Slipknot1995 Posted June 2, 2014 Posted June 2, 2014 Hey guys this is my first post and not sure if this is in the right section so sorry moderators Any ways a week or two again i have come across a watchguard SSL core firewall, and i am in the stage of installing pfsense to my new 4GB CF. I ahve been using this guid on how to do this as this is all new to, never used watchguard products before : » How to flash pfSense 2.1 to a WatchGuard Firebox x750e / x550e / SSL 500 - HexHound >How to install pfsense 2.0 on a Watchguard x750e Core | PracticalKungFu.net And have come to a standstill at this part in the guide where i have to flash the firewalls bios, it sates in the guide that my firewall has to match the same bios information as described in the guide. But mine is not the same, here is a image of my bios information: But is says in the guides that i should have these types of bios Is there any custom bios bin files for this bios type as i have a firewall that is useless until i get past this stage ? Thanks guy and gals if you try to help me Peace !!
MatthewL Posted June 2, 2014 Posted June 2, 2014 The person you want is @cjpitserivces he has done a few but one think you should note is that the SSL core is a VPN box rather than a standard firewall, it may make a difference. I've got a x550e or 750 here but no joy with it.
Slipknot1995 Posted June 2, 2014 Author Posted June 2, 2014 The person you want is @cjpitserivces he has done a few but one think you should note is that the SSL core is a VPN box rather than a standard firewall, it may make a difference. I've got a x550e or 750 here but no joy with it. AHH!!! Makes sense now as when i first powered up the device a cf card with a image of citrix receiver was left on all locked down, By the chance would you know where to may be find some form of recovery image to write to the cf so i can at least get some life in to this kit, as i seems a dam shame that a £200+ sit there and do nothing !!
Cyrix2k Posted June 3, 2014 Posted June 3, 2014 The person you want is @cjpitserivces he has done a few but one think you should note is that the SSL core is a VPN box rather than a standard firewall, it may make a difference. I've got a x550e or 750 here but no joy with it. The SSL500 & x550e/x750e/x1250e are all the same hardware. I wrote the HexHound article and while the screenshots are from an SSL500, I also have a x750e. That said, your BIOS does look different and I would proceed with a extreme caution. Unless you find someone that has the same BIOS as you, and flashed with success, I would suggest using a PCI-e video card and entering the BIOS that way. The BIOS flash is only necessary to redirect BIOS output through the null modem at boot. If you can change the settings blind or use a video card, it will work perfectly fine. IIRC, a VGA header is also on the board but it's an oddball size. Nevertheless, it's another option if you want to go that route. AHH!!! Makes sense now as when i first powered up the device a cf card with a image of citrix receiver was left on all locked down, By the chance would you know where to may be find some form of recovery image to write to the cf so i can at least get some life in to this kit, as i seems a dam shame that a £200+ sit there and do nothing !! PM me with your e-mail address. I have a dump of the factory image I can send you (but I have to find it!) 1
cpjitservices Posted June 3, 2014 Posted June 3, 2014 Best thing to do is load monowall onto the CF card and see if it will boot into that - Only certain models of the SSL Watchguards will work on pfsense because of the interfaces and the BIOS. If your not having any luck try monowall (m0n0wall) and see if that boots - if it doesn't chances are it wont work on that box. 1
Slipknot1995 Posted June 3, 2014 Author Posted June 3, 2014 Best thing to do is load monowall onto the CF card and see if it will boot into that - Only certain models of the SSL Watchguards will work on pfsense because of the interfaces and the BIOS. If your not having any luck try monowall (m0n0wall) and see if that boots - if it doesn't chances are it wont work on that box. Yeah seems a food idea I was looking at it last night, oh and btw I forgot to mention that my model came with a 40gb hard drive installed ? Am guessing it was used for logs and files to be stored onit but could I take advantage of that drive and use the cf card as some form of boot loader and install the software to the 40gb drive ? But the only thing I could think of that might be stopping me form doing that may be the bios. As I will have to set the 40gb drive as the 1st IDE boot drive instead of the cf card
Slipknot1995 Posted June 3, 2014 Author Posted June 3, 2014 The SSL500 & x550e/x750e/x1250e are all the same hardware. I wrote the HexHound article and while the screenshots are from an SSL500, I also have a x750e. That said, your BIOS does look different and I would proceed with a extreme caution. Unless you find someone that has the same BIOS as you, and flashed with success, I would suggest using a PCI-e video card and entering the BIOS that way. The BIOS flash is only necessary to redirect BIOS output through the null modem at boot. If you can change the settings blind or use a video card, it will work perfectly fine. IIRC, a VGA header is also on the board but it's an oddball size. Nevertheless, it's another option if you want to go that route. Thanks for that !! Hmmm would like to go down the pci-e route but one issues, I have popped the cover off the device and it only has a standard pci connector ?
