How to flash pfSense 2.1 to a WatchGuard Firebox x750e / x550e / SSL 500

Posted by : RJ Nunnally On : February 10, 2014
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Category: Computer, Hardware, How-To

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WatchGuard SSL 500Here’s how to get pfSense 2.1 running on your WatchGuard Firebox X-core-e, including the x550e, x750e, x1250e, SSL 100, and SSL 500. I have personally confirmed that this procedure works on the x750e and SSL 500.

Video:

Equipment Needed:

(And of course, the power & lan cables)

Available X-Core-e Models:

All the WatchGuard X-Core-e models are largely identical with one notable exception. All  X-Core-e models are 1U chassis loaded with a 1.3GHz Celeron processor, 512mb of DDR2 RAM, four Marvell 88e8001 gigabit NICs, a channel well power supply, and front-mounted HD47780 based character LCD.  The x750e and x1250e add another set of four Marvell 88e8053 gigabit NICs, but all X-Core-e models can be upgraded to the same specification as the unpopulated area simply contains a block off plate on the x550e, SSL 100, and SSL 500. I believe the SSL 100 / 500 come with a (optional?) hard drive, but my SSL 500 arrived without a hard drive.

Verifying Function:

After you receive your Firebox, you should verify that it works. This is simple – just plug the firebox in to AC power, turn the switch on, and watch the LCD screen. It should display “Memory Test Passed” after a short period of time, then proceed to boot the factory operating system. After a period of time, the display will switch to displaying the uptime. If you wish, you can plug each port into your network and confirm the LEDs for the applicable port light up. As we are replacing the OS, I will not discuss logging into the factory management interface.

Flashing pfSense

We will be installing pfSense Nano which is specifically built to run from flash memory (CF cards). To do this, we must disassemble the firebox, remove the factory CF card, and install pfSense to our own CF card. This process is further complicated by a bug in the Firebox’s BIOS which prevents it from booting from CF cards larger than 512mb; as all pfSense Nano images are now larger than 512mb, we must first change the BIOS settings prior to installing pfSense.

Disassembly

Turn off and unplug the Firebox. Remove the four sets of three screws located at the front left, front right, rear left, and rear right (note that one of these screws is covered by a warranty label).  Now remove the remaining two screws located high on the back of the firewall – the back being where the power cable plugs in. Finally, slide the top of the metal case towards the back of the firewall and lift up to expose the motherboard.

Booting FreeDOS and Flashing the BIOS

Because the Firebox is designed to be rack mounted and accessed solely via the network or serial interfaces, there is no readily available direct video output. This presents a problem because the BIOS cannot be observed. Furthermore, no keyboard headers are available either, making it difficult to enter the BIOS in the first place! Several remedies are available – a VGA output & keyboard header exist on the motherboard, but are unpopulated; two PCI-e slots are also available into which an external video card can be plugged; but the easiest solution is to flash the BIOS with a version that redirects the output to the serial port. To access the utility needed to flash the BIOS, we boot into a pre-made FreeDOS image.

Begin by downloading the FreeDOS image [here]. Make a note of where it is saved. Now download either Win Disk Imager which uses a simpler graphical interface or the potentially more powerful Physdiskwrite which must be accessed via the command line. Verify the MD5 checksum for the zipped FreeDOS image is 5ebb3f11925a8a78f7829e3ca0823f5d before proceeding. If using Win Disk Imager, extract the zip to a location of your choice and verify the .img file’s checksum is 86e32dc36d9d0098d11a5d15df05f586. You are now ready to write FreeDOS to a CF card of your choice ranging in size from 16mb to 512mb.

*NOTE* The Firebox can be picky about what CF cards it will boot from. I tried several old SanDisk CF cards without success. The CF card that comes with the Firebox is guaranteed to work. If you wish to keep the factory image so the Firebox can be reverted back to factory operation, use Win Disk Imager to back up the card.

Flashing with Win Disk Imager

First open Win32 Disk Imager

Win32_disk_imager_open

 

 

Click the folder icon to the right of the text box, then locate and select (“open”) your disk image. You will do this once with freeDOS and again with pfSense.

