Fujitsu Futro S920 Thin Client as opnsense firewall

[zuzuboy981]

The description says 8GB of ram, so is it 4 or 8? Also, for yours was it $30 shipped or was shipping extra?

I am positive it's going to be 4GB. They combined shipping together so it was $15 for shipping both. So total $80ish with taxes.

 

[Samir]

I am positive it's going to be 4GB. They combined shipping together so it was $15 for shipping both. So total $80ish with taxes.

So it's a bonus if it comes with 8, lol. Solid price for 2x of them.

 

[Alucard1]

I bought this riser for the S920, but it's too short. However, the product specifications show the exact same hight? @frauhottelmann What's the exact hight of your riser from the bottom to the center of the PCIe slot?

Also interested in getting an answer to this. I tried with a general purpose Aliexpress riser, but it's just a tad short (it can actually work, but somewhat crooked). In case it helps, I've measured my (standard?) 1u riser to be 24-25mm mounting height and I would estimate that the S920 needs about 29mm (measuring from the base of the pci-e slot on the board, to a straight mounted standard pci-e card).
What is the genuine/original riser height from the bottom of the pins to the center of the riser pci-e slot? If anybody with this setup can measure that, would be much appreciated !

 

[redlaw]

I bought one a couple of days ago. I wanted to make a router. My idea is to put LTE card, wifi card to have wifi5 and intel card with 4 ports via riser. But I am unsure how I can use LTE mini PCI-E and wifi card? Where do I connect another card?

Thanks

 

[Samir]

I bought one a couple of days ago. I wanted to make a router. My idea is to put LTE card, wifi card to have wifi5 and intel card with 4 ports via riser. But I am unsure how I can use LTE mini PCI-E and wifi card? Where do I connect another card?

Thanks

I think you may be trying to push this little unit a bit too far since it only really has one pcie slot and one mini pcie for the wifi card. You might be able to put your lte mini pci-e in the system and then use a usb wifi, but even that might not work due to software issues. You're actually better off using a low powered sff case with a low powered cpu to get all the cards you need installed.

 

[redlaw]

I think you may be trying to push this little unit a bit too far since it only really has one pcie slot and one mini pcie for the wifi card. You might be able to put your lte mini pci-e in the system and then use a usb wifi, but even that might not work due to software issues. You're actually better off using a low powered sff case with a low powered cpu to get all the cards you need installed.

what do you suggest?

 

[Samir]

what do you suggest?

Almost any sff system under $50 would fit the bill well like this Dell 3010:

Dell OptiPlex 3010 SFF Intel i3-3225 3.3GHz 8GB DDR3 Fair No Caddy HDD | eBay

1x Dell OptiPlex 3010 SFF. Parts not included: Software, User Guide, Accessory Cables, Keyboard, Mouse, Power Cable, Hard Drive, HDD Caddy. Physical condition: Fair. Form Factor: Small Form Factor. Competitive Prices.

www.ebay.com

The Dell SFF are quite popular for this even they will use a bit more power due to being a desktop. Still, you can usually sell the original processor and get a lower powered one to help in the power department and the power supply is pretty light duty to begin with on the 3xxx series.

 

[redlaw]

I have one more question. How do I reset bios administrator password? My unit came configured with empty User bios password and now many options are locked.

 

[Samir]

I have one more question. How do I reset bios administrator password? My unit came configured with empty User bios password and now many options are locked.

I'll have to look at my notes to find where it is, but from what I recall it was a pretty obvious jumper.

 

[redlaw]

Will wait for you Thanks!

 

[Samir]

Will wait for you Thanks!

Okay, I believe page 67 of this linked tech manual on the motherboard should show how to reset the bios password:

https://silo.tips/downloadFile/tech...ainboard-d3313-s1-s2-s3-ekabini-d3313-s4-s5-s

 

[redlaw]

Wow! Many thanks!

So I find out how to do this. You have to make flash drive with free dos. Than to download latest bios for your model. Put RCV pin in recovery mode, insert prepared usb flash and listen for beeps. It is going to take 2 minutes. At the end there is going to be two long beeps and two short. That is the signal that mobo is updated and completely reseted to defaults. Everything is deleted except windows OS key which is preserved. (Only if your motherboard has it)

 

[Samir]

Wow! Many thanks!

