Cisco 2960 - flash filesystem not found

roy.sam · ‎01-23-2010

The switch drop to rommon mode with the following errors:

Failed to get configuration

Invalid parameter block -- no mac address available.

Xmodem file system is available.

switch: flash_init

Initializing Flash...

...no flash filesystems found.

switch: dir

List of filesystems currently registered:

xmodem[0]: (read-only)

null[1]: (read-write)

It looks like the flash is gone.

A brute force of xmodem copy to flash did not work.

Leo Laohoo · ‎01-23-2010

The correct syntax is "dir flash:".

Peter Paluch · ‎01-23-2010

Hi Roy,

I am afraid that your switch FLASH is probably damaged. Have you tried unplugging the switch from the power completely, waiting a couple of minutes and plugging it back? If it still fails to read the FLASH and complains about corrupt parameter block and no MAC address available then we are probably out of options.

Nevertheless, I have never come across a similar problem. This might suggest that the switch was defective - a sensible IOS upgrade cannot corrupt the FLASH and/or the parameter block. Is the switch still under warranty? If yes I would request a replacement.

Best regards,

Peter

roy.sam · ‎01-23-2010

Hi Peter,

There was a similar post a couple of weeks back. I have no idea how this happened.

Rgds.

By Sam Chang under Cisco Community forum:

Upgrade IOS Problem for C2960

There are three 2960 took this problem:

WS-C2960-48TC-S 12.2(25) 2

WS-C2960-24TC-S 12.2(25) 1

upgrade from 12.2(25) to 12.2(50)

upload the IOS by TFTP to flash:

boot system flash:****

wr

reload

Failed to get configuration
Invalid parameter block -- no mac address available.
Xmodem file system is available.

The system has been interrupted, or encountered an error
while non-volatile environment variables were being read
out of flash. If you interrupted the system, it would be
a good idea to issue the reset command now, or the
environment variables may be lost. The following
commands will initialize the flash filesystem, and finish
loading the operating system software:

flash_init
boot

switch: flash_init
Initializing Flash...
...no flash filesystems found.

than i try to type some command:

switch: dir

List of filesystems currently registered:

xmodem[0]: (read-only)
null[1]: (read-write)

switch: flash_init
Initializing Flash...
...no flash filesystems found.

switch:

i try to sent original IOS to null: filesystem and successed, but after reboot nothing happen...

is this a hardware problem? just like flash card get crashed....

any suggestion?

thanks and Best REgards

Tags: catalyst_2960

Reza Sharifi · ‎01-23-2010

Hi Roy,

Can you try to see if you can delete the IOS while you are in boot loader mode and then format the flash?

If these work then you may be able to xmodem the old IOS back or try the new one again, if not, hopefully the switch is under warranty so you can RMA it.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst2960/software/release/12.2_25_see/command/reference/bootldr.pdf

Good luck

Reza

Leo Laohoo · ‎01-23-2010

If "dir flash:" doesn't work try entering "i" and press enter.

roy.sam · ‎01-23-2010

What is the purpose of entering "i" if all the above methods failed? I tried and it gives me "Unknown cmd: i"

The switch fails to see any flash device and looks like it was gone from the filesystem.

Peter Paluch · ‎01-24-2010

Leo, Roy,

Leo: The commands you suggested work for routers in ROMMON mode. Roy has a problem with C2960 switch, and its bootloader does not support commands you indicated.

Roy: The i command stands for initialize and it can be used in ROMMON mode on router to reset the router and start over the entire POST/boot sequence. It is not supported on your switch, though.

Regarding copying the IOS to the null: filesystem - the null: filesystem is a virtual filesystem that is constantly empty. Effectively, anything copied to null: gets lost. As you are not able to access the flash: filesystem, it is almost certain that there is a hardware problem or some control data structures about the switch hardware configuration at a very low level became corrupted. I do not think we can do more at the moment. The switch should probably be replaced.

Best regards,

Peter

sam_chang88 · ‎07-06-2010

I am Sam Chang, today I upgrade the other C2960 and the problem (no flash:) happen again, I think i find the root: this batch product have the bug.

sh flash: there are 32M capacity, but C3750 only have 16M capacity, so 32M flash in this batch C2960 is Virtual.

so if have to upgrade the ISO for C2960, delete the Original IOS first. If like me to do, RMA to do.

abelletti · ‎03-14-2011

For what it's worth, I can report having the same problem with three 2960-48TC-L switches. These switches were originally on "c2960-lanbase-mz.122-25.SEE1.bin" which I believe is the same as the original poster. This makes me think that they might be from around the same time.

