Will it run FreeBSD ? [Embedded Version]

[Phishfry]

I am a hardware junkie. I buy all kinds of hardware just to see if it will run FreeBSD.

My latest challenge is Aopen ChromeBox. That one is another story...

So I will post an embedded computer and I am wondering "Will it run FreeBSD"

Usually I will have already bought the item and it is in the mail and I am chomping at the bit. Will it run FreeBSD?

 

[Phishfry]

Here is my most recent quest.

Warning

vantrontech.us

I bought it cheap off ebay. $57 USD

VT-M2M-BTA-DE VANTRON GATEWAY IoT EDGE DEVICE ATOM E3815 2GB RAM 16GB SSD | eBay

VANTRON GATEWAY IoT EDGE DEVICE. ATOM E3815. 1x AC Power Adapter. 1x VT-M2M-BTA-DE.

www.ebay.com

Will it run FreeBSD?

I like the E3815 CPU. It runs fanless and is minimal. Comparable to ARM.
Because I am a hardware guy I notice subtle features. I can 'read' hardware designs.
The side access cover is a big hint.
This box is probably based on Habey Mini PC's. Probably an OEM design.

Parker is a big name in Industrial Gear so this is a neat box.
Maybe the GPIO will work with Baytrail GPIO driver.

I will report back when it arrives.

 

[Phishfry]

Here is my Thanksgiving Weekend buy.
Nexcom NISE 50. Bought used for ~$90 USD.

NISE 50 - Fanless Computer, IoT Gateway - Overview - NEXCOM

This page describes the Overview of NEXCOM NISE 50 - Fanless Computer, IoT Gateway. Powered by the latest generation of Intel® Atom™ processor E3826 (formerly codenamed "Bay Trail-I")

www.nexcom.com

I have it booting off my FreeBSD USB stick just to check SMART for some early forensics.

 

[Phishfry]

Here is a little DIN rail computer that runs FreeBSD nicely.

ICO300

DIN-rail Fanless Embedded System with Intel® Atom™ Processor E3815/E3827, 4 COM, 2 LANs, DIO and RTC

www.axiomtek.com

It ships with a Telit cdce cellular modem which makes FreeBSD hang at boot. Removing it solved the problem.

 

[Phishfry]

What about the Dell Edge 610/620/680

Dell VMware Edge 610 E42W WLE600VX | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Dell VMware Edge 610 E42W WLE600VX at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Will it run FreeBSD? It has an embedded webpage for administration.

I wonder what I could get it to run.

Very similar box to Dell/EMC Edge 610

Dell EMC SD-WAN EDGE 610 2C 4GB 16GB eMMC 6P 1GbE 2P SFP Appliance | eBay

Dell EMC SD-WAN EDGE 610 2C 4GB 16GB eMMC 6P 1GbE 2P SFP Appliance.

www.ebay.com

These are Denverton Atoms C3xxx
Edge 610=2 cores
Edge 620=4 cores
Edge 680=8 cores

Are these locked down BIOS???
Anybody hacked on these???

 

[Phishfry]

For $36 I had to bite on that Dell VMWare box. I read in a forum that VEP14xx has BIOS Escape key.
They seem like the identical mother board as these other two I posted.

Dell VEP1425 4C 2.2GHz 8GB RAM 128GB SSD Switch - Ref | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Dell VEP1425 4C 2.2GHz 8GB RAM 128GB SSD Switch - Ref at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

I will advise of my luck. There are some other ones at $45 used. Dual core are power misers.

 

[Phishfry]

I have lots of Dell Embedded gear. It is real deal solid.
They make a mini line for fleet computers. Ignition switch power connection.
Dell Edge Gateway 300x with 4 models.
Here is the 3002 model which has CAN bus as its specialty.

Dell N03G001 Edge Gateway 3002 **OPEN BOX** | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Dell N03G001 Edge Gateway 3002 **OPEN BOX** at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

Then we step up a notch to the Dell Edge Gateway 5000 and 5100
These are larger more traditional but unique accessory features.
Has PCIe modular add-on box on one side and a power module/UPS on the other.

Dell Edge Gateway 5100 Atom E3825 1.33Ghz 2GB 512GB SSD Industrial Computer | eBay

Dell Edge Gateway 5100 Atom E3825 1.33Ghz 2GB 512GB SSD. 512GB M2 SATA SSD Drive. New, open box, Dell Edge Gateway 5100 industrial computer. 2GB DDR3L 1600Mhz RAM. Power adapter is not included(unit uses regular 19v Dell power adapter and has other power options).

www.ebay.com

Good pics here of the auxiliary connectors.

