Watchguard Firebox XTM 8 Series

[Eams]

Booting up with no CF card in gives me this output in PuTTY:

AMIBIOS(C)2006 American Megatrends, Inc.                                        
MB-8750 Ver.AAA 12/02/08                                                        
CPU : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU    Q9400  @ 2.66GHz                           
 Speed : 2.66 GHz                                    
                                                    (F3 on Remote Keyboard)                                
The MCH is operating with DDR2 800/CL5/Tras18/Trp5/Trcd5                        
Initializing USB Controllers .. Done.                                           
2039MB OK
Reboot and Select proper Boot device                                            
or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

[stephenw10]

Looks like it's all working then. Always a bit of a risk buying incomplete from ebay.  ;)

I imagine the lcd is compatible with all their previous models.

I assume it has an arm/disarm led on the front? Does it come up correctly as red when you boot the bios?

Interesting that the bios date is two years earlier than the XTM5. Might just be Lanners date.

Also a bit odd that they chose to use com2 and have it at the rear.  :-\

Does it have thermal fan control? The unmodified XTM5 bios would allow you to check the system temperatures and voltages and almost nothing else.

Steve

[Eams]

Yeah it seems to be working ok, as far as I can tell without having a CF card or a hdd to hand.

Ebay is a gamble at the best of times anyway ;) PSU's are built to take the damage without passing it on to the motherboard so I was pretty confident it would be ok - unless it blew due to a short on the motherboard - took it out to ensure no screws were stuck under and it was all clear :)

The LCD seems to be the same as previous models as you say so should be ok.

There is an arm/disarm led on the front, it hasn't lit up yet.

Yeah COM2 is a bit weird I guess - the Lanners FW-8750 does have one at the front - it's marked but un headed on the XTM8 next to the front USB ports.
Having looked at Lanner's website and registered, there is no bios update for the FW-8750 board :(

There is however some useful info there about the FW-8750 of which this board seems to be from:

Platform
Processor: Supports one Intel Core 2 Quad, Core 2 Duo, Pentium dual-core processor, LGA 775
Chipset: Intel Q35 + ICH9D0
Front Side Bus: 1333/1066/800 MHz
Max Speed: 3.0GHz

System Memory
Technology: Dual-channel DDR2 800/667 MHz
Max Capacity: 4GB
Socket: 240P DIMM x 2

Storage
HDD Bay(s) 3.5” x 1
Storage Interface: Serial ATA x 4, CompactFlash (type II) x 1
RAID: N/A

Networking
Ethernet Ports: 6 onboard (RJ45 x 6), 2 pair support bypass function, 1 optional module
Controller: Intel 82573L x 5, Intel 82566DM x 1, see module specifications for expansion ports

Supported Modules
NM-8750G4A: 4 port GbE (RJ45 x 4) Intel 82574L
NM-8750S4A: 4 port SFP (SFP x 4) Intel 82575EB

I/O Interface
Console: DB9 RS-232 x 1
USB 2.0: 2
Expansion: RC-87501A: PCI x1

Cooling
Processor: 1U CPU active heatsink (3 cooling fans)
System: Cooling fan x 1 with Smart Fan

Environmental Parameters
Temperature, ambient operating / storage: 0ºC ~40ºC / -20ºC~70ºC
Humidity (RH), ambient operating 5 ~ 90%, non-operating: 5 ~ 95%, non condensing

Miscellaneous
LCD Module: 2 x 20 character
Watchdog
Internal RTC with Li Battery

Physical Dimensions
426x44.4x396 mm (16.7x1.7x215.6 in) (WxHxD)
Weight: 8.2 kg (18.1 lbs)

Power
Type / Watts: 1U ATX SPS / 270W
Input: AC 100~240V at 50~60Hz

So potential to stick in a lower powered Core 2 Duo to get the watts down. Worth noting is that this board can take a 3.16Ghz Quad Core 2 processer!

It does seem to have themal fan control from the specs above and from having a poke in the BIOS. It powers them up at full thurst when first switched on, then slows them to almost a stop, then back to around 75% of the inital power up speed.

The only thing the BIOS allows you do do is set the time and date, and thats it. But you can view a load of other pages, temps, boot order and a bunch of other things I can't recall from late last night.

I did however log the screens from PuTTY - see next post.

Eamon

[Eams]

BIOS menus from XTM 8

Done as screen shots as it was easier than having to format the PuTTY log file!


[Eams]

Notice on Hardware Health screen - fans have PWM settings ;)

Eamon

[stephenw10]

Ah, yes that all look very familiar. This box looks very similar to the XTM5. I'd be willing to bet the arm/disarm led control is in the same place too. Some investigation would be required to find out for sure once you have it booting into pfSense.
Have you seen the price of those boxes new.  :o That's mostly licensing I guess but still.

Steve

[Eams]

I should have it booting into pfSense soon, managed to pick up a CF card and a reader, can then see what this board says :)

Yeah saw online how much they are new :o even without licences they can still go for a lot. But the money is in the licencing for Watchguard.

Eamon

[Eams]

Hmm not getting any joy no matter what image I put on this CF card :(

Eamon

[stephenw10]

What image exactly are you using? How are you writing it?