Win32_disk_imager_open_imageClick the MD5 Hash checkbox and verify the hash. This is optional, but if confirmed ensures your image is fully intact.

Win32_disk_imager_confirm_hash

 

 

If necessary, change the drive letter to your compact flash disk under the “device” dropdown, located to the right of the folder icon. Click the “Write” button. Win Disk Imager will ask you to confirm the write operation – select “Yes.”

Win32_disk_imager_write_confirm

 

You should see it start writing the image to the CF card. This may take a while and will vary depending on the speed of your CF card.

Win32_disk_imager_writeing

 

You will be greeted with pop up window when done.

success

Once the image has been successfully written to the CF card, remove the factory CF card from the Firebox and install your newly flashed CF card, being careful to line the card up in the tray – you don’t want to bend the pins! Now plug your null modem cable into the front of the Firebox and into your computer, using the USB-to-serial adapter if necessary.

Fire up your terminal program of choice – I like PuTTY – select your serial port, and set the connection speed to 9600 baud (bits per second or BPS), 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and no parity bit (hereafter abbreviated 8N1). If using PuTTY, the default settings work. Don’t worry if you don’t know the exact serial port – it can be a trial and error process. The device manager may provide clues if you need help and most USB-to-Serial adapters are listed above COM 4 (e.g. COM 5 or COM 6). I’m lucky my Dell Latitude D620 comes with a hardware serial interface and it is listed as COM 1. Switch on the power to the Firebox and you should hear 3 beeps after a short period of time. If your terminal is configured correctly, you will be welcomed by an MS-DOS prompt. It is now time to flash the BIOS so that it will read the higher capacity CF card needed to run pfSense.

First, confirm that your Firebox is like the rest by running “biosid” or BIOS ID(entification). It is important this information matches my screenshot – if it doesn’t something might be different about your Firebox and flashign the BIOS could render the machine useless.

bios_id_ssl500

 

Next, backup the existing BIOS to the internal CF card by running “awdflash /pn /sy backup1.bin /e” like so. “backup1.bin” can be any name of your choosing.

bios_backup_ssl500

 

Complete the BIOS flash by running “awdflash x750eb7.bin /py /sn /cc /e”

bios_flash_ssl500

 

You are done when the DOS prompt returns. Don’t worry if it takes a while as this will vary depending on the speed of your CF card. If in doubt, leave the Firebox running – turning the machine off prematurely can corrupt the BIOS and leave you with an expensive red doorstop.

With the BIOS flashed, change your terminal program to 115200 baud 8N1 and switch on / restart the Firebox. You should see the Firebox run through its power on self test (POST) as the memory is tested. Press the TAB key to enter the BIOS (yes, it says to press delete – the delete key is emulated in the terminal environment with the tab key). Enter the IDE hard drive setup, change the settings to manual, and set the head to “2.”

At this time, you may also change the fan speed to ‘BB’ to help quiet the fans during the boot process. Once pfSense is running, an additional script may be loaded to dynamically vary the fan speed, resulting in a near inaudible Firebox.

Flashing pfSense

With the BIOS hurdle out of the way, it is time to download and flash pfSense. This process closely follows the process used to flash FreeDOS. First download your pfSense image of choice from here. You want a pfSense “Nano” image which is specifically built to run from flash memory. Choose the version appropriate for your flash card – 512mb for a 512mb card, 1g for a 1 gig card, 2g for a 2 gig card, or 4g for a 4 gigabyte CF card. The Firebox runs on x86 hardware with serial console output instead of VGA, so choose an i386 build without the vga tag. If you use the 4 gig card I recommended above, download “pfSense-2.1-RELEASE-4g-i386-nanobsd-20130911-1816.zip” (newly updated link! – MD5 hashes here). Verify the MD5 hash for the unzipped .img file is B64BC70515D72C6E90D5AE6A4ABC4354 before proceeding.

With the pfSense image in hand, insert your new, large CF card into your card reader and following the procedures above, flash pfSense to the card with either Win Disk Imager or physdiskwrite. It will take longer to write the image to the card this time as pfSense is a much larger program than FreeDOS.

Once completed, ground yourself, unplug the Firebox, remove the old FreeDOS CF card and insert your newly flashed pfSense CF card.

