Continuous reboot of the access point due to a corrupted firmware image

TCC_2 · ‎06-22-2009

Introduction
Resolution
Reloading the Image
Using the Web Browser Interface
Browser HTTP Interface
Browser TFTP Interface
Using the CLI
Problem Type
Products
Reference

Introduction

Resolution

When the access point does not respond or continuously reboots, the cause can be a corrupted firmware image. If the wireless device has a firmware failure, the image file must be reloaded. You can use the Web browser interface to reload the image file if the wireless device firmware is still fully operational and if you want to upgrade the firmware image.

Alternatively, you can go on the 1100 and 1200 series access points and press and hold the Mode button for 30 seconds when the access point has a corrupt firmware image.

On 350 series access points, you cannot use the Mode button to reload the image file. However, you can use the CLI through a Telnet or console port connection.

Reloading the Image

If the wireless device has a firmware failure, you must reload the image file using the Web browser interface. You can use the browser interface if the wireless device firmware is still fully operational and you want to upgrade the firmware image.

If the wireless device experiences a firmware failure or a corrupt firmware image, indicated by three red LED indicators, you must reload the image from a connected TFTP server.

Note

This process resets all configuration settings to factory defaults, including passwords, WEP keys, the wireless device IP address, and SSIDs.

Using the Web Browser Interface

You can also use the Web browser interface to reload the wireless device image file. The Web browser interface supports loading the image file using HTTP or TFTP interfaces.

Note

Your wireless device configuration does not change when you use the browser to reload the image file.

Browser HTTP Interface

The HTTP interface enables you to browse to the wireless device image file on your PC and download the image to the wireless device. Follow the instructions below to use the HTTP interface:

Step 1 Open your Internet browser. You must use Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 5.x or later) or Netscape Navigator (version 4.x).

Step 2 Enter the wireless device IP address in the browser address line and press Enter. An Enter Network Password screen appears.

Step 3 Enter your username in the User Name field.

Step 4 Enter the wireless device password in the Password field and press Enter. The Summary Status page appears.

Step 5 Click the System Software tab and then click Software Upgrade. The HTTP Upgrade screen appears.

Step 6 Click Browse to find the image file on your PC.

Step 7 Click Upload.

For additional information, click the Help icon on the Software Upgrade screen.

Browser TFTP Interface

The TFTP interface allows you to use a TFTP server on a network device to load the wireless device image file. Follow the instructions below to use a TFTP server:

Step 1 Open your Internet browser. You must use Microsoft Internet Explorer (version 5.x or later) or Netscape Navigator (version 4.x).

Step 2 Enter the wireless device IP address in the browser address line and press Enter. An Enter Network Password screen appears.

Step 3 Enter your username in the User Name field.

Step 4 Enter the wireless device password in the Password field and press Enter. The Summary Status page appears.

Step 5 Click the System Software tab and then click Software Upgrade. The HTTP Upgrade screen appears.

Step 6 Click the TFTP Upgrade tab.

Step 7 Enter the IP address for the TFTP server in the TFTP Server field.

Step 8 Enter the file name for the image file in the Upload New System Image Tar File field. If the file is located in a subdirectory of the TFTP server root directory, include the relative path of the TFTP server root directory with the filename. If the file is located in the TFTP root directory, enter only the filename.

Step 9 Click Upload.

For additional information click the Help icon on the Software Upgrade screen.

Using the CLI

Follow the steps below to reload the wireless device image using the CLI. When the wireless device begins to boot, interrupt the boot process and use boot loader commands to load an image from a TFTP server to replace the image in the wireless device.

Note Your wireless device configuration is not changed when using the CLI to reload the image file.

Step 1 Open the CLI using a Telnet session or a connection to the wireless device console port.

Step 2 Reboot the wireless device by removing power and reapplying power.

