Factory Reset 9200L

slyfoxx · ‎01-13-2025

I've gone through several discussions on this board of different folks trying to reinstall or repair a corrupted ios. I'm effectively in the same boat but can't seem to get passed my issue. I've tried loading in ROMMON but can't seem to get it there. I've read holding mode down while plugging it in, hitting the mode button three times when the front LED blinks. I've tried booting from USB and TFTP. I can't access flash: because it's read-only. Can't access anything plugged into the USB, have tried several in FAT, partitioned to a smaller partition, just in case the size of the disk causes issues. I'm at a lost at the moment.

Below is what I see in flash:

switch: dir flash:

Attributes Size Name
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
drwxr-xr-x 4096 .prst_sync
-rw-r--r-- 4003 lateshutdown.log
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Currently using Terra Term for most of this and have used TFTP64 when trying to boot from TFTP. Any and all help would be great. Can provide more info if asked.

Flavio Miranda · ‎01-13-2025

@slyfoxx

This is everything you have in the flash? Can I see the command "set" ?

switch: dir flash:

Attributes Size Name
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
drwxr-xr-x 4096 .prst_sync
-rw-r--r-- 4003 lateshutdown.log
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

slyfoxx · ‎04-30-2025

Sorry for the long wait, I had to put this switch on the back burner. Below is what is currently set.

ABNORMAL_RESET_COUNT=0
BAUD=57600
BOOT_DEVICE_MODE=catalyst
DEFAULT_GATEWAY=192.168.55.1
IP_ADDRESS=192.168.55.3
IP_SUBNET_MASK=255.255.255.0
LINKTIMEOUT=20
MAC_ADDR=50:49:21:54:B8:80
MANUAL_BOOT=yes
MODEL_NUM=C9200L-48P-4G
NO_CONSOLE=0
PKTTIMEOUT=99999999
PORT=Management0/0
RETRY=20
ROMMON_BOARDID=0x4312
SWITCH_NUMBER=1
TFTP_FILE=cat9k_lite_iosxe.17.12.04.SPA.bin
TFTP_SERVER=192.168.55.4

Dustin Anderson · ‎01-13-2025

I have not personally dealt with a 9200, but we use 9300s. I had a user format the flash years ago and I believe this was the procedure to repair.

boot to ROMMON, and then boot from a USB. The hard part here is they don't usually like large drives and I have a couple old 4GB USB2 drives in FAT32. Finding 4GB drives is a bit hard these days. Examples below, but change to whatever code you are installing.

boot usbflash0:cat9k_iosxe.17.09.05.SPA.bin

now, if I remember correctly you can't install from the booted file, so need to copy it to the flash.

copy usbflash0:cat9k_iosxe.17.09.05.SPA.bin flash:

From here you should be able to install and is should set the boot variable.

request platform software package install switch all file flash:cat9k_iosxe.17.09.05.SPA.bin auto-copy

**New code**

install add file flash:cat9k_iosxe.17.09.05.SPA.bin activate commit

slyfoxx · ‎04-30-2025

Can't copy anything to flash: since it's read-only. I've what others had suggested for making flash: writable, but it's not having it.

Leo Laohoo · ‎04-30-2025

@slyfoxx wrote:
Can't copy anything to flash: since it's read-only.

When an IOS-XE router or switch is in ROMMON, there is no way to "copy" anything into the flash. It is locked down for security reasons. It is, however, still possible to boot the firmware off a USB flash drive while in ROMMON and this is the way to recover a router or switch in this state.

@slyfoxx wrote:
MANUAL_BOOT=yes

This is the main reason why the switch always boot into ROMMON. Someone has fiddled with the boot variable.

There are two ways to fix this:

1. In ROMMON, enter the following command:

set MANUAL_BOOT=no

Check that this setting is in place with the command "set" before rebooting.

2. Let the switch boot normally into IOS-XE and then:

conf t
 NO boot manual switch 1
end
wr

slyfoxx · ‎05-01-2025

There are two ways to fix this:
1. In ROMMON, enter the following command:

set MANUAL_BOOT=no

Check that this setting is in place with the command "set" before rebooting.

2. Let the switch boot normally into IOS-XE and then:

conf t
 NO boot manual switch 1
end
wr

I changed the MANUAL_BOOT var to "no" as suggested and rebooted the switch. Tried booting from the USB that has the .bin file on it and it still seems to fail.

switch: boot usbflash0:cat9k_lite_iosxe.17.12.04.SPA.bin
boot: attempting to boot from [usbflash0:cat9k_lite_iosxe.17.12.04.SPA.bin]
boot: reading file cat9k_lite_iosxe.17.12.04.SPA.bin
#####################################################################################################################################################

Error: Failed to boot usbflash0:cat9k_lite_iosxe.17.12.04.SPA.bin

Leo Laohoo · ‎01-13-2025

If the switch is in ROMMON, post the complete output to the command "set".

slyfoxx · ‎04-30-2025

Results above.

Devaa · ‎01-13-2025

Try to change the flash to RW, find the below post.

https://community.cisco.com/t5/switching/changeing-flash-from-read-only-to-read-write/td-p/3739978