Booting into pfSense

It is now time to boot pfSense for the first time. Make sure your null modem cable is connected and fire up your terminal (hyperterminal, PuTTY, etc). Like before, connect at 9600 8N1 and turn on the Firebox. After the POST, you will see pfSense begin to boot, eventually landing on the initial configuration. Here you will configure your WAN, LAN, and additional ports. Ports 1-4 will be mapped to interfaces sk0 – sk3. Ports 5-8, if available, will be mapped to interfaces msk0 – msk3. Be sure to put your critical network devices on the sk interfaces – the msk interfaces have been known to have stability issues in the past. Once you have your WAN & LAN connections setup, you can plug your computer into the LAN port, navigate to the Web UI, and configure your new pfSense firewall – but that’s another article.

pfsense_ssl500_boot

Further Enhancements

Several further enhancements exist to improve functionality of the pfSense flashed WatchGuard firewalls. Community support has been integral in implementing fan control to help quiet the banshee like howl of the fans; with healthy fans in a residential environment, the fans slow down to a whisper (stay tuned as I am working to release an enhanced version of the fan control!). So too has the community found a way to enable the LCD, and buttons, on the front of the firewall, making this mod feel factory once complete. Beyond software mods, hardware additions also exist. On the SSL boxes & the x550e, it is possible to add the extra NICs found in the x750e and x1250e for additional capacity.  Because the entire firewall is a specialized x86 computer, the processor and memory can be upgraded. If you are using the box as a VPN gateway, hardware encryption cards pop right in although support is in the air. Finally, a hard drive can be added which supports more advanced features of pfSense, like squid caching to help reduce the load on your external connection. Most of this is overkill in a residential home – the benefits become apparent in a small business environment and above. Look for a future post detailing how these improvements.

Learn how to control the fan speed here -> https://www.hexhound.com/quiet-the-fan-on-your-pfsense-watchguard-firewall/

 

 

 

 

RJ

RJ

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  • Ben

    Do you have a back up copy of the original bios? If so could I possibly get that from you?

    • RJ

      Yes, I do. I’ll need to find it – which bios do you want? I have one from the x750e and another from the SSL 500. – RJ

      • MJM

        RJ I know this is a old discussion but I am trying to do the same thing but cannot get my box to boot. I messed up and did not backup the bios. Any chance you have it still. x750e
        Thanks

        • RJ

          I’m looking right now – unfortunately, I wouldn’t get your hopes up. I don’t have the backed up BIOS on my desktop… I’ll be sure to let you know if I locate the files! Can you access the serial console at all?

  • Pingback: Pfsense help ?()

  • Musli18

    Hi,
    thank you for sharing. I have one Prblem with my pfsense Watchguard. I have installed the CF Card ne with the Image. If i boot from the Card the Watchguard show me over Putty Terminal following message “Config.xml is corrupted and is 0 bytes. Could not restore a previous backup.”

    I hope you can help me. Are you using Skype or something like this? Maybe we can talk

    • RJ

      Your problem looks to the be the same as this post on the pfSense forums https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=76385.0 He resolved the issue by using a new 4gb CF card – what CF card are you using, is it new, what image are you using, and where did you get your image?

  • Ashley

    Hello,

    I need some help. I have followed the steps but I am stuck. I have flashed the bios but however when I boot it and open my serial port to 115200 it outputs what seem to be random strings. It then goes on and boots the FreeDos what is contained on the CF card and outputs data to 9600 serial connection.

    Once booted if I run (biosid) I get.

    C:\BIOS>biosid
    ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
    ³ BIOSID v1.1 – BIOS Identification Utility ³
    ³ Copyright (c) 1998 Unicore Software, Inc. ³
    ³ Tel : 1-800-800-BIOS ³
    ³ http: //www.unicore.com/ ³
    ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ
    BIOS DATE : 12/21/2005CHIPSET ID : AlvisoBIOS ID : 6A79GAKAC-00BIOS TYPE : Phoenix Technologies, Ltd.OEM INFO : **** BIOS Ver.ETAC0017 mod V1.7 comconsole on com1 115200 ****…………….% IBM IS A TRADEMARK OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINE

    Press Any key to exit!