Step 3 Let the wireless device boot until it begins to inflate the image. When you see these lines on the CLI, press Esc:

Loading "flash:/c350-k9w7-mx.v122_13_ja.20031010/c350-k9w7-mx.v122_13_ja.20031010"

...########################################################################### 
################################################################################ 
################################################################################ 
####################

Step 4 When the ap: command prompt appears, enter the set command to assign an IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway to the wireless device.

Note You must use upper-case characters when you enter the IP-ADDR, NETMASK, and DEFAULT_ROUTER options with the set command.

Your entries might look like this example:

ap: set IP_ADDR 192.168.133.160

ap: set NETMASK 255.255.255.0

ap: set DEFAULT_ROUTER 192.168.133.1

Step 5 Enter the tftp_init command to prepare the wireless device for TFTP.ap: tftp_init

Step 6 Enter the tar command to load and inflate the new image from your TFTP server. The command must include this information:

•the -xtract option, which inflates the image when it is loaded

•the IP address of your TFTP server

•the directory on the TFTP server that contains the image

•the name of the image

•the destination for the image (the wireless device Flash)

Your entry might look like this example:

ap: tar -xtract tftp://192.168.130.222/images/c350-k9w7-tar.122-13.JA1 flash:

Step 7 When the display becomes full, the CLI pauses and displays --MORE--. Press the spacebar to continue.

extracting info (229 bytes)

c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/ (directory) 0 (bytes)

c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/ (directory) 0 (bytes)

c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/ (directory) 0 (bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/appsui.js (558 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/back.htm (205 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/cookies.js (5027 bytes).

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/forms.js (15704 bytes)...extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/sitewide.js (14621 bytes)...

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/config.js (2554 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/stylesheet.css (3215 bytes)

c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/images/ (directory) 0 (bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/images/ap_title_appname.gif (1422 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/images/apps_button_1st.gif (1171 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/images/apps_button_cbottom.gif (318 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/images/apps_button_current.gif (348 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/images/apps_button_last.gif (386 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/images/apps_button_last_filler.gif (327 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/images/apps_button_last_flat.gif (318 
bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/images/apps_button_nth.gif (1177 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/images/apps_leftnav_dkgreen.gif (869 bytes)

 -- MORE --

Note If you do not press the spacebar to continue, the process eventually times out and the wireless device stops inflating the image.

Step 8 Enter the set BOOT command to designate the new image as the image that the wireless device uses when it reboots. The wireless device creates a directory for the image that has the same name as the image, and you must include the directory in the command. Your entry might look like this example:

ap: set BOOT flash:/c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1

Step 9 Enter the set command to check your bootloader entries.

ap: set

BOOT=flash:/c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1

DEFAULT_ROUTER=192.168.133.1

IP_ADDR=192.168.133.160

NETMASK=255.255.255.0

Step 10 Enter the boot command to reboot the wireless device. When the wireless device reboots, it loads the new image.

ap: boot

Note

You cannot use the Mode button to reload the image file on 350 series access points. Refer to the instructions in the Using the CLI section of Troubleshooting to reload the image file on 350 series access points.

Problem Type

Continuous reboot

Products

Access point

Reference

Reloading the Access Point Image section of Troubleshooting.

Tibell · ‎12-07-2010

Hi

My company newly purchased two Aironet 1131AG AP running c1130-k9w7-mx.124-10b.JDA3 with a wlc 2106. We deployed one already to function in standalone AP, we need to convert the other one to lightweight to use with the WLC 2106. I had powered up the AP to see how to do the upgrade but later shutdown the AP in order to get the WLC ready so that once the AP is converted it will look for a controller immediately. After setting up the WLC, i power up the AP and it gave an ERROR: ''The system is unable to boot automatically because there are no bootable file to boot''. i search for solution online and came across one on the Cisco support community. I followed the step closely using the MODE button but it gave the same error.

