2011
01.10

Starting Firebox X700 pfSense Project

Category: Administration, Development, Firebox/pfSense, Hacking, Networking / Tags: no tag / Add Comment

I just received my first Firebox (a x700 model) and I really like where this is going. So far beyond a few delays to the project and still waiting on a shipment, things are going good. I hope to be able to create guides, hardware and mods recommendations, and reconfigured embedded and full installs (think no serial cable required to get started!)

Current plans are use an iPod Mini’s Hatachi 4GB Microdrive as the disk for a full install. New heatsink, 512MB RAM update, and making it quieter. I hope to do plenty of worthwhile modifications to this Firebox and share the experience.

Things learned thus far:

  • A 1.2GHz Celeron left inside the Firebox with no working HSF will burn up. Really. Completely fry. Luckily the motherboard is fine and it boots with a PIII. New 1.4GHz Celeron on its way for $9. Probably would have updated this anyways.
  • Don’t assume generic RAM you buy for the Firebox off Amazon is a double sided DIMM and will work in the Firebox (Non-Double Sided 512MB sticks show up as 256MB). I hope to make a list of high avaibilty sticks that work.
  • The HSF on the firebox is crap, get a new heatsink and fan and also a fan speed controller. Even had my fan worked I would have gotten a new one, way too loud for such poor cooling.
  • The rackmount ears hold the cover on the case also. Can’t keep them on for looks if you plan on opening the Firebox up often until you’re ready to put it into production.
  • Physwritedisk doesn’t want to work on any Vista/7/Server2008 (32bit or 64bit) for me. I used Ubuntu. Worked like a charm.
  • Make sure you’re using a Null Modem serial cable. You’ll kick yourself for assuming something else is wrong and wasting time.

3 comments so far

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  1. Spring said: 2011.07.08 13:13

    Just wondering how this has progressed.

    Interesting that the CPU was cooked by the lack of HSF.

    I was planning to take a chance on mine and disconnect the HSF.

    That’s really loud (but not as bad as the IP330!)

    Did you manage to find a quiet way to make this work?

  2. Brak said: 2011.08.05 18:55

    I got a new HSF and used a speed controler that’s tucked inside the firebox. The fan runs at ~30%, and has good temps.

  3. Robert Fitzgerald said: 2011.10.19 09:32

    Did you get anywhere using the microdrive from an iPod? I’ve got one and trying to get the thing setup but it just won’t do anything with a microdrive in it, don’t get the usual POST beep or anything.

    One thing you may find useful is to take the motherboard out and plug in a PCI graphics card (I used a Sapphire Radeon 9250), from there you can change BIOS settings and also install an OS directly on it. While you’re at it, grab yourself an old IDE CD drive and plug that in. As for a keyboard, I contacted another person online who had successfully installed Endian Firewall on his Firebox and he mentioned the keyboard pinout which you can find here: http://i56.tinypic.com/ix3xae.png and the header for that is between the console and first network ports. I just ripped a PS/2 port from an old motherboard and modded an old USB header cable to fit the board and soldered it to the PS/2 connector so I can plug it in when needed and not have to cut the plug off my keyboard.

    With regards to powering the CD drive, I just took an old ATX power supply and shorted the PS-ON wire to ground, this wire is usually green but in my case was purple.

    Do you have any info on the HSF that you used? I would be very interested in changing mine from the stock one as the noise is horrific, I have replaced the two back ones with a couple of chinese ones from ebay which are almost completely silent (very surprising considering the size of them), made by ‘TrekCom’ if you were interested.

    The thing I am most interested in is being able to use the MicroDrive from an iPod so if you find a solution to it I would be very interested to know. I believe it has something to do with the interface used in the drive, even though they both have a CF-type connection, some of them are in fact IDE drives and some use the proper CF interface. If memory serves correctly then the ones used in iPods are IDE but I’m guessing the Firebox has a CF socket which is probably why mine won’t work.

    Another thing to note would be that when the motherboard is removed, the unit will not POST without the 4-button pad from the front panel connected, it took me about an hour to figure that out :)

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