    —————–

    This is the output of the system on 115200 with the modified bios.

    .[5n.[5nAT
    AT
    AT
    AT
    .[5n.[5n.[5n.[5n……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

    p.s. I am running WatchGuard x750e Core

    • Cyrix2k

      Hi, I’ll play with mine and see if I can help you. In the meantime, which custom BIOS did you flash? I recommend trying the version that writes “pfSense B7” to the front LCD which will serve as visual confirmation the flash was successful. Generally the random characters mean the bitrate is set incorrectly and your terminal program (PuTTY) cannot interpret what your Firebox is saying. Also, I can confirm these steps should work on the x750e as that is what I originally developed these steps around; I filmed the SSL 500 on the second go, but it is functionally identical.

      • Ashley Primo

        Hello, Yes I did flash “pfSense B7” it also does confirm that on the front LCD. But for some reason it still does not want to output data, I have re flashed it multiple times to test but still no correct output 😕

      • Ashley Primo

        I have since re tested this trial on a different computer it seems it must have been my adapter not allowing the correct data bud rate to be set. Thank you for all your help, and this tutorial.

    • Matthew Newman

      HI, I am having a problem finding the download that matches the MD5 hash match. Your link brings up a cannot find page.

      Could you guide me to the right file? None of the others are willing to boot.

      Thanks

  • hello, i tried with a usb cable to db9 adapter and with an older computer with serial port, but don’t work el freedos boot, only a one beep from the watchguard X750e Core X. the null cable is a special settings ?? thanks.

    • Cyrix2k

      The null cable should work with the settings posted above. It sounds like FreeDOS is not booting at all – make sure you are using a compatible CF card and that the FreeDOS image has been successfully flashed. If it still doesn’t work, try resetting the BIOS on the Firebox by removing the CMOS battery for a while with the Firebox unplugged or by using the onboard jumpers (I think the Firebox has them, but I don’t have one in front of me for reference).

      • thank you, i buy a new cf card (kingston 8GB), and don’t work, either. finally i used the original sandisk cf card (256 mb) and work ok.

  • hi

    on a 550e once I flashed the FreeDos my system doesnt boot, I get only 1 beep.
    it had a 512MB CF card and I used that card for the FreeDos. any idea?

    • RJ

      Hi, the 512mb card should work, but I am concerned it is not original as all of my fireboxes have come with smaller cards. Was the warranty seal intact? I was unable to use my other small CF cards with FreeDOS. However, the first thing I would recommend is to clear the BIOS. I think there is a jumper on the motherboard for this purpose, but another easy way to clear the bios is simply to unplug the firebox, remove the battery, and wait a few minutes. If this doesn’t help, try flashing FreeDOS with physdiskwrite instead. If it still doesn’t work, you will need to experiment with other CF cards. I wish you luck!

    • Cyrix2k

      Hi, the 512mb card should work, but I am concerned it is not original as all of my fireboxes have come with smaller cards. Was the warranty seal intact? I was unable to use my other small CF cards with FreeDOS. However, the first thing I would recommend is to clear the BIOS. I think there is a jumper on the motherboard for this purpose, but another easy way to clear the bios is simply to unplug the firebox, remove the battery, and wait a few minutes. If this doesn’t help, try flashing FreeDOS with physdiskwrite instead. If it still doesn’t work, you will need to experiment with other CF cards. I wish you luck!

      (sorry for the late response, I replied through wordpress which *should* sync the comments to disqus, but it doesn’t appear to be working)

    • josh

      I have the same setup. 512MB CF and will not boot freedos from the 256MB that I bought off eBay? Anyone seen this? I would overwrite the 512 but am afraid that I will have the same results… Anyone have input on how to backup the CF to an image before I commit to an overwrite? Thanks in advance

      • Cyrix2k

        Use Win32 Disk Imager to create an image of your existing card (press the read button). I couldn’t get any CF cards except for the original card that came with my firebox to boot into freedos. If you look closely at the screenshots I posted above, you’ll see I imaged my factory CF cards too.

        • josh

          When I connect the cf card intoUSB card reader on win 7 lap top it says format disk? I cannot grab the image using win32 disk imager

          • Cyrix2k

            I’m looking for a Windows solution – hopefully someone else can chime in. I keep coming up with the *nix utility dd which should do the trick.