I used the command: tar -xtract tftp://10.0.0.2/c1130-k9w7-tar.deafult tftp but it gave this error:''Extracting info (283 bytes) tftp info:permission denied

Also I confirmed what someone said that the AP is tryiny to reach the tftp server on a broadcast address 255.255.255.255. I used the following commands from the AP to make tftp server listen on the broadcast address:

# Default for tftpd-hpa

$ cat /etc/default/tftpd-hpa

RUN_DEAMON=''yes''

OPTIONS ... -c -1 -s /var/lib/tftpboot -a 255.255.255.255

Restarts the tftp server with the command:cat /etc/init.d/tftpd-hpa

Powered off the AP and power it back up while pressing the mode button down till the status LEDs turns red but gave the error premature end of tar file.

I downloaded and installed the TFTP32 but don't really know hot to use it.

Could anyone please come to my aid. Does anybody knows which permission the AP is refering to if I have to use the command: ''tar -xtract tftp://10.0.0.2/c1130-k9w7-tar.default'' to load the IOS in the end.

Please help I am stuck.

thank you in advance.

Surendra BG · ‎12-07-2010

Permission denied messege may be because of the rights given on the laptop or the server... may be that folder is not accessible for you or something...

what mode is the AP in now?? is it in AP# prompt or AP: prompt??

will be waiting for your update!!

Tibell · ‎12-07-2010

Hi Surendra,

Thanks for the quick response. The AP is in AP: prompt.

will be waiting for your update.

Surendra BG · ‎12-07-2010

Hi Titilope,

here is the steps that you need to perform to overcome the issue..

Using the CLI

Follow the steps below to reload the access point image using the CLI. When the access point begins to boot, you interrupt the boot process and use boot loader commands to load an image from a TFTP server to replace the image in the access point.

First of all, I would like to let you know that there is a problem if you don’t see the
extensions of the files in your folders. The problem is that, when you rename the file,
you just rename the name, and not the extension.
The solution for this is:
Go to the folder that contains the IOS image and go to the tools option in the window bar.
Click on folder options
Go to the view tab and uncheck the option that says: “Hide file extensions for known file
types”.

Note Your access point configuration is not changed when using the CLI to reload the image file.

Step 1 Open the CLI using a Telnet session or a connection to the access point console port.

Step 2 Reboot the access point by removing power and reapplying power.

Step 3 Let the access point boot until it begins to inflate the image. When you see these lines on the CLI, press Esc:

Loading "flash:/c350-k9w7-mx.v122_13_ja.20031010/c350-k9w7-mx.v122_13_ja.20031010"
...###########################################################################
################################################################################
################################################################################
####################

Step 4 When the ap: command prompt appears, enter the set command to assign an IP address, subnet mask, and default gateway to the access point.

Note You must use upper-case characters when you enter the IP-ADDR, NETMASK, and DEFAULT_ROUTER options with the set command.

Your entries might look like this example:

ap: set IP_ADDR 192.168.133.160

ap: set NETMASK 255.255.255.0

ap: set DEFAULT_ROUTER 192.168.133.1

Step 5 Enter the tftp_init command to prepare the access point for TFTP.

ap: tftp_init

Step 6 Enter the tar command to load and inflate the new image from your TFTP server. The command must include this information:

•the -xtract option, which inflates the image when it is loaded

•the IP address of your TFTP server

•the directory on the TFTP server that contains the image

•the name of the image

•the destination for the image (the access point Flash)

Your entry might look like this example:

ap: tar -xtract tftp://192.168.130.222/images/c350-k9w7-tar.122-13.JA1 flash:

Step 7 When the display becomes full the CLI pauses and displays --MORE--. Press the spacebar to continue.

extracting info (229 bytes)

c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/ (directory) 0 (bytes)

c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/ (directory) 0 (bytes)

c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/ (directory) 0 (bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/appsui.js (558 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/back.htm (205 bytes)

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/cookies.js (5027 bytes).

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/forms.js (15704 bytes)...

extracting c350-k9w7-mx.122-13.JA1/html/level1/sitewide.js (14621 bytes)...