Installing on a Firebox X700

GOBIGRED

so i first tried using windows 7 to use phydiskwrite to flash a four gig cp and nothing worked, i tried many diffrent images still
then i load a windows xp box ran everything with admin rights and still get nowhere, tried four diffrent cp all 4 gigs still nothing, trying to find a store around that sells a 2 gig,

List of card i tried
-scandisk
-kingston
-lexar
-cannon

Still no luck sucks big time really wanted to throw a pfsense box in to the network soon

GOBIGRED

Steve i think its writting to CF. The only reason i think that is after i try it in the FB and i go to flash it again to try another one it makes me format the card agin because windows cant read it. I think its there DB9 but i dont see how its brand new i went out and got it cuz i dont use them with cisco products and thats what i deal with the most so im a little confused, You said there is no special serial cable needed right?

Thanks for helping as much as you have!!!

stephenw10

Even if the image was not correctly written to the card it would still over write the fat32 format that Windows uses. It would still ask you to reformat it even if the image was corrupt. I have never had a physdiskwrite give any trouble with Windows XP and a USB card adapter. The only time it has failed to write the image was when the card was too small for the image but then it gives an error to tell you that.

Even so you might as well try using Win32 Image Writer instead. Unlike physdiskwrite it can't gunzip the image file so you have to do that your self first with Winrar or some similar program.

The cable required is a standard Null Modem cable. It's no different than the one required for m0n0wall so if that's working it should be fine.

Steve

GOBIGRED

i cant figure out how to use win32 image writer lol!! I cant belive its this much of a pain!!!

stephenw10

You could try this image.
It's an image of a 16MB CF card, so it will fit on almost any card, with FreeDOS loaded. It boots with its output to the serial port at 9600. It has no purpose on this box other than as a test.
When it boots just before it switches to the serial console it beeps three times so you know it has booted correctly. If you hear the beeps but don't see anything on the serial console you know you have a problem with your serial connection.

Steve

dLockers

I had no success using Windows to write the image, I reverted to using a virtual machine with Ubuntu.

GOBIGRED

Install Solved!!! IT was the cable !!
Now how do i configure the interfaces?
Is there a gui or is it all command line?

And what do i do to Fix the lcd ?

Thanks

stephenw10

WOOT! ;D

Did you setup the WAN and LAN initially via the serial console?
If not I suggest you re-flash the card and go through the inital setup again, that's easiest.
After that you can access the web GUI via the LAN interface on 192.168.1.1 (unless you changed it). From there you can assign the other interfaces and have fun with all the other features.
There is still something strange that affects only the X-Core box that you may find. The serial console does not spawn a menu as it should after the bootup messages. There are several workarounds, I'm using this: http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,7458.msg241783.html#msg241783

Thanks to some great work by several people there is now a driver for the firebox LCD in the lcdproc-dev package which is in the pfSense package system. Not all the bugs have been squashed yet but it's functional.

Steve

GOBIGRED

Steve,

What do you mean by this (Thanks to some great work by several people there is now a driver for the firebox LCD in the lcdproc-dev package which is in the pfSense package system)? im having trouble trying to get the lcd to work? Im running the 2.01 image!! cant seem to find anything with steps to get to work thanks

GOBIGRED

im getting this error when trying to get the package (Unable to communicate with www.pfsense.com. Please verify DNS and interface configuration, and that pfSense has functional Internet connectivity.)

i can ping from the pfsense box
the default gateway
and many other devices that are on the network but get that error dont know why!!!

stephenw10

Hmm,
That's odd. It could be that pfSense.org was down for maintenance.
The file required to generate the package list is: http://www.pfsense.org/packages/pkg_config.8.xml
If you can see the list but can't install the package then maybe it was updating at the time.

Can you ping any external address from the pfSense box?

I take it you have successfully accessed the web GUI? ;)

Steve

GOBIGRED

yes i pinged google and other outside ips and all my lan ips but could not get the install package to work

stephenw10

Can you see the list of available packages?

What about the firmware upgrade?
If you go to System: Firmware: Auto Update:
does it show this:


Downloading new version information...done
Obtaining current version information...done

You are on the latest version.

Steve

GOBIGRED

ok i got the packages to install but what setting do i choose?

stephenw10

Ok, the lcdproc-dev package is still being worked on, I agree it's somewhat confusing at present.
Go to the config page, Services: LCDproc:, on the server tab select:
Enable LCDproc at startup: check this
Com Port: parallel port 1
Display Size: 2 rows 20 columns (I don't think this actually matters for the firebox but this is the correct value)
Driver : Watchguard Firebox with SDEC
Refresh Frequency: 5s (the display is slow to update so 5 seconds is reasonable)

Click the 'Save' button.
On the screens tab just select some screens you want. Try it with one or two to start off with.
Click the 'Save' button.

Now goto: Status: Services: click the 'start' button next to lcdproc.
You should now see the display working.

Steve

GOBIGRED

Steve thanks!!!

Next question!! ok so i have a block of five static IPS from my isp, one of them was on the wan side of there router so i took that IP and put on the WAN side of the FB now i can get out to the internet and ping google.com and so forth. When i was using there router which had wifi built in i pluged a cable into a port and was able to use 192.168.1.0 block on my LAN. Im trying to do that now and cant seem to figure out how! Can you point me in the right direction? The static IPS were public if that helps at all!!!

Thanks for all the help!!!!

stephenw10

@GOBIGRED:

Next question!!

:D

Hmm, I'm not sure I understand what you're asking.
Have you replaced the ISP supplied router entirely with the firebox?
In it's default config pfSense uses 192.168.1.1/24 for it's LAN interface and has dhcp enabled. You can just plug in a client and it will receive an IP and start working.
The firebox has 6 interfaces so you still have four left after assigning WAN and LAN. If you haven't assigned them they won't do anything. You can configure them in various ways to meet your requirements. For example, you can bridge them with LAN so that you effectively have a 5 port switch all on the LAN interface. You can assign each to its own interface so you can set firewall rules individually for maximum control. Any combination of the two.

Do you need to use more of your public IPs?

Steve

GOBIGRED

Yes im trying tpo replace the whole ISP and run my static and my 192.168.1 on my lan

stephenw10

Ok, well what exactly are you struggling with?
How have you setup your different interfaces so far?

What are you hoping to achieve as the final network setup?

Steve

GOBIGRED

my wan has a static of 108 X X X and can go up to 110 but i have a staic and my email server so it can be accessed publicly everything else has a 192 x x x address beside that one email server