? If you have used the standard VGA image that's exactly what you would see.
Steve
It is the memstick serial version i have used :/
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Ah, interesting I never tried that.
I definitely did have it working at one time. Failed to keep better notes. :-[
Steve
[/quote]Well, this was a pretty steep learning curve but I can confirm that I now have a modified DSDT that fully supports SpeedStep on the stock CPU. And yes, I can confirm that SpeedStep does indeed work as intended.
I also fiddled quite a bit with C states, but the chipset really only supports C1 in a desktop configuration, so there is absolutely nothing to be gained in terms of idle power consumption: 46W at idle is it! Earlier today I had a Eureka moment thinking I can get lower idle power by enabling CPUSLP#, but as it turns out it is already enabled. Besides, I think the CPU actually drops into C1E state when idle so the power consumption gets as low as it possibly can already. But, of course, I could be talking out of my orifice since I really don't quite know enough about this.
My original issue with DSDT failing was Linux related: I was using a DSDT override method that is apparently no longer supported. Switching to Grub based override of DSDT fixed that issue. Next step for me will be to create and flash a custom BIOS image with the modified DSDT. I intend to create two versions: one for the stock CPU and one for my Q9505S CPU.
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Well, this was a pretty steep learning curve but I can confirm that I now have a modified DSDT that fully supports SpeedStep on the stock CPU. And yes, I can confirm that SpeedStep does indeed work as intended.
I also fiddled quite a bit with C states, but the chipset really only supports C1 in a desktop configuration, so there is absolutely nothing to be gained in terms of idle power consumption: 46W at idle is it! Earlier today I had a Eureka moment thinking I can get lower idle power by enabling CPUSLP#, but as it turns out it is already enabled. Besides, I think the CPU actually drops into C1E state when idle so the power consumption gets as low as it possibly can already. But, of course, I could be talking out of my orifice since I really don't quite know enough about this.
My original issue with DSDT failing was Linux related: I was using a DSDT override method that is apparently no longer supported. Switching to Grub based override of DSDT fixed that issue. Next step for me will be to create and flash a custom BIOS image with the modified DSDT. I intend to create two versions: one for the stock CPU and one for my Q9505S CPU.
From what I remember using my old firebox, the stock power supply was very inefficient. It wasn't until I switched to a picoPSU and an efficient Toshiba laptop power brick that I saw the wattage drop from 45-50 watts to 25watts.
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Yeah, it's probably not great at those Wattage levels despite being a smaller than stock PSU for the original Lanner device.
Steve
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I now have a tested and working version of BIOS for the most recent XTM 5 Series hardware that shipped with E3400 CPU, that includes a number of tweaks and also implements SpeedStep for the E3400 CPU. If anyone is interested I can post a link to the BIOS image. Here is my full list of changes:
XTM515-BIOS1.3-UNLOCKED1.8: Changed 'Sign On Message' to include 'Unlocked v1.8 PT / E3400'. Corrected ACPI version help string line breaks in "Enabled RSDP pointers to 64-bit [...]". XTM515-BIOS1.3-UNLOCKED1.7: Changed 'Sign On Message' to include 'Unlocked v1.7 PT / E3400'. Modified LCD boot string from "WG BIOS 1.3" to "Firewall UTM" in module 1B (Single Link Arch BIOS). XTM515-BIOS1.3-UNLOCKED1.6: Changed 'Sign On Message' to include 'Unlocked v1.6 E3400 PT'. Created two ROM branches, one for E3400 CPU and one for Q9505S CPU. XTM515-BIOS1.3-UNLOCKED1.5: Changed 'Sign On Message' to include 'Unlocked v1.5 PT'. Enabled 'PCIPnP' and 'Chipset' menus. Enabled 'CPU Configuration' submenu in 'Advanced' menu. Enabled 'ACPI Configuration' submenu in 'Advanced' menu. XTM515-BIOS1.3-UNLOCKED1.4: Updated platform 11 CPUID 1067a microcode to version a0b. XTM515-BIOS1.3-UNLOCKED1.3: Disabled 'Lan ByPass Control' submenu in 'Advanced' menu. Modified BIOS Strings from 'Port0 AHCI Speed limit to' to 'Port0 AHCI Speed limit' for Port0 to Port3. XTM515-BIOS1.3-UNLOCKED1.2: Changed 'Aways CF Card Boot' to 'Show' in 'Advanced' menu. XTM515-BIOS1.3-UNLOCKED1.1: Unlocked the BIOS by changing 'User Access Level' to 03 in 'Security' menu. -
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Interesting so does this provide voltage/frequency steps for only the supported CPU? Or does it just try to apply those to whatever is installed?
