trying to downgrade 1542i from 8.8 to 8.5.140

[ltodd2]

Hi

We are still running an old 5520 wlc and have a few 1542 APs left that we need to use but they have 8.10.130 on them and will not connect and downgrade on our wlc.  Ive tried to load an older version and managed to get it to load 8.8.100 and its current state is

Primary Boot Image : 8.8.100.0
Backup Boot Image : 8.10.130.0

I cant remember how much newer you can go where they will still connect and downgrade to our version on 8.5.140 but every version im tryng fails to download or give the following error.

either tries and does this

Image downloaded, writing to flash...
do PREDOWNLOAD, part1 is active part
tar: short read
tar: info.ver: not found in archive
ERROR: Image type mismatch. Expected:ap1g5 Got:
Error: '/etc/capwap-upgrade.sh PREDOWNLOAD' failure.

or this.  The tftp server is available and ive got 2 and get it on both.

%Error opening tftp://192.168.1.16:/ap1g5-k9w8-tar.153-3.JI3.tar (Error 28: Operation timeout)
Image transfer failed

any help appriciated. Also is there a mapping of the image names to versions

Thanks

[Saikat Nandy · Accepted solution]

Please use this image - https://software.cisco.com/download/home/286312622/type/286288051/release/15.3.3-JF9 in the archive download command to downgrade the AP to 8.5.140.
Also do you mind double checking the command - 

%Error opening tftp://192.168.1.16:/ap1g5-k9w8-tar.153-3.JI3.tar (Error 28: Operation timeout)
Image transfer failed

I can't recall if this comes generally but seeing a ':' after ip address. 

[ltodd2]

Hi,

Just tried that image and got the follwoing error.  Is what Rich R put below the cause?

Image downloaded, writing to flash...
do PREDOWNLOAD, part1 is active part
upgrade.sh: Error: image not found.
+ do_upgrade PREDOWNLOAD
+ [ ! -r /tmp/part.tar ]
+ loudlog Error: image not found.
+ logger -p 0 -t upgrade Error: image not found.
+ pgrep switchdrvr
+ local pids=
+ [ -z  ]
+ echo upgrade.sh: Error: image not found.
upgrade.sh: Error: image not found.
+ return 1
+ status=1
+ set +x
Error: '/etc/capwap-upgrade.sh PREDOWNLOAD' failure.

[Rich R]

My mistake - that field notice only applies to the older IOS APs.
That's more likely due to one of the bugs which cause the /tmp partition to fill up.
Have you reloaded the AP before trying to update?
https://bst.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCwm07499
https://bst.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCwe15172
https://bst.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCwe97901
https://bst.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCwm72142
https://bst.cisco.com/bugsearch/bug/CSCwm08044

[ltodd2]

Hi, Yes AP been reloaded a number of times now.  Can it be done from a "recovery mode" on these like with switches?  never had to try this on AP's yet.

[Rich R]

> Can it be done from a "recovery mode" on these like with switches?
Unfortunately not.

If you haven't already done then also worth trying a factory default reset on the AP.

[Rich R]

@ltodd2 take note of field notice:
IOS AP Image Download Fails Due to Expired Image Signing Certificate Post December 4th, 2022 (CSCwd80290)
Update: ignore that FN ^^^ it only applies to APs running IOS but 1542 runs AP-COS.

You should not be using such old versions of code!  Ideally you should be using 8.10.196.0 and if you have APs which require 8.5 then you should be using 8.5.182.12 (link below).

[ltodd2]

Hi

If thats the case is there a workaround without upgrading to 8.5.182.  We cant go to 8.10 as we have 2602 AP's still.  Since we have a new 9800 WLC and are migrating sites over there is no intrest in getting an outage window for all the sites on the old 5520 as the push is to get the sites moved over.  If just there are the few still with the old 2600 that need more work to upgrade the AP's in prep to migrate but site has requirment for 1542's no so its one of those awkard ones.

[ltodd2]

Got 1 working.  I grabbed the second ap i had which is also on 8.10 and used the image mentioned above 15.3.3-JF9 and it downgraded and joined the 5520 WLC.  ive gone back to the other AP which i had got to downgrade to 8.8 but this will not entertain the 8.5 image.  through upgrade bac to 8.10 but im not entileted to download that so the highest i can get is 8.9.111.  Did that and then tried to downgrade but running into a few other issues.

Im gettting this but not sure where its got the ip for the tftp from as what i used and had is 192.168.1.16 not 12.  

[*10/14/2025 10:21:26.7399] upgrade.sh: Downloading image /tftpboot/ap1g5-pre8.10.151.0.tar from TFTP server 192.168.1.12, total retries 44.
[*10/14/2025 10:21:26.7599] upgrade.sh: Cleanup tmp files ...
[*10/14/2025 10:21:26.8399] do PRECHECK, part2 is active part
[*10/14/2025 10:21:26.8599] upgrade.sh: Cleanup tmp files ...
[*10/14/2025 10:21:48.9399] Terminated
[*10/14/2025 10:21:51.6199] Efficient join download did not start
[*10/14/2025 10:21:51.6199] Efficient join image download aborted during download loop.
[*10/14/2025 10:21:51.6199] Error in TFTP upgrade command 2.
[*10/14/2025 10:21:51.6299] Discarding msg CAPWAP_WTP_EVENT_REQUEST(type 9) in CAPWAP state: DTLS Teardown(4).
[*10/14/2025 10:21:51.6299] Image pre-download aborted.

 I cant ping it or ping from it jet it has an IP address and is seeing my home test ME wlc which its not supported on so not an issue but says it can see the network.

Any ideas what to try next as ive just proved i can get a 8.10 to downgrade but i can no longer upgrade this AP to 8.10.

[Rich R]

> Im gettting this but not sure where its got the ip for the tftp from as what i used and had is 192.168.1.16 not 12.  
That must be what your ME is configured with? (ME tells the APs to fetch their software from TFTP server according to the ME configuration)

Without access to the correct software downloads and having allowed this WLC software to get terribly out of date on end of support hardware - leaves you with somewhat limited options I'm afraid.