Trouble booting from USB to install the latest XG Home Edition SW-19.0.1_MR-1-365

OK so..   It seems that Intel has removed Legacy BIOS support from all chipsets starting Dec 2020.  This is a latest model Celeron J6412, so therefore incompatible with Sophos.

Quite odd that in 2022, when hardware vendors are phasing out, or indeed have removed Legacy support, that Sophos doe snot support UEFI.

Is there a thread of feature request somewhere that UEFI users can request or follow any progress on when this will be implemented?

Over to pfsense I guess.  Sad as I love Sophos and use their hardware appliances on all my customers.  Just can't justify the cost for my home network.

Ken

Check out the server motherboards, they still support legacy boot, or at least my last purchase does. Asus,  Xeon based with intel nics.

ian

Sadly I need one of these micro PC formats, as I travel the world and take it with me...  But I'll see what I can find and if I can return my current device.  Likely one with a J4125 Celeron chipset will work...

Make sure it does not have the latest Intel i225 or i226 chipsets since these are not supported by the kernel included in the firmware yet. The best Intel NICs to get are the i211 through i219 series. Realtek network chips are not recommended for performance reasons.

Hey!  OK thanks, I was aware of the i226 i226 issues so managed to avoid that pitfall, but ran head first into the legacy boot issue lol.

Will aim for dual i211 or i219 chipsets.

Sorry, wait...  the i211 and i219 are NOT supported with XG home.  Was that a typo?

Sorry, wait...  the i211 and i219 are NOT supported with XG home.  Was that a typo?

Based on the kernel version that the XG uses, these following chipsets should be compatible. I have used a few of these with no issues..

82575/6, 82580, I350, I354, and I210/I211 based gigabit network connections

Intel® PRO/1000 PCI-E (82563/6/7, 82571/2/3/4/7/8/9, or 82583) I217/I218/I219 

Intel® PRO/1000 PCI and PCI-X family of gigabit network connections according to their website. 

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000005480/ethernet-products.html.

Any of those fanless Pcs with i210, i211, i217, i218, i219 should work.

Wonderful, thanks for verifying

Not, the i219.

Ian

Hi,

please check these devices, some have intel i211 NICs,

https://www.amazon.com/pfSense-Firewall/s?k=pfSense+Firewall

If it is just you travelling, then you do not need a high speed chip, the older j1900 might suit. They are slow to configure..

Ian

h, OK , so avoid the i219 chipset.  Thanks

Well, my family and I travel around the globe and we setup our network which has quite a bit of traffic. I'll need a newer chipset, I think the J4125 will be right. 

So on this device, with an i210/211 chipset, I should be able to install Sophos on?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004740762730.html

Cheers,

Ken

I recommend you to not spend money on those low-end appliances.

It will be much better to buy a N5105 or J6413 with the I226-V NIC and use Proxmox to virtualize Sophos Firewall since the overhead with KVM is minimum to non-existent, and It will allow you to use the 2.5G port to It's fullest.

If you do this, in the future when Sophos starts shipping a installer with UEFI support you will be able to overwrite Proxmox and use the appliance as bare-metal.

rfcat_vk said:

Not, the i219.

Does the XG not support this chipset?

Prism said:

f you do this, in the future when Sophos starts shipping a installer with UEFI support you will be able to overwrite Proxmox and use the appliance as bare-metal.

It's more than just UEFI requirement. The kernel of the firmware has to be updated to a newer version to support the newer NICs without needing to virtualize.  The current kernel included in the Sophos Firewall was released in 2016. That's a really old kernel. 

alan weir said:

The current kernel included in the Sophos Firewall was released in 2016. That's a really old kernel. 

Sophos Firewall v19.5 is currently running: Linux localhost 4.14.277

The 4.14 is a LTS branch, the version the Firewall is running is from April 2022.

If you virtualize with KVM and use VirtiO you won't need to worry about firmware or UEFI support with the Firewall. From this scenario It doesn't make sense to get an older appliance just because the Firewall doesn't have a newer Kernel.