topic Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot in Wireless

SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Shihab Hamsa — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:38:11 GMT

Hello Guys,

We have some old APs 1602i devices which are giving very strange issues. We had many of them in boxes sitting in the store for a very long time. But when we tried to check a few found interesting fact that those APs stuck at boot

Loading "flash:/ap1g2-k9w7-mx.152-2.JB2/ap1g2-k9w7-mx.152-2.JB2"...#############################
File "flash:/ap1g2-k9w7-mx.152-2.JB2/ap1g2-k9w7-mx.152-2.JB2" uncompressed and installed, entry point: 0x100000
executing...

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cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, California 95134-1706

Cisco IOS Software, C1600 Software (AP1G2-K9W7-M), Version 15.2(2)JB2, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2013 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Mon 29-Jul-13 12:16 by prod_rel_team

Nothing will happen after this, (waited for a very long time still)

Then we tried to boot the device from rommon and flash using TFTP.

That went very well. And we got it booting. But the console after showing the message "Press Return to get started" will go unresponsive. It will not just work as if its a screenshot.

Surprisingly, the BVI receives DHCP IP and I can access the GUI (all of it), I can telnet/SSH. no issue at all.

BUT, after I save the configuration and reboot the AP, the first issue will resurface. It will get stuck after the

"Compiled Mon 29-Jul-13 12:16 by prod_rel_team"

No access, no configuration, no nothing.

Interestingly this scenario happens to multiple APs. (exact same thing)

Have anyone experienced this case?

Do any one have any idea how to make these work again?

Additional point: These are Autonomous APs, I tried both LWAP and Autonomous images. Both giving the same exact result.

One was in production and working, I tried flashing it and then that also started giving the same behavior.

In total I tried 3 different images, all of them having the same issue.

LWAP image gave the stuck condition with compiled date, while autonomous gave GUI access after flash.

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Mark Elsen — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:49:26 GMT

- These devices are very old and no longer supported : https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/obsolete/wireless/cisco-aironet-1600-series.html
At first glance it seems a pure console problem ; if they are connected to a cisco switch you can also issue
the command show cdp neighbors detail after they have booted. If the device is fully seen with info and details, then
try using another console cable (brand) and or terminal program , preferred = PuTTY,

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Scott Fella — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:54:05 GMT

Give this a read also, to make sure you are performing the upgrade/downgrade properly. I would assume if you have some in production, you should at least use that image on the ap's your are trying to bring up.

https://community.cisco.com/t5/wireless/cisco-1602i-series-access-point-setup/td-p/2922351

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Shihab Hamsa — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 16:07:33 GMT

Thank you Marce for the response.

We know these are obsolete and are in the process to replace.

Lets leave the console for the time being. Once I configure after the first flash, and write the configuration to flash and reboot, why the configs are not staying. show cdp neighbour works immediately after the flash.

But after I save the configuration and reboot (or just reboot the AP) then all goes south. And no CDP neighbor information at this point from the switch.

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Scott Fella — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 15:58:44 GMT

So what you are saying is that the ap comes up in a factory reset state, but once you configure the ap, then after the reload, the ap is no longer accessible?

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Shihab Hamsa — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 16:04:32 GMT

I did the conversion using the information from the link as pointed in that post. I am sure we are missing something. But what !!!!!

https://mrncciew.com/2012/10/20/lightweight-to-autonomous-conversion/

https://mrncciew.com/2013/12/13/ap-conversion-using-mode-button/

And I did tried using the image from one existing/working AP with the doubt that the image that I used might be corrupted.
But that image also behaved the same way.

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Scott Fella — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 16:05:41 GMT

Document what you have done and then where it issues out. We don't know what you are doing, so its hard to say what the issue is. How are you configuring the ap and what config?

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Shihab Hamsa — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 16:27:10 GMT

So what we did is,

Connected the AP to 3850 switch and a laptop is connected on the same switch (only these two devices on the isolated switch)

The laptop was given an IP 10.0.0.2/24. TFTP was run on this laptop.

The AP was booted while keeping the MODE button pressed around 30 seconds until the LED blink RED.

The AP, gave messages booting from tftp://255.255.255.255/ap1g2-k9w7-tar.default

This ap1g2-k9w7-tar.default was there in the TFTP.

The AP booted from the right image from the TFTP. Finally I received the message on the console saying "Press Return to get started".

The console stopped working after this response.

Then I run the DHCP from the laptop ( I used TFTPD for both TFTP and DHCP)

Immediately I received message on the console saying that BVI received IP address as what I configured.

Then I tried accessing the AP GUI using that IP. It gave me the GUI. I used the default credentials to login. The home page was presented to me.

With previous experience, I just changed the AP name from the default ap to ap1. Saved the configuration from the GUI, and issued Reboot AP from the GUI.

The reboot never brings back the AP, it gets stuck at the following

Nothing after this. No DHCP, and no response.

Again tried booting from tftp with mode button method, when I got the GUI access, I changed the IP to a static one. Saved it, rebooted the AP, again the boot stuck at the same place. I used two APs and three images to try, and multiple times. But finally everything is stuck at the same place

"Compiled Mon 29-Jul-13 12:16 by prod_rel_team"

A working AP also I tried, that also is at the same position 😞

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Mark Elsen — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:33:36 GMT

- You may need to verify the MD5 hash of ap1g2-k9w7-tar , to check if it is not a corrupted distribution
Or for instance open it with WinZip on windows and check if that can be done without errors ,

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Scott Fella — Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:39:20 GMT

Maybe skip the GUI configuration and do that from the cli. I know that there was some issues in the past that you had to device the country code, save then reboot and things started to work.

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Shihab Hamsa — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 08:11:57 GMT

update:

I was on the console for more than 5 hours and the result was same.

I left the AP in its state untouched overnight. I was only able to look at it after like 10 hours later. And voila everything is back to normal. The AP was up for 18 hours+ in total from the time of flash.
Now everything is completely normal. Console working perfect. Reboot perfect.

Not one AP but both AP which I worked with came online perfect overnight.

I have been working with Cisco for over two decades but this is very strange though.

Thank you guys for the refreshes.

Re: SAP-1602i loosing console access and stuck at reboot

Scott Fella — Wed, 05 Feb 2025 14:36:05 GMT

Yeah that is strange, should not take that long. Glad you got your stash of ap's working:)