install efw community on endian utm mini

[Guest]

[w00z]

hello,

i would to know if there is any way to install the efw community on a utm mini.

is it possibile?

thanks in advance
have a nice day.

[gyp_the_cat]

Hi w00z,

I would have thought you could do that.

I know I've installed it on another manufacturers "black box" after it's warranty and support expired and it works quite happily and with 8 interfaces I've got enough scope for future zones too

As long as you can find someway to plug in a monitor and a CD rom (via SATA or IDE), you should be ok.

Would be very interested to know how you cget on

Gyp

[w00z]

hi, thanks for your reply.

the main problem is: how i can connect a monitor to the endian mini ? maybe there is a connector inside?

[koukobin]

I have made many installation in systems without monitor and keyboard (such as Lanner-7650a or Portwell NAD-2081 and more).

I always do the following trick :

I remove the hard disk of the system that i want to make installation and i attach it in common computer that has monitor and keyboard.

I am starting the installation, i configure the ip address for the green interface and when the installation finishes and ejects the cd-rom i power off the computer (remember you must not let this system to boot after the installation. you have to power it off), i remove the hard disk and i place it again in its origin place (the system that we want to run endian).

Then i power on the system (i am talking about the system that does not have vga and keyboard output). One of its ethernet ports will have the ip address that we configured during the installation.

The rest of the procedure should be easy.

I know it doesn't sound very "smart" but its working to me ...
 

[gyp_the_cat]

Hi Wooz,

I don't know specifics about the Endian Mini appliance, but I'd venture a guess that like many firewall/security products, it's built on a standard PC architecture (just a lot smaller and without all the adapters such as VGA, PS2 etc...).

The firewall appliance I installed Endian on was a small version of a large version of a well known, European based, niche firewall supplier.  After the maintenance and support was over we thought we'd have a look inside the unit, and it was just a standard 486 PC with a NANO drive.  All the connectors for VGA, IDE, PS2, USB etc, were inside the unit and all we had to  was a VGA block adapter to VGA.  The rest we found lying around in various bit boxes we had.

Plug in keyboard via USB, plugged in a monitor via the block adapter, IDE CD-ROM, and we had a BIOS screen

We found that the hardware wasn't up to supporting all our users (500+), and insted use Endian on VM, but I dare say for a smaller office or a home user it would have been perfect.

If you're a little bit technical I dare say it's not that difficult, open it up and have a look!  As I said I would be very interested to know how you get on

Gyp

[gyp_the_cat]

@koukobin yes we've done that before too   Works really well as long as your OS you're installing is clever enough to know it's got different hardware, not all embedded OSs we've used support that, but if that works for Endian fantastic

[koukobin]

Yes i know. I was talking specifically about Endian. its really good on that. I mean in hardware change detection.

And something else. If you open UTM mini, i am sure it will have an onboard connector for vga and keyboard (or usb so you can attach a usb keyboard). But, after my experience, most of these VGA connectors,  are not the 15pin standard VGA connectors. i.e. Lanner uses a 12pin connector and portwell a 10pin  connector. Its very difficult to find the appropriate ribbon cables.

Another solution is to use the console port that most of these system have. But this method does not work always for me ...

[w00z]

hi guys, i'm trying some stuff with the box

first of all.. i've opened the endian mini and there are some connectors but i think that the easiest way to connect the box is a serial connection.
(follow this steps for doing this: kb.endian.com/entry/53/)

when i started up the system i had the bios menu (phoenix bios) and the boot priority were:

1. usb-cdrom
2. usb-hdd
3. hdd0

so it seems that endian mini can boot from an usb storage.

i created a bootable usb pendrive with unetbootin for windows and the iso image of efw community but, when i plugged it to the endian , it doesn't boot the pen drive..

i am trying to find the key to get the boot menu for choosing the boot drive.

i don't know (and i can't check with my laptop bcause it does not support usb boot) if the pendrive it's ok for booting.

some ideas?  

[w00z]

update..

now the problem is: how can i made a bootable usb pendrive with endian?

update 2..

ok.. the system reads usb devices such as cd-rom, pendrive, keyboard and mouses..  the real funny thing is that it boots wxp pro but when i put the efw cd it says "insert a correct boot disk and press enter" , it is the same story with partedmagic or similar distros... i can't understand why o_o maybe it want a dos boot disk? but how i can fix with endian?

[w00z]

i tried to install efwc on another computer and put the hdd on the ef mini.. the result is that it won't boot and i can't get the serial console access to see the boot sequence..

some ideas to fix?

i'm a stupid beacuse i did not backup the hdd structure of  the mini before install the new one and now i can't do anything 

.. update 1

the appliance is based on SBC8A806.. i've found some datasheets that speaks about a vga 15 pin connector (that endian does not have) and a pci-slot (that endian does not have..)... now i'm trying to install an older version of efwc..

[koukobin]

Did you activated the serial console output during the installation ?

How can you say for sure that the system is not booting ? I mean have you try connect all of the ethernet ports of the Endian and start pinging until you find the green interface? In any case make sure that when you finish the installation on the second computer and the cd is rejected, dont let the Endian to boot. 

I have done the same procedure with more than 10 systems and never had a problem. I thing there must be something that you are not making with the right way.

[w00z]

hi, thanks for your reply.

yes, i activate the serial output during the installation and i did not let the endian to boot after installation.. i've tried 2 times..

the strange thing is that the hdd led blink only at the startup and after that all it seems to be die.. if i connect the eth ports the led status of each port are on but they don't blink.

[koukobin]

Are you using the hdd which was originally installed in the UTM Mini?

[w00z]

yes.. i'm using that one..

[koukobin]

Really strange. Can you try with another disk? In any case you shouldn't do that with the original disk. But what is done ... Try with a second disk