switch firmware upgrade

[ridney]

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hi all,

i have an old switch (catalyst 1900) that i wanted it to download a firmware from the terminal emulator but got some problems transferring the file using xmodem. the error i got was "Transfer cancelled by Remote System". i did set the baud rate to 9600,8,1,N from the switch and the terminal emulator. is this a serial cable fault? i'm using an RS232 usb to DB-9 to connect my console cable.

the switch doesn't have a firmware on it because i 'intentionally' (out of ignorance) erased it! so when it boots, it displays directly to the systems engineering console. all ports are disabled.


here's the snip from the console:



Diagnostic Console - Systems Engineering

Operation firmware version: 0.00 Status: Invalid
Boot firmware version: 1.10



WARNING!!! Operation Firmware is invalid.
Upgrade firmware to enable switch operation.

[U] Upgrade operation firmware (XMODEM)
[S] System Debug Interface

Enter Selection: U

The XMODEM protocol will be used to perform this firmware upgrade.
The user must initiate an XMODEM file transfer from the terminal
side using an appropriate terminal application specific command.

Do you wish to continue with the download process, [Y]es or [N]o? Yes


Erasing invalid flash - may take up to 1 minute.
Erasure completed.

Do you wish to upgrade at [9]600 (console speed) or [5]7600? 9600

Waiting for image at the configured baud rate...



at this point i was sending the file using xmodem from the terminal, got the error and file transfer stops. i also tried the baud rate at 57600 and still no success


anyone got any better ideas or a solution to this problem?

TIA

[juantamad]

are you using hyper terminal program or another terminal console? How's the status of a file transfer? was it moving or just nothing and stop?

[ridney]

i'm using hyperterminal, secureCRT and TeraTerm. all of these terminal emulators just don't work. in secureCRT and TeraTerm a packet is sent then hangs-up. in hyperterminal it displays the error "Transfer cancelled by Remote System".

before, when it still has a firmware on it, it tried to upgrade it using tftp but received an error on the tftp server that the file transfer failed. i thought that the ios corrupted so i tried to delete it and install with a newer version of ios but then i got this problem.

[juantamad]

I think they are not using IOS image. I'm not sure if they are using CatOS image coz that was the time that cisco bought the catalyst switch... anyway, i haven't tried using xmodem on cat 1900. I wonder if is there a similarity of 2950 switches? i mean is there a rommon? or just a "menu-driven" something....

[ridney]

yes, cat1900s are menu driven while 2900s are ios based CLI (very similar to routers). in cat1900, you can also access the CLI besides the menu and no, there is no rommon in cat1900.

[riann]

What specific model of Catalyst 1900 is it?

what version of firmware are you trying to load?

I haven't done upgrade on catalyst 1900 for a long time. Sometimes during the upgrade the switch or terminal won't respond for around 1-2 mins. This is normal.

[ridney]

hi riann,

i believe it's a WS-1924-XL-A. i was trying to load a cat1900en.9.00.04.bin but i guess i just broke this box for good!

well thanks anyways to all.

ridney

[riann]

I can't remember if there was a WS-1924-XL-A. Maybe a WS-1924-A. Cause if I remember it right XL were on the Catalyst 2900 Series. But I might be wrong.

From the looks of it, your trying to load an enterprise version of the firmware on a standard version switch.

[ridney]

yes, you're right about the XL series, they are for 2900s and 3500s.

the switch had a 5.0 version standard edition software when it was still running before i tried to upgrade it with a version 9.0 enterprise edition. the thing is that when i tried to copy the firmware to the tftp server, it failed. so i tried to upgrade it without backing-up the firmware but still failed. tried xmodem to download the firmware from the terminal then boom! the firmware got erased. lucky me

i'll just try to get a hand of a lower version of it's firmware, hopefully.