          • josh

            I have an Ubuntu server I can use if you have commands to backup

          • Cyrix2k

            I believe it is just “dd if=/dev/sda of=firebox.img” assuming your CF card is /dev/sda. If it complains about needing a byte size, try appending “bs=16k”

          • John Doe

            Although this is late and I am sure you have moved on – My card said the same thing about formatting it *DO NOT FORMAT THE CARD* what you need to do is open the DiskImager and where it says image file press the folder navigate to where you want to save it and click ok then type a name (for mine I used the firebox model + “_ORIG” so something like x700_ORIG. The read button should allow you to press it after you do that.

        • josh

          I have not been able to get this x550e to boot with the freedos image written to the 256mb cf that I bought or when I flashed the 512mb that came with the system. I have flashed back to the backed up original image and still will not boot? any help would be great!

          • Cyrix2k

            Ok, let’s go back to the beginning. You have an x550e and it came with a 512mb card. Did it boot when you got it? Does it have a hard drive? Was the warranty sticker over the CF card intact before you removed it? Did you confirm the MD5 hash for the freedos image matches what I posted? Unfortunately it’s hard to troubleshoot this remotely. If it has a hard drive, I’d remove it. Reset the BIOS (pull the button cell battery for 15 minutes with the firebox unplugged from the wall) and try again. If the warranty sticker wasn’t intact and it still won’t boot, I’d try hunting down an original CF card because I certainly had a lot of trouble getting other cards to work for freedos. If you *still* can’t get it to work after trying different computers, CF readers, and CF cards, it’s possible to install a PCI-e graphics card with an adapter or the motherboard removed so that you can get screen output. That should be a complete last resort.

          • josh

            The 512 came with the system and did boot to the WG is. It did have the warranty sticker in tact. I will check the md5 hash, but all that I can think of is if the card reader is bad or something like that…

  • Rob

    I have found after the flash when you reboot sometimes you have to set putty or HT to 19200 not 115200 then when you have made the changes in bios save exit then change putty 115200.

  • Jake Rote

    Any one know why the 750e does not support 4gb ram as the CPU does?

    Thanks

  • Whitey436

    Do you have the process to adjust fan speed after initial bootup?

    • Cyrix2k

      Yes, I do. See here –

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3GZCyIx_vE

      You can also download shellcmd and add “/usr/local/etc/rc.d/fanctrl.sh start” so that WPXepc starts at boot.

      • Whitey436

        Thanks! So on a previous posting on the PFS Forum they were quoting BB
        as the lowest speed to use. I see your using 10, what is the target
        temp we need to keep the FB below ?

        • Cyrix2k

          I’ve heard that you shouldn’t set the speed less than BB in the BIOS as it will cause stability problems, but I don’t think it was due to overheating. Keep the temperature under 50*C and you won’t have any problems… for most people, the firebox will stay cool with the fan barely running. With mine at 10, it’s reporting a 43*C temp. These were built to be run in a datacenter where temperature is sometimes an issue and they are loaded far heavier than what they will likely experience in a home setting.

  • Al

    hi i just got an 8gb kinstong card and I cant get it to boot pfsense, i used my stock 256mb card for freedos but i cant find pfsense that fits on 256mb so i figured i needed the 8gb.

    • Al

      I also set the bios with header 2 and still nothing.

  • Ryan

    Hi there,

    I successfully mounted Freedos and flashed via PuTTY. However when I go to the next step by connecting at a higher baud rate (115200) I get nothing on pressing tab after the first beep. I’ve tried at 19200 but I get a string of random crap. However, booting at 9600 I get the usual Freedos screen. Do you know what I need to do next? I’m a bit confused as to why it’s not talking at 115200.

    Thanks 🙂

    • Cyrix2k

      Ryan, try clearing the BIOS. I think there’s a jumper on the motherboard; if not, just pull the battery with the A/C power disconnected and wait 15 minutes. You should see output (the POST) even before pressing tab – if you’re getting nothing, either console output is disabled or there is another problem.