So I find out how to do this. You have to make flash drive with free dos. Than to download latest bios for your model. Put RCV pin in recovery mode, insert prepared usb flash and listen for beeps. It is going to take 2 minutes. At the end there is going to be two long beeps and two short. That is the signal that mobo is updated and completely reseted to defaults. Everything is deleted except windows OS key which is preserved. (Only if your motherboard has it)

Interesting that you had to update the bios to reset it. I would have just pulled the cmos battery and left it unplugged.

Someone else wrote this on how to update the bios earlier in this thread:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/fujitsu-futro-s920-thin-client-as-opnsense-firewall.31087/post-330186

 

[redlaw]

I just wanted to add this info for future reference on how to remove bios passwords on this machine:

 

[Samir]

It is important to note that the ftp server listed in the docs has changed--everything can now be found at ftp.kontron.com, and the paths have changed a bit so you'll need to navigate manually to find the files based on what the original path was. If you want to download the entire ftp site, it's over 10GB and has a download limit. I still haven't gotten all of it yet for my archive.

 

[Mithril]

@Samir You better get your lawyer involved, this man has a strong case against ya, for your upvotes on deals forums.

On a serious side, this is pretty rusty piece of hardware that produces more heat than calculations. I'm not a poor guy, but I've been replacing my old hardware actively thoughout last years not because of the watts it eats, but because of the watts it emits, versus the performance. And when it comes to bad weather, yep, newer hardware lasts way longer on UPS than antiques of 2000s. I still love them and use them but mostly they've been retired from mission-critical positions. I always ttry to find ways to repurpose the old stuff I have but I would not buy a decade old computers right now.

Official specs list this as ~5w idle, is that wrong?

 

[infojunky]

Someone managed to plug a SATA connector into the port under the heatsink and power a hard drive with the 5V from the USB 2.0 pins.

But there's actually an easier way to get SATA. I looked at the manual @Samir linked and the PWR pinout on (some?) boards is actually a floppy disk power connector that provides 5V or 12V. You can get these cables from Amazon for $6.

Amazon.com: GELRHONR 6Inch 4 Pin Floppy Drive to 15 Pin SATA Male Power Cable for Floppy Drives,USB3.0 Extender Card, IDE-2pack : Electronics

Buy GELRHONR 6Inch 4 Pin Floppy Drive to 15 Pin SATA Male Power Cable for Floppy Drives,USB3.0 Extender Card, IDE-2pack: SATA Cables - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

www.amazon.com

You can probably route the cables out of the rear I/O's punchouts and zip tie a SATA SSD outside. But if you want to throw away the graphics card to use this unit as a thin client maybe an PCI-E to m.2 adapter makes more sense. Anyone adventurous?

https://www.amazon.com/M-2-Adapter-Aluminum-Heatsink-Solution/dp/B07JJTVGZM/

 

[hanker_de]

Thank you so much for this information, it saved me lots of trouble sending the unit back!

FYI: If your Futro starts up very slowly (ca. 20 seconds before BIOS screen), most changes to the BIOS do not stick an the USB keyboard isn't recognized in FreeDOS, some idiot left the recovery BIOS settings on... well, recovery.

[...]Bricked bios recovery guide:[...]

 

[geo999]

Too bad IOMMU is not available on this chips, can't pass through PCIe network card on Proxmox.

Linux version 5.15.30-2-pve (build@proxmox) (gcc (Debian 10.2.1-6) 10.2.1 20210110

DMI: FUJITSU FUTRO S920/D3313-G1, BIOS V4.6.5.4 R1.16.0 for D3313-G1x 08/13/2018
CPU0: AMD GX-222GC SOC with Radeon(TM) R5E Graphics (family: 0x16, model: 0x30, stepping: 0x1)

[ 7.060633] AMD-Vi: AMD IOMMUv2 functionality not available on this system - This is not a bug.

vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 22
model : 48
model name : AMD GX-222GC SOC with Radeon(TM) R5E Graphics


It would make an interesting Proxmox low power device to work with, OpenWRT on top of Proxmox and another low power VM to leave running 24/7.

 

[geo999]

Anyone successful in modding the BIOS to enable advanced options ?
AMIBCP doesn't show the "Setup configuration" tab.