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I recently bought used Cisco Catalyst 4948 and can't configure it : is see no link on all interfaces, serial console works but only output I only can stop autoboot and enter in rommon.

Any hints how to enable input in serial console ?

Boot stops at : http://tinypic.com/r/2920mk5/6

Maybe hardware problem ?

[Solved] It was hardware problem, no one here helped

Jhon
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  • Do you have a proper Cisco serial cable? See here: http://serverfault.com/questions/495678/new-catalyst-2950-switch-no-console-or-telnet-cli-access – pauska Apr 03 '13 at 10:16
  • Yes, I have RJ-45-to-DB9, I can see POST messages, interrupt booting, write rommon commands but when it boots in ios i can't send anything (hitting return N times not helping) – Jhon Apr 03 '13 at 10:58
  • Did you set your terminal parameters correcty: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/tech/tk801/tk36/technologies_tech_note09186a0080094465.shtml – joeqwerty Apr 03 '13 at 13:29
  • Yes, I followed rules from there – Jhon Apr 03 '13 at 13:36

3 Answers3

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Sounds to me like the previous owner may have changed the speed on "line con 0" as you initially get output but then it stops, although I do have two hangups with this thought. First, you will often get garbage characters instead, but this is not always the case.

Second is in another answer you said you are booting with the config-register of 0x2142, so any config shouldn't be applying. However maybe this is stored outside the normal config and as such still applying? I know things like the boot variables typically do this, but I would have to do some digging to recall everything that is like that.

Did you try other "standard" serial rates other than 9600 to see if it connects? Here is the list that I know of: 2400 4800 14400 19200 28800 33600 57600 115200

You may also want to try playing with the signaling and flow control as that can be changed as well. However I would start with speed, as it is semi-common for people to increase this as people often find 9600 slow. The only reason I have known people to change the other values (or use a slower speed) is to make it more difficult for people to access the console port.

YLearn
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  • Looks like ios is not booting : http://tinypic.com/r/2920mk5/6 , booting stops and nothing more shows (waited more than 30 min) – Jhon Apr 03 '13 at 17:36
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    Or this could be the point where the console's speed/flow control/signalling change. Usually IOS attempts to load multiple times or gives an indication it is corrupt, however it looks from the image that IOS has loaded. If you do think it is a bad IOS file, then try giving it a new one. You can find the image recovery procedure here: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps663/products_configuration_example09186a0080094ecf.shtml#image – YLearn Apr 03 '13 at 18:00
  • I tried to boot via tftp with newest firmware - same result, http://i47.tinypic.com/9b9m3q.jpg – Jhon Apr 03 '13 at 18:08
  • Still looks to me like IOS has booted and that you lose connectivity after it boots. Still leaning towards speed/flow control/signaling. – YLearn Apr 03 '13 at 18:33
  • I will try to work with speeds but why it changes for new firmware – Jhon Apr 03 '13 at 18:45
  • Now seller says that before shipping all was ok :-/, he was able to login in IOS on 9600 bods – Jhon Apr 03 '13 at 19:20
  • Try running confreg from ROMMON mode up to the point where you reload the old configuration as per the procedure here: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps663/products_password_recovery09186a00800945f7.shtml#topic1 – YLearn Apr 03 '13 at 22:11
  • I restored configuration to 0x2124 - same result, 0x2124 with boot from tfpd - same result – Jhon Apr 04 '13 at 06:02
  • Did you actually use confreg from ROMMON mode? – YLearn Apr 04 '13 at 06:14
  • Yes, I can have access only to ROMMON, followed instructions from http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps663/products_configuration_example09186a0080094ecf.shtml – Jhon Apr 04 '13 at 06:39
  • Also I see SFP leds are allways orange, maybe booting halts at SFP init ? – Jhon Apr 04 '13 at 10:25
  • Odds are this is only indicating they are in a disabled state in the config. I would take this as further confirmation that IOS is booted up and the config loaded. By the time of your screenshot, they should have already passed POST. Also, you say that you used the "confreg" command from ROMMON as indicated in my link, but you say you followed the instructions at a different link which does not include confreg. So just confirming you actually did it. – YLearn Apr 04 '13 at 13:53
  • I tried to boot with 0x2124 with image from bootflash, after that i tried to boot with image from tftp (newest image from 2012) both fails – Jhon Apr 05 '13 at 09:13
  • Last time I will ask. Did you run the "confreg" command from ROMMON? This has nothing to do with image recovery as in the first link I posted. I will post the second link again: http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps663/products_password_recovery09186a00800945f7.shtml#topic1 – YLearn Apr 05 '13 at 13:24
  • YES I RUN confreg from ROMMON and tried different variants of configuration, including 0x2124 ALL WITH SAME RESULT - BOOTING HALT at Image text-base... – Jhon Apr 05 '13 at 16:12
  • In docs I read that orange light at SFP mean init/booting, off lights - disabled, so obviously is something wrong with SFP – Jhon Apr 05 '13 at 16:16
  • This depends on the platform. While that is true on older platforms (amber indicates a problem, such as POST failure), newer platforms tend to also indicated disabled ports with an amber. 4948s are in the second category. See http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst4900/4948/01intro.html#wp1030068 – YLearn Apr 05 '13 at 18:56
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It the switch isn't booting into IOS, there's a good chance that the flash got formatted before it was sent to you. You'll need to use TFTP to download a new IOS image onto the device.

This link will likely help.

Keller G
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If the switch is configured to use TACACS+ for console authentication, and if it can't reach any configured servers after booting, IOS will take a minute or two to time out before it falls back to local authentication. Until it times out, it will act as though it is unresponsive to input. I would guess this applies to RADIUS as well.

It's possible this switch still has someone else's configuration on it, so make sure you're bypassing startup-config by setting the config register to 0x2142 in ROMMON, as described in Cisco's password recovery procedure for this switch series.

James Sneeringer
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