I was able to get mine up and running via "boot xmodem:" and waiting a few hours (since the switch was too brain-damaged to let me change the baud rate.) Unfortunately this hasn't proven useful so far, as the standard mechanism for erasing and formatting flash doesn't seem to help with the affected data. Interestingly, when I did get a switch back up, it retained its full configuration. Apparently only the parameter block itself is damaged.

Also note, when I booted via xmodem (with c2960-lanbasek9-mz.122-55.SE1.bin), I ran smack into the issue described here: http://tools.cisco.com/Support/BugToolKit/search/getBugDetails.do?method=fetchBugDetails&bugId=CSCtb12181

This just doesn't seem like a good batch of switches.

Regardless, it looks like a call to Cisco. These switches are out of warranty and not on support, but given this is pretty clearly a manufacturing defect, perhaps some goodwill is available.

Allen

Iulian Vaideanu · ‎12-11-2013

I'm bringing up this old thread because I just came across the same issue, and maybe there's some new information to be obtained about it.

From what I've read so far the problem affects non-G TC-L (but not TT-L) units. Out of the four C2960-48TC-L switches that we have in our network (and that I've prepared to start with 12.2(55)SE8 at the next reload), one got restarted last-week (power-failure) and went straight to the "switch:" prompt with the "Invalid parameter block" error.

This switch was running 12.2(25)SEE2 and it had gone through several power-failures in the past without any incident, so it would seem that the problem is triggered by attempting to update to a newer IOS. If that's the case, the question is: which is the latest IOS version that wouldn't trigger the issue?

Also, does anyone have any detailed information about the 2960 batches affected by the problem (like serial number ranges or manufacturing dates)? My problematic switch was manufactured in 2006, week 50, and the remaining three C2960-48TC-Ls were manufactured in 2007, 2008 (these two are running 12.2(35)SE5) and again 2006, week 51 (running 12.2(25)SEE2) - I'm guessing this one is very likely to go boom when restarted.

"boot xmodem:" worked for me as well (took 3h10m to load 12.2(55)SE8), and once the IOS loaded I too ran into the "%ILET-1-AUTHENTICATION_FAIL" message (about the switch not being genuine), repeated every five minutes. Formatting the flash didn't work for me either, but the configuration was indeed intact (I guess the nvram: filesystem is totally separated from the flash).

Iulian Vaideanu · ‎12-12-2013

I did some more experimenting today - first I xmodem-boot-ed the switch with 122-25.FX (non-K9, smallest C2960 image I could find), then with 122-25.SEE2 (only slightly bigger). Each time I erased and formatted the flash (obviously with no positive effect after reload), and each time I noticed this:

Switch#sh ver | i C2960-48|Ports|---

cisco WS-C2960-48TT-L (PowerPC405) processor (revision C0) with 61440K/4088K bytes of memory.

Model number : WS-C2960-48TC-L

Switch Ports Model SW Version SW Image

------ ----- ----- ---------- ----------

* 1 50 WS-C2960-48TT-L 12.2(25)SEE2 C2960-LANBASE-M

The switch is physically a 48TC-L, so where does the TT come from? I even took out the SFP aplique, but obviously there are more differences than that between the TT and the TC...

Will keep the device around for further experiments (or for use in non-critical environments where there's little risk of power failure or need for reload ).

Leo Laohoo · ‎12-12-2013

From what I've read so far the problem affects non-G TC-L (but not TT-L) units. Out of the four C2960-48TC-L switches that we have in our network (and that I've prepared to start with 12.2(55)SE8 at the next reload), one got restarted last-week (power-failure) and went straight to the "switch:" prompt with the "Invalid parameter block" error.

I've got >300 non-G 2960 (PoE and non-PoE) and I've never seen this before and sites regularly drop power.

The switch is physically a 48TC-L, so where does the TT come from?  I even took out the SFP aplique, but obviously there are more differences than that between the TT and the TC...

That's an IOS bug. I've seen something like this but no on this IOS you are using.

Keith Ransom · ‎07-08-2014

switch: flash_init
Initializing Flash...
...no flash filesystems foun

Leo Laohoo · ‎07-08-2014

Means the flash is either dead or lost physical connection.

I'd recommend you RMA the appliance.

If your appliance is a plain 2960, then I'd recommend you read THIS Field Notice..