I don't recall having to set a particular CPU type when I was messing about with this.
Steve
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I am struggling to keep awake, so this will be a quick post in response to stephenw10 and 747Builder.
I spent q bit of time dissecting various BIOS flavours, including the XTM515. I reached a conclusion that it would be very difficult, if not impossible to implement a truly "universal" BIOS. This is primarily because most BIOS builds seem to include a baseline universal CPU ACPI information in the DSDT table, and then dynamically create the appropriate SSDT tables at boot. Those SSDT tables are created with code that resides in the "SLAB" module of the AMI BIOS - the Single Link Arch BIOS. The XTM515 BIOS is missing the required code so the easiest option is to create a separate BIOS image for each CPU model. This is effectively what I have done: the E3400 BIOS image has the required E3400 P-states programmed into the DSDT table, including the FID, VID, frequency and (estimated) power consumption. Similarly the Q9505S BIOS image has the required Q9505S P-states programmed into the DSDT table.
For each CPU model a new DSDT table has to be created and compiled, then merged into the baseline BIOS to replace the old DSDT table and to create a CPU specific BIOS image. I know that the Q9505S BIOS should work fine with Q9505, Q9505S, Q9550 and Q9550S CPUs, except the power will be way off for the non-S models. But the FID, VID and frequencies will be correct.
As an example, I am enclosing below a single CPU core DSDT excerpt for each of the above two CPUs. Please ignore the FID and VID numbers quoted in the comments as I have not fixed them yet to align with the actual FID and VID values in the code. This is left-over copy & paste-a-tis and my chronic lack of time!
CPU1 for E3400 with 4 P-states:
Processor (CPU1, 0x01, 0x00000810, 0x06) { Name (_PPC, 0x00) Name (_PCT, Package (0x02) { ResourceTemplate () { Register (FFixedHW, // PERF_CTL 0x10, // Bit Width 0x00, // Bit Offset 0x00000199, // Address ,) }, ResourceTemplate () { Register (FFixedHW, // PERF_STATUS 0x10, // Bit Width 0x00, // Bit Offset 0x00000198, // Address ,) } }) Name (_CST, Package (0x02) { 0x01, Package (0x04) { ResourceTemplate () { Register (FFixedHW, 0x01, // Bit Width 0x02, // Bit Offset 0x0000000000000000, // Address 0x01, // Access Size ) }, 1, // C State Type 2, // Transition latency in us 25000 // Power Consumption in mW } }) Name (_PSS, Package (0x04) // Values below for Intel Celeron E3400 { Package (0x06) { 2600, // f in MHz 65000, // P in mW 10, // Transition latency in us 10, // Bus Master latency in us 0x00000D24, // value written to PERF_CTL; fid=13, vid=36 0x00000D24 // value of PERF_STATE after successful transition; fid=13, vid=36 }, Package (0x06) { 2000, // f in MHz 53800, // P in mW 10, // Transition latency in us 10, // Bus Master latency in us 0x00000A1E, // value written to PERF_CTL; fid=13, vid=36 0x00000A1E // value of PERF_STATE after successful transition; fid=13, vid=36 }, Package (0x06) { 1600, // f in MHz 47500, // P in mW 10, // Transition latency in us 10, // Bus Master latency in us 0x0000081A, // value written to PERF_CTL; fid=13, vid=36 0x0000081A // value of PERF_STATE after successful transition; fid=13, vid=36 }, Package (0x06) { 1200, // f in MHz 42000, // P in mW 10, // Transition latency in us 10, // Bus Master latency in us 0x00000616, // value written to PERF_CTL; fid=13, vid=36 0x00000616 // value of PERF_STATE after successful transition; fid=13, vid=36 } }) }CPU1 for Q9505S with 6 P-states:
