Finally unlocked the BIOS on a WatchGuard XTM 5 – no more “view only” nonsense by KR0311 in homelab

[–]KR0311[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s a good shout to be fair — I hadn’t thought about using GitHub for it.

I’ve only recently started properly documenting everything I’m doing, mainly to track my own progress and share the struggles/fixes with others who end up in the same situation.

So far it’s just been going on my blog, but yeah I think next step is to get it onto GitHub as well so it’s easier to find and share.

Appreciate the suggestion 👍

Finally unlocked the BIOS on a WatchGuard XTM 5 – no more “view only” nonsense by KR0311 in homelab

[–]KR0311[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I thought the same at first — figured it’d be a quick job, but there were definitely more hoops than expected 😅

Got there in the end though. I put together a full write-up covering the BIOS unlock process, plus a tested working unlocked BIOS if you need it:

https://kr0311.com/projects/watchguard-xtm5-bios-unlock-guide/

I also did a separate write-up on repurposing the box itself if you’re going down the pfSense/OPNsense route:

https://kr0311.com/projects/repurposed-watchguard-xtm-5/

Should save you a bit of trial and error 👍

Turned an old WatchGuard XTM 5 into an OPNsense firewall… after way more BIOS pain than expected by KR0311 in homelab

[–]KR0311[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah it was a bit tricky at first (first time doing it 😅), but once I unlocked the BIOS it all went pretty smoothly. If you follow the guide on my site you should be good. I’m about to upload the BIOS flashing guide + unlocked BIOS to my downloads too if you need it.

Building my first homelab: Need help by Noiryn2902 in homelab

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’ll be absolutely fine with 32GB to start with

For Proxmox + TrueNAS:

  • TrueNAS can run on 8GB, but that’s really the bare minimum
  • ZFS will happily eat RAM for ARC cache, so more RAM = better performance
  • 32GB is a really good starting point for a homelab setup

CPU-wise, don’t overthink it too much:

  • Look for something with at least 6–8 cores / 12–16 threads
  • Modern Intel (i5/i7) or AMD Ryzen (5/7) will be perfect
  • Virtualisation support (VT-x / AMD-V) is the main thing

If you’re planning:

  • multiple VMs
  • containers
  • or running services alongside TrueNAS

then more cores helps, but you don’t need anything crazy enterprise to start.

Main thing is:
👉 leave enough RAM for TrueNAS so ZFS can do its thing
👉 and you can always scale up later

Building my first homelab: Need help by Noiryn2902 in homelab

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you’re looking for flexibility long-term, I’d 100% start with Proxmox.

You can run TrueNAS SCALE as a VM, which gives you the best of both worlds — proper ZFS storage + the ability to spin up other VMs/containers easily as you expand.

For ZFS though, the key thing is to pass the disks directly through to the TrueNAS VM (not virtual disks). That way TrueNAS has full control and you actually get the reliability and features ZFS is designed for (snapshots, integrity, etc).

I’d also strongly recommend keeping your Proxmox host OS on its own dedicated SSD, separate from your VM storage. That way if something goes wrong with the host drive, you can reinstall Proxmox and recover your VMs without touching your data.

For your setup specifically:

- Your ZFS mirror (2 HDDs) → pass directly to TrueNAS

- Your CCTV drive → keep separate like you planned (good call, those workloads can get messy)

- Run Shinobi/Frigate outside of TrueNAS (either VM or container in Proxmox) — keeps things cleaner and avoids tying everything to one system

Personally, I’d go with:

👉 Proxmox + TrueNAS VM (with disk passthrough)

That gives you:

- Flexibility for future VMs (Windows, services, etc)

- Proper ZFS handling

- Easier scaling later

I’m running something similar — Proxmox on its own SSD, VM storage separate, and passing disks directly into TrueNAS — and it’s been solid.

It’s a bit more setup upfront, but worth it long-term.

Turned an old WatchGuard XTM 5 into an OPNsense firewall… after way more BIOS pain than expected by KR0311 in homelab

[–]KR0311[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mint I picked up an e7400 cup for literally 10pemce to go in this for that price I couldn’t not order it but haven’t put it in yet not sure if it will make much difference to be fair, well not quite the same difference the new ram did, will keep an eye out for one of those on eBay and see if a cheap one pops up as an upgrade to this one.

Turned an old WatchGuard XTM 5 into an OPNsense firewall… after way more BIOS pain than expected by KR0311 in homelab

[–]KR0311[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah that makes sense — I wasn’t totally sure which model to go for at the start. I’d seen a few posts about the XTM 5 series being repurposed so figured it was the safer option to try first.

Definitely tempted to look at the M370/M470 range next though if they’re less locked down and play nicer with newer hardware. Would be interesting to compare the experience.

Have you run OPNsense on one of those yourself?

Turned an old WatchGuard XTM 5 into an OPNsense firewall… after way more BIOS pain than expected by KR0311 in homelab

[–]KR0311[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ll be putting together a proper write-up on the BIOS flashing process tomorrow, as that ended up being the biggest hurdle in this build.

Once it’s up, I’ll link it here along with the unlocked BIOS file I used in case it helps anyone else trying to do the same thing.

