Issues connecting to Firebox x750e via serial for BIOS flash.
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I have a Firebox x750e here that I'd like to put pfSense on. I'm going the CF card route and used win32diskimager to write the iso to the 128mb CF card that came with the firebox.
I have tried a serial to usb cable, serial to rj45, two normal serial cables, and a null modem cable adapter. I have used both hyperterminal and putty. The firebox boots, single beep, pause, 3 beeps, and just sits there running. I get nothing on HT or putty terminals.
Anyone know of a solution or workaround for this?
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Did you try any of those cables with the original Watchguard OS?
It sounds like you don't have the correct combination of terminal settings, null modem cable and serial port.How did you have it connected exactly? Were you running putty at 9600 8n1?
None of the images you might be writing are ISOs but since you are hearing the 3 beeps it seems it wrote correctly anyway. ;)
Steve
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Turns out the wiring was wrong.
I'm using a cisco serial cable but all the pins are straight thru. The gender changer was swapping 2/3 but it had no 1, 5, 7, or 8 wired in it. 6 and 4 were straight through. I opened that adapter up and wired it up to cross over 4/6, 2/3, and 7/8. 9 is dead, 1 is dead, 5 is straight through. I was able to successfully connect, back up original bios, flash new bios, change baud rate, reboot to a halt, reboot to bios. LCD screen says pfSense B7 Memory Test Pass and I'm able to navigate BIOS via putty.
Now I just need to find a 512mb or larger CF card. 8)
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Well deduced. Another firebox saved. ;)
Steve
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I've read in a few places that the 4gb Kingstons work so I grabbed one to try on this x750e. If it works I'll grab another for the x550e I'll be doing next. I may also grab one for the x700 here on my desk if it needs one too. 8)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000T9251O/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item
These fireboxes are all surplus at my office, and apparently we have a stack of them at our other location on the west coast. I'm attempting to get a list of model numbers and shipping costs. No firebox left behind! 8)
ETA: It's too bad I can't put something cool like pfSense or DD-WRT on the stack of SoHo firebox x5 edges I have here in my room. They're pretty neat as-is but since they're EOL/free license there is a 12 DHCP lease limit and for me that was a problem which is why I'm now running pfSense in an ESXi VM on my poweredge 860.
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Yes, some of the Firebox Edge units would have made excellent candidates for alternative firmware a few years ago. The X5, and similar, ran VxWorks which makes porting to them far harder but the later X10e, X20e and X55e ran Linux. They had a great spec for the time, they now look a little slow but still have more flash and RAM than even modern soho routers. Some progress was made but I ran out skills/knowledge and no one else seemed interested. :(
Steve
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Alert - Newbie reopens old thread…. >:(
It seems I'm having the same issue here as the OP, x750e boots successfully to original Watchguard image, original 512MB CF removed, 265MB (Cisco) CF borrowed and required BIOS image added. Boot to one beep then a few seconds later three beeps.
Unable to connect with the serial cables (and Putty on Win 8.1) I've tried, I've just asked a load of the hardware guys for what they have and it's coming down to combinations of 25-9 pin adapters, gender changers, all sorts. I'm guessing this is my beef.
Can anyone suggest an ebay link or something to a cable that will emulate the OP's pin-out configuration, I'm not generally handy with the soldering iron... ::)
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Try some other terminal client or OS if you can. People have reported strangeness with putty in Win 8.
You must have a cable that supports hardware flowcontrol. Most do. Do you have access to a multimeter and a paperclip?
Steve
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Hi Steve,
Thanks for coming back to me ;D I tried first off with a USB to serial with a required gender changer, no beans, then tried another two different USB to serial, still nothing. My laptop has no serial port, hence continuing down this line, but then I went to another older laptop kept for the serial port and running Win7 and Putty. Another 3 or 4 'proper' serial cables later and still nothing. And no lunch… :( It got a bit daft, I ended up with a cable with 2 converters at one end and 3 on the other, ridiculous.
It's annoying because I'm SO close to being able to start playing with this, for the want of an old cable.
I don't have a multi-meter, and reckon I could be dangerous with one :o
I just wondered if there was an off-the-shelf item I could pick up. Not to worry, I'll continue to hunt around, one of them must work.
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A gender changer is not the same as a null-modem cable. Are any of the things you tried marked null-modem?
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Null_modem
Steve
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Finally someone offered a good cable, all good, BIOS done (B6), just getting an error (I think) on boot now, ata0: DMA limited to UDMA33, controller found non-ATA66 cable, and seems to continuously retry, without reaching an initial config screen… Off topic now I know but temptingly close...
Resisting poking the BIOS settings without advice, would just like to get an initial working config on here to work from.Noticed also in the BIOS that reported CPU temps are worryingly high (60deg C+), usual?
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My x750e CPU usually ran about 36-40c, so 60c is a little high. You could dust out that box and maybe replace the thermal compound. That should get you down to a more normal temperature.
If I remember correctly there are some settings in BIOS you have to change once the new BIOS is flashed before you can use pfSense. Did you follow those instructions? Are you using CF or HDD for pfSense?
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I assume you're running 2.2 in which case see:
https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=20095.msg480824#msg480824B6 is old now. If you use B 8.1 and enable ACPI you can get temp reading on the dashboard as well as not having to mess about with custom CHS settings to boot larger CF cards.
https://sites.google.com/site/pfsensefirebox/home/XEBIOS_81.BINThe original Celeron has no power saving features so runs hotter than a Pentium-M even without powerd enabled. When you're running the BIOS setup you get no CPU idle code so it runs much hotter.
Steve
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Struggling to download that BIOS file, is there an alternative location? I pulled the first one down OK, but not this. Might be company firewall blocking a .bin download, is it zipped up anywhere?
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Hi opjohnny, apologies, for some reason I missed your post, apologies too for hijacking your post…
Yes, I ran through the BIOS tweaks before installing etc. It's the DMA issue that Stephen has pointed out, as I'm using v2.2. Just can't follow the supplied link to get that 8.1 BIOS.
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I'll attach it. Remove the .png extension.
Check the MD5: 0d838b48ef2d68814e1dd21b45d7a69eSteve
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Many thanks :)