Then we have a slightly larger class called PC3000
These are deluxe.

DELL EMBEDDED BOX PC 3000 ATOM E3825 1.33 GHZ 8GB RAM 64GB SSD | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for DELL EMBEDDED BOX PC 3000 ATOM E3825 1.33 GHZ 8GB RAM 64GB SSD at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

So all of these run the Intel Baytrail CPU series E3825/E3845
FreeBSD runs on all of them.

There is a newer and larger yet Dell Embedded PC5000. Two versions.

Dell Embedded Box PC 5000 Intel Core i5-6440EQ 2.7GHZ QC 16GB RAM 256GB SSD W10P | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Dell Embedded Box PC 5000 Intel Core i5-6440EQ 2.7GHZ QC 16GB RAM 256GB SSD W10P at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

I don't have one yet.

 

[wb7odyfred]

I am reading about the 3002 for $40 (3003 for $89) with Canbus inputs for use in a vehicle powered with 12V. I want to read canbus data from heavy equipment Engine Control Units ECUs

Quick Resource Locator

qrl.dell.com

The Edge Gateway supports the following operating systems:

• Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016
• Ubuntu Core 16
• FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE Comming Soon courtesy of PhishFry efforts

PowerEdge 3002 Manual Operation and Install
The Edge Gateway 3000 Series is an Internet-of-Things (IoT) device. It is mounted at the edge of a network, enabling you to collect, secure, analyze, and act on data from multiple devices and sensors. It enables you to connect with devices used in transportation, building automation, manufacturing, and other applications. The Edge Gateway has a low-power architecture, which is capable of supporting industrial automation workloads while remaining fanless to satisfy environmental and reliability requirements. It supports Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSB 2016 and Ubuntu Core 16 operating systems.

Single CAN Bus Connector 3 pins Phishfry when will you have this working? Does FreeBSD already support CANbus drivers and support the internal chipset providing Can Bus? I will use my google-fu and answer for myself today.

ZigBee , has a zigbee antenna connector

 

[wb7odyfred]

https://qrl.dell.com/#/product/overview/12/143

Dell PowerEdge 3003 Operating and Installation Manuals

3003 Has no CAN bus, anddoes NOT have a ZigBee antenna connector. Has HDMI video output port, audio ports, 2 Ethernet ports.

 

[wb7odyfred]

Delete Me Test

 

[Phishfry]

No more deleting posts unfortunately.

Here is the lowdown as I see it on the Dell Edge Gateway.
Model 3001 = GPIO Ports (not from SOC but external chip)
Model 3002 = CAN Bus
Model 3003 = Mobile gateway with Wifi and Cellular
Zigbee and GPS were options on these. They all use Display Port.

We have no CAN Bus. I did look at NetBSD source.
CAN the protocol
CAN networking
canconfig (similar to ifconfig)

canconfig(8) - NetBSD Manual Pages

man.netbsd.org

 

[Phishfry]

I got my Dell VMWare Edge 610.
M.2 Storage and ECC Memory installed....

I love it when they use security screws.
It makes me want it that much more.

 

[raddkatt]

Confirming the Chromebox (ASUS CN62). I got XFCE4 running on it like a champ and customized it wonderfully. Attached are the latest FreeBSD builds I did - cheap discarded tech for the win!

 

[Phishfry]

Well there is a reason I got that box for $35. It reboots after like 10 minutes.
Not just in OS but BIOS too. JUNK.

I have installed FreeBSD on the Dell/EMC/VMWare Edge 610 to the 16GB eMMC.
The problem is network interfaces.
They are showing up as network bridge backplane Intel X553 interfaces.
Only ix0, ix1, ix2, ix3 interfaces showing.
All ethernet jacks are non-responsive. They do flash on bootup.

Probably need to try Linux to see if the Network Interfaces acts right.

So in recap.

4GB ECC RAM but soldered on.
16GB eMMC onboard.
1 M.2 2242 socket for NVMe (not populated on this model or perhaps removed for resale)
1 MiniPCIe slot containing VX900 Atheros 'AC' module.
Serial console via Mini-USB

I can't recommend this rig with no ethernet.

