ASA 5505 HELP! I've now reverted to a previous version of the ASA software (somehow)

[Pete Johnstone]

New to configuring Cisco routers.  Client bought one, a refurbed ASA 5505 so I need to configure it.  Well it was running ASA software version 8.4(7), the Configuration register was 0x41

So after configuring, not knowing any better I unplugged took it to client site, and realized my config did not survive reboot.  Fortunately I just found a text version of the config that I saved....At the advice of a member here, I changed the Configuration register to 0x1 and now my enable password/config survives reboot.

But somehow, now the device software version is 8.2 and it's not understanding some of the commands I used when it was 8.4

What can I do to get back 8.4?  Is this possible?  The refurb guy that shipped it didn't send anything other than the device, power, and a sheet with the info on it but no software, no console cable, etc.

[Marvin Rhoads · Accepted solution]

See if the newer image is on disk0:

dir

If so, direct the ASA to boot from it:

boot system disk0:/<image name>

Image name is something like asa847-k8.bin.

Save that config and reload.

[Pete Johnstone]

It "almost" worked....

dir

Yields this (I only included important lines):

Directory of disk0:/

158 -rwx 15390720 03:33:30 Aug 23 2013 asa825-k8.bin

163 -rwx 24809472 23:29:24 Sep 11 2013 asa847-k8.bin

So I instructed it to boot from the second image which should be 8.4(7) and saved it, however I get this at boot time:

WARNING: BOOT variable added, but unable to find disk0:/

*** Output from config line 45, "boot system disk0:/"

So dir tells me that disk 0 does in fact exist, and it has the image I would like to boot to, however at boot time it can't seem to see it?  Does this have something to do with the configuration register by any chance?

[Marvin Rhoads]

What exactly does you boot line now say?

If the configuration register value is 0x1, the ASA should follow the specified boot image from the startup configuration file.

Reference: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/security/asa/asa-command-reference/A-H/cmdref1/c4.html#pgfId-2167915

I would expect the following to be in place and work for you:

boot system disk0:/asa847-k8.bin

[Pete Johnstone]

Sorry been working on other clients the last couple of days.  Finally sat down and looked at the config, it looks like there were two entries in the config (when I added the second one I must've accidentally added the first one as well?):

boot system disk0:/

boot system disk0:/asa847-k8.bin

That would explain why it wasn't loading the version I wanted (and explains the error message as well).  I removed the first entry and boom, now it works.  Thanks for all the help!