cpjitservices Posted June 3, 2014 Posted June 3, 2014 If I where you, id not bother with the CF - pull the HD out and install PFsense on it or even monowall and see if it boots it. Turn the box on with HD instaled with pfsense and give it 5 or 10 minutes to boot and do it's first install - make sure you use the EMBEDDED version of pfsense
Cyrix2k Posted June 3, 2014 Posted June 3, 2014 Thanks for that !! Hmmm would like to go down the pci-e route but one issues, I have popped the cover off the device and it only has a standard pci connector ? I looked up the SSL Core and between the specs and your description, I think it's based on the older firebox hardware whereas the SSL 100 & SSL 500 are x-core-e hardware. It's a very good thing you didn't flash the x-core-e BIOS because it would have bricked it. Try following a guide for the X500/X700/X1000/X2500 fireboxes instead. Those older models do not need their BIOS flashed at all, you should be able to write the pfSense image to your 4 gb CF card, pop it in, and go. Be aware that the SSL Core only has 10/100 ports which will quickly become a bottleneck if your internet service exceeds 100mbit/s, or if you route between gigabit networks.
Slipknot1995 Posted June 3, 2014 Author Posted June 3, 2014 If I where you, id not bother with the CF - pull the HD out and install PFsense on it or even monowall and see if it boots it. Turn the box on with HD instaled with pfsense and give it 5 or 10 minutes to boot and do it's first install - make sure you use the EMBEDDED version of pfsense Thanks ! Yeah I shall try this when I get the time, so could I do the configuration as I would do with a cf card just dump the files to the hard drive and boot from there ? As well would a NTFS file system format for the hard drive ?
Slipknot1995 Posted June 3, 2014 Author Posted June 3, 2014 I looked up the SSL Core and between the specs and your description, I think it's based on the older firebox hardware whereas the SSL 100 & SSL 500 are x-core-e hardware. It's a very good thing you didn't flash the x-core-e BIOS because it would have bricked it. Try following a guide for the X500/X700/X1000/X2500 fireboxes instead. Those older models do not need their BIOS flashed at all, you should be able to write the pfSense image to your 4 gb CF card, pop it in, and go. Be aware that the SSL Core only has 10/100 ports which will quickly become a bottleneck if your internet service exceeds 100mbit/s, or if you route between gigabit networks. The speed shall not be a issues as I am only giving my home network a little more of a security boost, my plan will be from my VDSL modem WAN port 1 connect to the external port on the watch guard device, I can provide you with a image of the device it self if that help you
Cyrix2k Posted June 3, 2014 Posted June 3, 2014 Download this https://www.pfsense.org/download/download.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.uk.pfsense.org%2Fmirror%2Fdownloads%2FpfSense-2.1.3-RELEASE-4g-i386-nanobsd.img.gz Verify the MD5 checksum is 41a480f7763bdd41c323b649e7669021 Then use Win32 Disk Imager to write it to your 4gb CF card, pop it into your SSL Core, and it *should* boot into pfSense.
Slipknot1995 Posted June 4, 2014 Author Posted June 4, 2014 Download this https://www.pfsense.org/download/download.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Ffiles.uk.pfsense.org%2Fmirror%2Fdownloads%2FpfSense-2.1.3-RELEASE-4g-i386-nanobsd.img.gz Verify the MD5 checksum is 41a480f7763bdd41c323b649e7669021 Then use Win32 Disk Imager to write it to your 4gb CF card, pop it into your SSL Core, and it *should* boot into pfSense. Yeah well could do the same if i used the 40Gb hard drive that came with teh ssl core ?
Cyrix2k Posted June 4, 2014 Posted June 4, 2014 Yeah well could do the same if i used the 40Gb hard drive that came with teh ssl core ? I don't know. As far as I know, the CF card is set as the boot device and I don't believe it is autodetected, meaning you would need access to the BIOS to even boot from the hard drive (unless it's already set that way). Then you want a prebuilt image to write to the 40gb drive... the 4gb embedded image will overwrite everything, and while I think it will work, I'm not positive. It should be much easier and faster to flash the image to the 4gb card as a first step. If that doesn't work, then try the hard drive.
Slipknot1995 Posted June 4, 2014 Author Posted June 4, 2014 Yeah i will give this a try as soon as possible and see if it works
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