 

[Jose]

Does it have some kind of lights-out management? That was the source of mystery reboots on an HP server we had at work years ago. Someone at HP thought that was reasonable behavior if you didn't configure LOM at all.

 

[Phishfry]

I was thinking it might be a watchdog timer.
I having put a watch to it to check actual frequency of reboot.

I did see IntelME heavy in the BIOS.
But I also saw ECC settings for logging errors I had never seen before.

I was surprised at the depth of the BIOS for an appliance.

There is a cheap Edge 620 that i would be buying if just one ethernet port worked.
The 620 Adds one 10GB port.
I seriously doubt it would work as (I bet) they are all tied to the X553 backplane.

 

[Phishfry]

Confirming the Chromebox

Nice.
I have an Aopen Chromebox. Very rugged signage box. DE3255

I never got it going. I had to remove a screw to get into debug mode.

Then reading further I had to run Galatin Linux to break something....

I gave up. It didn't seem like it had a configurable BIOS so i caved.

 

[Phishfry]

Here is the lowdown as I see it on the Dell Edge Gateway.
Model 3001 = GPIO Ports (not from SOC but external chip)
Model 3002 = CAN Bus
Model 3003 = Mobile gateway with Wifi and Cellular
Zigbee and GPS were options on these. They all use Display Port.

Wow I was wrong here. The 3003 is the only one with Display Port.
The 3001 and 3002 have no display at all and no serial console.
Plus Ubuntu Snap on the eMMC.
Would not boot from my custom FreeBSD UEFI Live USB memstick.
Had to run Ubuntu efibootmgr to jigger the boot order over ssh since headless.

The zigbee option was a usb dongle. I have GPS on one of my 3003 and one without.

 

[raddkatt]

Nice.
I have an Aopen Chromebox. Very rugged signage box. DE3255

I never got it going. I had to remove a screw to get into debug mode.

Then reading further I had to run Galatin Linux to break something....

I gave up. It didn't seem like it had a configurable BIOS so i caved.

For what it’s worth, I followed this guide for the Chromebox, though you might have already seen it: https://dareneiri.github.io/Asus-Chromebox-With-Full-Linux-Install/

My FreeBSD install started the same way, with removing a security screw to throw it into debug mode, and then running a shell script to install custom UEFI firmware. And then, of course, using a FreeBSD thumb-drive as opposed to an Ubuntu one. But alas, it worked and boots up surprisingly fast - even before I upgraded the memory.

 

[Phishfry]

I figured out the problem with the Dell/EMC/VMWare Edge 610 and rebooting.
It was a watchdog timer and it is tied to the Dell DIAG-OS.
This is a restore partition and flashing tools.
I had dd'ed the eMMC and erased the DIAG-OS partition. Once restored it is now stable.

The ethernet works with DIAG-OS and it looks like the interfaces show up as VLAN like unit addresses.

I bit the bullet on the Dell Edge 620. The Edge 610 is = VEP1400 motherboard and Edge 620 is VEP1405.
Dual 10G Intel fiber made me take the bait. Hope I can get it working.
$35 was cheap enough. The inside is mysterious enough that I may post pictures.
Every component is covered in a RF shield. Righteous heatsink. Cheap plastic top, Thick aluminum base.

I need to figure out how to get FreeBSD to install with DIAG-OS in parallel.
FreeBSD installer doesn't see DIAG-OS or its partition...

Here is some background on the watchdog timer.
VeloCloud used an Edge510. This is very similar to Edge610 in some ways. The problem nearly the same.
So VeloCloud was bought by EMC who was bought by Dell.

What is this board??? Help!

@stephenw10 Thank you for your response and information. I just had opnsense working fine on the HD, without a USB stick. Getting the drivers right is too hard for me, so that is waiting. gr. ad.

forum.netgate.com

Reddit - Dive into anything

www.reddit.com

 

[Phishfry]

I got my waterlogged Dell Edge 620 and all I can saw is wow, what a difference.

I now have 4 igb network interfaces working, 2 ix interfaces RJ45 10GB and 2 ix SFP interfaces 10GB.(untested)

Problem is watchdog rebooting every 10 min.. I need to flash the firmware to the VEP1425.

I also was wrong about NVMe slot on Edge 610. The M.2 slot is for a LTE Modem. So Wifi and Cellular.