Steve

[Eams]

I've tried:
pfSense-2.0.3-RELEASE-4g-i386-nanobsd-20130412-1022 - my 4g cf card is a smidge to small for this image :(
pfSense-2.0.3-RELEASE-4g-amd64-nanobsd-20130412-1027 - ditto above.
and
pfSense-2.0.3-RELEASE-2g-i386-nanobsd-20130412-1022.img - XTM 8 POSTs then hangs with the screen cleared.
pfSense-2.0.3-RELEASE-2g-amd64-nanobsd.img - ditto

Using Win32DiskImager to burn the images after extracting them - using a all in one usb card reader to write to the card (Windows 7 64bit)
Tried a few FreeDos images and they booted up fine on the XTM 8, so just a bit puzzled  ???

Eamon

[Edited to add about card reader]

[stephenw10]

Could it be that the XTM8 is using com2 for its serial port? Can you see if two serial ports are enabled in the bios?
Though if a FreeDOS image boots correctly that wouldn't explain it.

Are you using the correct baud rate? The bios usually comes up at 115200 where as pfSense uses 9600 by default.

Steve

[Eams]

I've been using 115200 8,n,1 No Parity, XON/OFF from the get go and it's been fine.
I did try it on 9600, but just got garbage!

Yeah it is using COM2 2F8h, IRQ 3.. Would pfSense switch to/assume COM1 and be trying to write to that?

Eamon

[Eams]

I can only see 1 COM port in the BIOS and thats COM2.

One in Advanced>Configure Remote Access and the other is under Advanced>Super IO Configuration - same address used 2F8/IRQ 3.

Eamon

[stephenw10]

pfSense will use com1 but that will just be whatever the first detected com port is. If there's only one enabled it will use that.
Did you use my FreeDOS image? That is configured to use com1 but also to use 9600bps so if you are seeing that then it should be working. If you used a standard FreeDOS image then what you are seeing is being redirected by the BIOS code which remains resident after boot if enabled. This could be interfering perhaps?

Try starting your serial terminal at 9600 after the machine has booted. Sometimes putty (if you're using that) has a problem when the baud rate changes.

Steve

[Eams]

I saw you had a post of a FreeDos .vhd file but I don't use any virtualisation software on my main pc  - I just went to their website and used some images off there and they worked.

I did close down PuTTY between baud changes - I just get garbage and then the garbage stops!

In Advanced>Remote Config screen it has Redirection After BIOS POST [Always]
But I've no way of changing it due to the 'View Only Item' message on everything :(

Eamon

[stephenw10]

The .vhd file was my first effort though I think it can be written by anything. Try this image instead:
https://sites.google.com/site/pfsensefirebox/home/FreeDOSBios2.img.gz

That is set to use com1 at 9600 and it will beep three times just before it switches to the serial console.

If pfSense is booting in the background you will see the HD activity LED flashing after the console garbage has stopped. If that isn't happening then I suggest that the image is not writing correctly to the card. What are you extracting it with?

I always use phydiskwriteGUI which does the decompression on the fly. I know some people have had trouble with Windows 7 getting in the way.

Steve

[stephenw10]

You could also try this image which is mostly the same as the other one:
https://sites.google.com/site/pfsensefirebox/home/FreeDOSBios.img

Since that's not gzip'd you won't have to extract it. If that runs but the others didn't you know it's an extraction problem.

Steve

[Eams]

Ok, wrote the FreeDosBios2 image to the card - boots up to the DOS menu ok, but after the 3 beeps - nothing (on 115200).
Changed the baud rate to 9600 got the garbage, beeps then nothing again.

Did FreeDosBios2 image through WinDiskImager.

Wrote nanobsd.full.img with physdiskwrite - wrote ok - (after using DiskPart to clean the partitions) - got nothing on XTM 8 both at 115200 and 9600.

The HD led does light up during POST but nothing when loading pfSense, however it does flicker up to the beeps on FreeDosBios2 image.

I have read something about UDMA/S.M.A.R.T. having an effect on other Fireboxes - the message shows when pfSense is on the cf card, but doesn't when FreeDos is on it  ???

I think my options are:
1. Get a 12pin IDC to 15pin VGA cable and connect up a monitor.
2. Install pfSense on a VM, configure it for COM2 and transfer that to the cf card.
3. Solder a header on to the COM1 space on the board.
4. Flash the BIOS to change COM2 address to the COM1 address.

Of which:
1. Do-able but would have to wait a few days for it to arrive.
2. Do-able although I have no knowledge of FreeBSD/pfSense.
3. No chance, I can solder but I'm not willing to risk it on this board.
4. No BIOS update to flash so no go.

I'm gonna have a go at changing the FreeDosBios2 image to use COM2 - Dos I can do ;)

Eamon

[Eams]

@stephenw10:

You could also try this image which is mostly the same as the other one:
https://sites.google.com/site/pfsensefirebox/home/FreeDOSBios.img

Since that's not gzip'd you won't have to extract it. If that runs but the others didn't you know it's an extraction problem.

Steve

Tried that one with physdiskwrite - worked the same as the gz one, booted up but that after the beeps nothing :(

Eamon

[stephenw10]

Yes that's the first thing I'd try. Edit the autoexec.bat file to put the console to com2 instead. Relatively easy test and it would confirm the problem.

If you boot with putty at 115200 does it show anything after the bios post that might indicate the card is booting? You should have an opportunity to interrupt the process and give the bootloader some parameters. You could potentially tell it to use com2 at that point.

You could try using one of the nanobsd_vga images. That will attempt to use the keyboard/monitor as the console. The resident bios code may redirect that to the com port. No idea if that would work.

It's possible to modify the bios like I did with the XTM5 but it's risky stuff. I managed to 'brick' the box a number of times but it did give me the opportunity to learn how to recover it!  ;D

Steve