      • Ryan

        I gave up on this one but I’m willing to try again as I have had the unit sat doing nothing for… Two years it seems!

        What should I do to enable the console output? Surely this would be enabled if I’m getting Freedos to appear in PuTTY at 9600?

  • Rick

    This worked great for me! Any updates on getting this to work with pfSense 2.2?

    • Cyrix2k

      I’m glad to hear it! I’m working on a pfSense 2.2 write-up now and hope to have it up mid-late May. I’m wrapping up my master’s degree right now and can’t devote as much time to this site as usual. I’ll also have an OPNsense (a pfSense fork with a cleaned up code base and a better interface) write-up once the July release drops.

  • SJ Black

    for pfsense 2.2 to work, need to do the following

    – install bios 8.1

    – enable acpi in bios

    – disable dma

    more info is available here

    https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=20095.msg480824#msg480824

    • Eero Volotinen

      so, you mean to flash bios 8.1? where I can get this?

  • Ashley Primo

    Hey,

    Sorry if this is a double comment; however the download link has been changed from http://srv.xomcloud.co.uk/downloads/pfSense-2.1-RELEASE-4g-i386-nanobsd-20130911-1816.img to -> http://web.1.srv.xomcloud.co.uk/downloads/pfSense-2.1-RELEASE-4g-i386-nanobsd-20130911-1816.img

    If you have any trouble with the link let me know 🙂

    Kind Regards,
    Ashley Primo

  • DeLorean

    Does anyone have a image of the original Watchguard OS for the x550e ?
    My x550e came with IPcop installed when i bought it from Ebay. I want to compare the troughput between the watchguard OS and Pfsense.

    Thanks in advance

  • Joe Mahoney

    I’ve Followed all these step (with the newer Pfsense 2.2.4 and 2.1), And I keep getting Time zone errors as well as config is corrupt, I am unable to do anything after getting PFsense to load. It just keeps giving me these errors.

  • Chris Millard

    I am unable to get past the BIOS flash stage at the moment! I have an x550e. I have written the FreeDOS image to the original 128MB CF card. I have checked the BIOS with BIOSID and it matches the description above, however, running AWDFLASH just causes it all to hang!

  • John Alesso

    I feel like a total noob. Where do I go to download bios 8.1?

  • Sam Bertrand

    I have successfully flashed the BIOS and changed the proper setting on the stock 256MB CF card. Now using a Kingston 4GB (new) and pfsense 2.1, I am stuck in the Booting OS.. Is there any way to be sure it’s the CF card ? Is there any other BIOS settings to try ? Here in Canada, the recommended CF card is 67$ !

  • John Doe

    I have seen that a few people have accidentally destroyed their original CF files for their devices. I’m sure there is a list somewhere out there, but for the mean time I just pulled these two images out of these two fireboxes:
    x700: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7gjespuhe13f1v5/x700_ORIG?dl=0
    x550e: https://www.dropbox.com/s/7zxyvkubx829l2n/x550e_ORIG?dl=0

  • Eero Volotinen

    Does this box work fine with newer release of pfsense? any experiences using XTM 810 with pfsense?

  • Eero Volotinen
  • Isis332Arreguin

    I was requiring IRS 990 several days ago and located a web service that has a searchable database . If others are interested in IRS 990 also , here’s a http://qr.net/bWRp5

  • Aylwin G

    Hi I have a x500. can you suggest or point me towards the correct BIOS update file for this device.

  • Andrew English

    Do I use the x750e firmware on the x1250e box? If not where do I get the x1250e firmware from?

    • Cyrix2k

      X750e and X1250e use the same firmware.

  • Colin Wheeler

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/06a83ef4bf2d068aa0e3025a8edffdc00d134a9fa23ccc8a9164cf18959d6216.png I have an X1000 firebox that i am trying to flash freedos bios to but i am finding the bios id is far different. Is there a different version of freedos bios i should be using than the one shown in this article?

    • Matthew

      Were you able to figure this out? I get this same screen…

      Thanks

    • Tommy Hughes

      I am getting the same bios screen also

    • Cyrix2k

      I believe the X1000 uses older, different hardware. This guide & BIOS are not intended for that system. Sorry 🙁

  • RubberDucky

    Any way to install 2.3.3? I have gone through everything and flashed it with 2.3.3… Garbled text on my Putty console. Do I need a newer BIOS?