The Dell Edge 620 does not have that slot soldered on, but miniPCIe is still there.
The Wifi module is WLE600VX on this one. (Another 802.11ac Atheros module)

On the bottom of the device is an access panel. On Edge 610 nothing there. On Edge 620 juicy stuff.
Saw the fan and it had me intrigued.
Looks like one DDR4 slot to augment the 8GB ECC built in.

In addition there is a mSATA installed in a M.2 slot. Board must come out of chassis to change this.

So Edge 610 worthless without BIOS flash and lack of ethernet.
Edge 620 might be worth trying to make it into a VEP1405. This was the model without any Dell OS installed.
Hopefully I flash DIAG-OS to eMMC and FreeBSD install on SATA works to quiet the watchdog.
More likely the flash to VEP1425 BIOS will stop the watchdog.

C3558 CPU with 4 cores no hyper-threading. Fanless with large heatsink same as Edge 610.
8GB ECC RAM soldered on with one DDR4 slot. (Board removal required/full teardown)
m.2 slot with Apacer Industrial 120GB SATA device delivering 530MB/s with diskinfo.

This one had Velocloud installed. Looked like the upgrade went south and device was bricked.

Spending $70 on the two was worth it. Edge 610, Save your money. Attempt to find the Edge 620.
I have better hopes for it.
With four 10G ports I could use this as my firewall machine.

 

[Phishfry]

I have given up on the Dell Edge 610/620.
Looking at the BIOS files I see the device also has a PIC device by Lattice Semi.
For this Dell has a firmware and App firmware in addition to the BIOS file.
I don't see a ready way to disable this even on the VEP1405 devices.

I don't really want to fight an onboard PIC which I think is the 'Application accelerator'.
I think this is VMWare VERSA and cannot be blanked. It is probably part of the watchdog reboot timer.
None of that is in the BIOS.

This is not a general purpose computer easily retasked.
It is a specialized SD-WAN device without baremetal capability.
I could not get the VEP1405 BIOS to flash. It could detect the the difference. I couldn't figure out how to force it.
Maybe manually flash BIOS with flashrom but would it really help. The PIC has something on it.

Moving on to.....

 

[astyle]

Does it have some kind of lights-out management? That was the source of mystery reboots on an HP server we had at work years ago. Someone at HP thought that was reasonable behavior if you didn't configure LOM at all.

Did you find that info in a manual (saying that not configuring LOM will result in automatic reboots), or is it a result of self-troubleshooting un-intended effects? I just find it hard to believe that someone at HP would think it to be reasonable behavior of something designed at HP. It very well could be a moronic design detail that slipped through the cracks that someone in marketing or customer support decided to just cover up instead of reporting the issue to an engineer who knows something and can do something about it.

When I was in college, I took some classes for a business minor (Secondary area of studies, my major was Computer Science). One of those classes, a marketing class, had a guest lecturer, he was from HP's marketing department. And halfway through, I realized that he's a total slimeball who had no compunction whatsoever about promising the moon to the customers, and then placing the burden on the engineers to deliver. Closer to the end of the lecture, I could not hold it in any more, spoke up, and confronted the guy on that - and that took the wind right out of his sails, and he sheepishly said, "It's a conversation you have to have". That was the moment when I realized I can't put anything past a marketer. This little story is why I find it hard to believe that someone (an engineer, presumably) at HP (or anywhere, for that matter) would be that moronic about expected technical behavior of devices sold by the company.

 

[Phishfry]

Closing out the Dell Edge 610 with an inside shot:

 

[Jose]

Did you find that info in a manual (saying that not configuring LOM will result in automatic reboots), or is it a result of self-troubleshooting un-intended effects? I just find it hard to believe that someone at HP would think it to be reasonable behavior of something designed at HP...

We figured it out after some serious head scratching. It was a second-hand server foisted on us by our new parent company, and came with no documentation. I guess the assumption was that if the LOM didn't have link something must've gone Seriously Wrong and therefore reboot was the only reasonable course of action. This kind of thinking is very common in the Windows world. When in doubt, reboot. Heck, it's one of the main jokes in a funny and popular comedy series about corporate IT.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UT8RkSmN4k

..this little story is why I find it hard to believe that someone (an engineer, presumably) at HP (or anywhere, for that matter) would be that moronic about expected technical behavior of devices sold by the company.

Yeah, this is just Tuesday in the corporate software development world. Nowadays it's product managers making the stupid decisions you get to implement if you wanna keep your paycheck.