Processor (CPU1, 0x01, 0x00000810, 0x06) { Name (_PPC, 0x00) Name (_PCT, Package (0x02) { ResourceTemplate () { Register (FFixedHW, // PERF_CTL 0x10, // Bit Width 0x00, // Bit Offset 0x00000199, // Address ,) }, ResourceTemplate () { Register (FFixedHW, // PERF_STATUS 0x10, // Bit Width 0x00, // Bit Offset 0x00000198, // Address ,) } }) Name (_CST, Package (0x02) { 0x01, Package (0x04) { ResourceTemplate () { Register (FFixedHW, 0x01, // Bit Width 0x02, // Bit Offset 0x0000000000000000, // Address 0x01, // Access Size ) }, 1, // C State Type 2, // Transition latency in us 12000 // Power Consumption in mW } }) Name (_PSS, Package (0x06) // Values below for Intel Core 2 Quad Q9595S { Package (0x06) { 2833, // f in MHz 65000, // P in mW 10, // Transition latency in us 10, // Bus Master latency in us 0x0000481E, // value written to PERF_CTL; fid=48, vid=1E 0x0000481E // value of PERF_STATE after successful transition; fid=48, vid=1E }, Package (0x06) { 2666, // f in MHz 60100, // P in mW 10, // Transition latency in us 10, // Bus Master latency in us 0x0000081C, // value written to PERF_CTL; fid=9, vid=28 0x0000081C // value of PERF_STATE after successful transition; fid=9, vid=28 }, Package (0x06) { 2500, // f in MHz 56400, // P in mW 10, // Transition latency in us 10, // Bus Master latency in us 0x0000471B, // value written to PERF_CTL; fid=6, vid=22 0x0000471B // value of PERF_STATE after successful transition; fid=6, vid=22 }, Package (0x06) { 2333, // f in MHz 52000, // P in mW 10, // Transition latency in us 10, // Bus Master latency in us 0x00000719, // value written to PERF_CTL; fid=9, vid=28 0x00000719 // value of PERF_STATE after successful transition; fid=9, vid=28 }, Package (0x06) { 2166, // f in MHz 48600, // P in mW 10, // Transition latency in us 10, // Bus Master latency in us 0x00004618, // value written to PERF_CTL; fid=9, vid=28 0x00004618 // value of PERF_STATE after successful transition; fid=9, vid=28 }, Package (0x06) { 2000, // f in MHz 44700, // P in mW 10, // Transition latency in us 10, // Bus Master latency in us 0x00000616, // value written to PERF_CTL; fid=9, vid=28 0x00000616 // value of PERF_STATE after successful transition; fid=9, vid=28 } }) }So in summary, the two BIOS images I created should be only installed on XTM units equipped with the specific CPUs!
Peter.
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Ah that looks very familiar. Though I recall having to add a line for each CPU core with the other cores effectively just linking to the first core for the data.
Hard to imagine why that code was not included by default really. Hmm.
Steve
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Ah that looks very familiar. Though I recall having to add a line for each CPU core with the other cores effectively just linking to the first core for the data.
Hard to imagine why that code was not included by default really. Hmm.
Steve
I don't really get it either, especially considering that I imagine the AMIBIOS8 development kit would come with all the required code modules included. Perhaps it was an attempt at squeezing out the last bit of performance from the hardware? I have seen some claims that under some workloads SpeedStep can cause on the order of 20% performance hit, but I find that very hard to believe. My own primitive checks show anywhere from 0.5% to perhaps 2.5% potential hit, but a lot of it could be just the measurement accuracy.
I did a few additional checks on the E3400 box with my BIOS mods today and SpeedStep is definitely working correctly. I can see frequency and core voltages changing and all of it is reflected in benchmark testing…
Peter.
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I tried modifying my BIOS for a Q9650 but don't think I was successful.. While it didn't break anything it didn't seem stop the "not supported" errors in the log at startup.. :(
My Ucode was a bit older..
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Here is the link to my BIOS. Again, this is for the final hardware version of the XTM5 that came with the E3400 CPU. Included are three BIOS images: without SpeedStep (for all CPUs), E3400 CPU and Q9505S CPU. The Q9505S CPU should also work with Q9550S CPU. I also included the corresponding compiled ACPI_AML modules and the ACPI_AML source where you can inspect my changes.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/aom4whlcg2rg6ic/XTM515-BIOS.zip?dl=0
I will be tweaking the Q9505S a bit more since I now have good power measurements from my box in all six P-states under full load.
Disclaimer: These work fine for me but USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!
Peter.