  • Greg Smith

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7313ac8f560dd5e29eefdfd3b6410d875cee8bf12f007db52935bdd48b73791d.png How do you change the head value to 2 in the bios settings as described above? I can change to manual with no issues, but the other values do not seem to be editable…

    • Cyrix2k

      It’s been a while. You may have to change the access mode (PIO)? I hope you’ve found the answer by now!

      • Greg Smith

        Alas, I have experimented with a variety of PIO and other settings but still haven’t been able to make it past the following with my 16 gb CF card (has anyone been successful with such a large card?):

        Phoenix Technologies, LTD
        System Configurations
        +==============================================================================+
        | CPU Type : Genuine Intel(R) processor Base Memory : 640K |
        | CPU ID/uco: 0695/45 Extended Memory :2087936K |
        | CPU Clock : 1.30GHz Cache Memory : 512K |
        |——————————————————————————|
        | Pri. Master Disk : CHS,ATA 100,15989MB Display Type : EGA/VGA |
        | Pri. Slave Disk : None Serial Port(s) : 3F8 2F8 |
        | Sec. Master Disk : None Parallel Port(s) : 378 |
        | Sec. Slave Disk : None DDR2 at Bank(s) : 0 2 |
        +==============================================================================+

        PCI device listing …
        Bus No. Device No. Func No. Vendor/Device Class Device Class IRQ
        ——————————————————————————–
        0 2 0 8086 2592 0300 Display Cntrlr 5
        0 29 0 8086 2658 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI Cntrlr 9
        0 29 1 8086 2659 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI Cntrlr 11
        0 29 2 8086 265A 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI Cntrlr 10
        0 29 3 8086 265B 0C03 USB 1.0/1.1 UHCI Cntrlr 5
        0 29 7 8086 265C 0C03 USB 2.0 EHCI Cntrlr 9
        0 31 1 8086 266F 0101 IDE Cntrlr 14
        1 4 0 177D 0003 1000 En/Decryption Cntrlr 11

      • Greg Smith

        I’m going to scour the web for signs of bios setting and CF card combinations and see if I can make any headway. Thanks a bunch for all of the information you have here!

  • Dioram Nepangue

    Hello thank you for the guidelines and for posting the link of the material used. However one question, how do you rollback on using the default Watchguard application?

    • Cyrix2k

      Hi – if you made a backup of the original Watchguard CF card, you can flash that backup to another CF card using windisk imager. It should then work exactly as it came from Watchguard.

  • Boerk

    Hi,

    I was wondering.. the PCIe x4, is it able to handle a PCIe x4 Flash drive (SSD) card/adapter?

  • Adam Bernstein

    Does anyone have a backup of the original BIOS image from an x750e or x1250e system? I want to go back from running pFSense to the original Fireware BIOS.

    Thanks!

  • Mattchoshit Borisman

    Hello I want to ask if the WatchGuard Firewall Firebox X5 Edge MF16S32E10 can be installed with Pfsense

  • Mooswitz

    Hi!

    I have a similar problem like some other people here. Maybe you can help me.

    First of all:
    I flashed the FreeDOS on the factory-CF card exactly like you wrote in the tutorial. When I fire up the Box, it beeps tree times. So the FreeDOS seems to boot correctly.

    Now, when I open Putty with 9600 8N1 everything connected properly, I don’t get any output on the console. I also tried power cycling but nothing happens. The Firebox is connected through a nullmodem cable and a Prolific Serial to USB adapter, using Windows 10. First I thought the adapter is the problem, so I started my old IBM x3650 server an connected the firebox diretly with the serial port a the server, using windows 7 and putty. Same thing. Started putty, console is as black as ever. Then I started the firebox and…. Nothing.

    I really want to get this working. What can I do to try it?
    I also tried all standard baud rates. Some write, that you should try it with 115200 Baud, but that only worked for the Watchguard-OS itself before flashing the BIOS.

  • Dico

    Hi

    Thank you for your work.

    The link for download FreeDOSBios2 is down.

    Have you an order?

    Thank you