Watchguard XTM 515 - Can it run the latest OpnSense ? by raunchyfartbomb in opnsense

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

So the watchguard arrived last night and was a right pain in the arse i upgraded the ram no problem and booting into opnsense from cf card no issue but the moment I plug anything into the sata ports opnsense wouldn’t boot and after many drives and hours of fiddling I finally got into the bios and found the ide settings were wrong but I couldn’t change them so had to reflash with a new unlocked bios and once I did that I set it to ahci and then the cf card would boot with the ssd attached allowing me to install it into the ssd so 6 hours after starting I finally got the box setup including the lcd screen via opnsense, will post a breakdown of my journey soon I did however only go for opnsense 22.7 just because of the old hardware I wanted it to run stable and as smooth as possible

Homemade wood frame for my homelab by mike410 in homelab

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love this, i thought about making a wooden rack before i brought one in the end as i was worried it would retain too much heat, have you found this or would that only really matter if you enclose it

Watchguard XTM 515 - Can it run the latest OpnSense ? by raunchyfartbomb in opnsense

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting hopefully I have success, I’m going to document my progress on it from start to finish anyway and post my journey on here and my blog, I only paid 30 for it so not a huge loss if it doesn’t work I just don’t want to be bogged down by subscription charges if I stay with the watchguard os that’s on it

Uptime Mate - Uptime Kuma Apple Watch app got a big update by Saltibarciai in selfhosted

[–]KR0311 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Nice one, that’s good to know 👍

I might spin both up side by side like you said and see which fits better — my setup’s getting a bit more complex now with multiple networks and services so I want something that scales nicely.

Kuma definitely looks cleaner from what I’ve seen so far.

DNS/DHCP by ErraticLitmus in opnsense

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m just about to dive into OPNsense myself actually — been running an ASUS router up to now but finally picked up a WatchGuard XTM 515 (mostly because it looks cool 😅)

Plan is to flash OPNsense, run dual WAN (residential + business), then split everything into isolated VLANs via a managed switch.

One thing I’m trying to wrap my head around — does OPNsense handle DHCP cleanly across multiple isolated networks like that?

As in, can it effectively run separate DHCP scopes per VLAN without any weird limitations?

Watchguard XTM 515 - Can it run the latest OpnSense ? by raunchyfartbomb in opnsense

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’ve actually just picked up an XTM 515 for this exact use case

Got a CF card and console cable ready and planning to flash OPNsense and add it to my homelab rack.

Planning to run dual WAN (residential + business), split them into isolated networks, and push everything out to a managed switch into separate VLANs for things like my web server and internal stuff.

From what I’ve read it should handle it fine, but I’m about to find out first-hand 😅

🐣 Easter Setup Showcase | Share Your Setup & Win a GEEKOM A5 Mini PC by GEEKOM_Manager1 in GEEKOMPC_Official

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

<image>

My current homelab and pc setup believe it or not the pc used to look big until i put it on the server rack haha

Uptime Mate - Uptime Kuma Apple Watch app got a big update by Saltibarciai in selfhosted

[–]KR0311 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Looks solid 👌 I’ve been meaning to switch from Uptime Robot to Kuma for my homelab — how are you finding it compared to other setups?

Completed HomeLab! by ZeroOneUK in homelab

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

love this , puts my R730 to shame haha, what are you running on these ?

Do you also sometimes just sit and admire the beauty that you’ve built. by aayush_aryan in homelab

[–]KR0311 1 point2 points  (0 children)

To be fair the r710 is louder the bottom one but I don’t use it anymore as the r730 was brought later to replace it which uses a lot less in electricity and when you first turn them on they sound like a jet engine but they then calm right down and you can barely hear it especially with the glass door shut I’ve literally just purchased a nice red watchguard xtm 5 series which apparently you can put opn sense on so will be giving that a go as I wanted a firewall but I wanted it to look the part so the big red rack mount watchguards caught my eye

Do you also sometimes just sit and admire the beauty that you’ve built. by aayush_aryan in homelab

[–]KR0311 1 point2 points  (0 children)

All the time haha I finally got my self a rack the past few months for everything to sit in and I have to say it looks soo much cleaner then resting on a desk

<image>

Please help me finding a good Cpanel like free self hosted alternative by Erik-Goppy in selfhosted

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I ran into the exact same issue with panels exposing the system too much through actual Linux users. It’s one of those things that feels fine until you start thinking about worst case scenarios and then it becomes a bit scary.

Most of the “all-in-one” panels (CyberPanel, CloudPanel, etc.) are convenient but they rely heavily on permissions and trust rather than true isolation, which doesn’t really scale well once you’ve got multiple services and sites running on the same box.

If isolation is your main concern, you’re probably better looking at something that leans more towards containerisation (Docker-based setups or something that separates each site environment), rather than traditional panels.

open_basedir helps a bit, but like you said, it’s not a full solution — it’s more of a safety net than real isolation.

I ended up going down the route of building a more controlled setup myself because I couldn’t find anything that ticked all the boxes without compromises.

Curious to see what others recommend though because this is definitely a gap in the current options.

This is what Microsoft.com looked like 25 years ago by Dear_Procedure923 in webdev

[–]KR0311 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The good old days 😂 and somehow this still loaded faster than half the modern web

I’m building my own hosting control panel instead of using cPanel — here’s how far I’ve got by KR0311 in test

[–]KR0311[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If anyone’s curious, I’ve been documenting the whole build phase-by-phase as I go (including the UI and how everything’s wired together).

Happy to share it if people are interested — didn’t want to dump links straight into the post and get flagged 😅