I corrupted the image so that when my C3850 switch tries to boot, I get several 'Failed to start' errors for various bootlflash, boothelper, mount package, etc. and then after the final error 'failed to mount packages', it tries to reboots again without success.
Here's what happened:
I wanted to upgrade C3850 from version 16.3.5b to 16.3.6 to correct a GUI issue. I did not have enough room on the flash to copy the new .bin image. The current image was loaded in INSTALL mode and there was no current .bin image since the switch was using the packages.conf and thus the corresponding .pkg files to boot up. After running the clean command, all the .pkg files were in use, so no additional room on the flash was created.
I inputed the above issue into ChatGPT and it suggested I could delete the following files with no impact to the switch:
cat3k_caa-webui.16.03.05b.SPA.pkg
cat3k_caa-guestshell.16.03.05b.SPA.pkg
nvram_config_bkup
After I delete those files, I had thought I had freed enough room but still got a 'not enough space on device' error, so I decided to reboot the switch....big mistake. That's one the switch got stuck in the reboot cycle.
I have the new image and the old one on a usb but I can only get my switch into 'switch' mode (hold the 'mode' button and power recycle) and when I do a dir, I do not see the usb slot 'usbflash0': I only see the following:
switch: dir
List of filesystems currently registered:
xmodem[0]: (read-only)
null[1]: (read-write)
bs[3]: (read-only)
flash[18]: (read-only)
tftp[19]: (read-write)
This is what is currently on the flash:
switch: dir flash:
Directory of flash:/
62081 drwx 4096 .
2 drwx 4096 ..
62097 -rw- 2097152 nvram_config
62085 -rw- 9505 MA-working1.cfg
62086 -rw- 35 pnp-tech-time
62087 -rw- 59353 pnp-tech-discovery-summary
62083 -rw- 10224 vlan.dat
62088 -rw- 9963 WLC-working.cfg
15522 -rw- 2097152 nvram_config_bkup
31042 -rw- 4748 packages.conf
62090 drwx 4096 dc_profile_dir
62092 -rw- 47 ip-dhcp-snooping-db.txt
62094 -rw- 6346 SQ-WAN1.cfg
62095 -rw- 7601 SD-WAN1-cfg
62096 -rw- 8622 SW-WAN1-config
15521 -rw- 65301 memleak.tcl
11 drwx 4096 .installer
62089 drwx 8192 core
62101 -rw- 22301472 cat3k_caa-rpbase.16.03.05b.SPA.pkg
62102 -rw- 266035828 cat3k_caa-rpcore.16.03.05b.SPA.pkg
46562 -rw- 9089660 cat3k_caa-srdriver.16.03.05b.SPA.pkg
46563 -rw- 212812400 cat3k_caa-wcm.16.03.05b.SPA.pkg
31043 -rw- 925 bootloader_evt_handle.log
69841 drwx 4096 .prst_sync
85361 drwx 4096 .rollback_timer
93121 drwx 4096 gs_script
Please let me know if how I can get the image from my usb onto the flash!
Thanks,
Kevin
