Installing IOS on 2950

[greenarrow19]

Greetings all!

I have purchased a 2950 EI for CCNA Labs and I am having some trouble getting it set up. Reading through Odom's book, I began learning some of the CLI commands. I am admittedly a novice and stumbling my way through getting this 2950 set up. It had no IOS image on it when I got it. Using Cisco's website, I downloaded the most recent IOS for this switch. I followed the directions here:http://http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps628/products_tech_note09186a0080169696.shtml. Using ZTerm, I used xmodem to copy over the IOS. Below is the error that I continue to get:

switch: dir flash:

Directory of flash:/

2    -rwx  3133952   <date>               c2950-i6q4l2-mz.121-22.EA14.bin

4    -rwx  322       <date>               env_vars

4605952 bytes available (3135488 bytes used)

switch: boot flash:c2950-i6q4l2-mz.121-22.EA14.bin

Loading "flash:c2950-i6q4l2-mz.121-22.EA14.bin"...flash:c2950-i6q4l2-mz.121-22.EA14.bin: magic number mismatch: bad mzip file

Error loading "flash:c2950-i6q4l2-mz.121-22.EA14.bin"

Interrupt within 5 seconds to abort boot process.

Boot process failed...

switch: reset

Are you sure you want to reset the system (y/n)?y

System resetting...

C2950 Boot Loader (C2950-HBOOT-M) Version 12.1(11r)EA1, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

Compiled Mon 22-Jul-02 17:18 by antonino

WS-C2950G-24-EI starting...

Base ethernet MAC Address: 00:12:43:ef:d5:80

Xmodem file system is available.

Initializing Flash...

flashfs[0]: 2 files, 1 directories

flashfs[0]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories

flashfs[0]: Total bytes: 7741440

flashfs[0]: Bytes used: 3135488

flashfs[0]: Bytes available: 4605952

flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 6 seconds.

...done initializing flash.

Boot Sector Filesystem (bs:) installed, fsid: 3

Parameter Block Filesystem (pb:) installed, fsid: 4

Loading ""...: permission denied

Error loading ""

Interrupt within 5 seconds to abort boot process.

Boot process failed...

The system is unable to boot automatically.  The BOOT

environment variable needs to be set to a bootable

image.

Any help ot suggestions would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[Leo Laohoo]

Loading "flash:c2950-i6q4l2-mz.121-22.EA14.bin"...flash:c2950-i6q4l2-mz.121-22.EA14.bin: magic number mismatch: bad mzip file

Normally this means that the IOS (BIN file) is corrupt.  You'll need to find a way to get another copy and verify the MD5 checksum.

[greenarrow19]

Thanks for defining that for me! Been looking for a definition to that error. I download the bin file from Cisco. Surely they wouldn't have a bad IOS file available for download form their site! Right?

Where could I look for another to try? How would I go about checking the MD5 Checksum on the bin file?

Thanks again!

[Leo Laohoo]

Surely they wouldn't have a bad IOS file available for download form their site!

They don't but sometimes during the download process the client-end may not have "saved" or stored the file correctly (or completely).  I've seen this alot of times and I've done this alot of times too.

[greenarrow19]

I see. That would make sense. So, what recourse do I have? I have downloaded it using both the Java and the non-Java method. Who else would have IOS bin files available for download? Could the problem be in ZTerm? Perhaps I will try another terminal application.

[Leo Laohoo]

So, what recourse do I have?

Have you verified that the MD5 is correct?

The command is "verify /md5 flash: " and compare the values at the Cisco Download Centre website.

[greenarrow19]

The "verify" command is not available, not listed in the list of commands.

Just for the sake of trying, I used safari to download the file using the non-Java method, transfered using xmodem, and got the same error.

Edit: Used a MD5 checksum app to compair the downloaded file against the one provided by the Cisco site and they are identical.

[Leo Laohoo]

Hmmm ... in ROMmon mode, can you format the flash?  If you can, format the flash and try the xmodem the bin file.

[greenarrow19]

I just tried that. Used the format command, then used xmodem to copy over a newly downloaded bin file. Same error. The dir flash: shows only the bin file and the env_vars file. When I reset, it says "permission denied". I'm really at a loss here...

[Leo Laohoo]

I'm stumped here.

[brent]

This is actually because of the way you have transferred the file. When using ZTerm to transfer the ISO image to the switch, you need to select "Binary Data" as the transfer convert option.

See here for instructions

switch: boot flash:c2950-i6q4l2-mz.121-22.EA14.bin

Loading "flash:c2950-i6q4l2-mz.121-22.EA14.bin"...flash:c2950-i6q4l2-mz.121-22.EA14.bin: magic number mismatch: bad mzip file