Cisco 2948G-L3 boot problem? Ideas? 1

[Prizmm]

We just recieved a Catalyst 2948G-L3 and we want to use it for a switch in one of our buildings. The problem is this: When we power it up, it says


----------------------------------------------------------
ROMMON: Cold Reset frame @0x00000000
ROMMON: Reading reset reason register
ROMMON: Valid NVRAM config

System Bootstrap, Version 12.0(7)W5(15a) RELEASE SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 2000 by cisco Systems, Inc.

ROMMON: Initializing exceptions
ROMMON: Initializing TLB
ROMMON: Initializing cache
ROMMON: Sizing and zeroing main memory ... 64 MBytes
ROMMON: Sizing non-volatile memory ... 128 KBytes

cat2948g platform with 65536 Kbytes of main memory

loadprog: bad file magic number: 0x0
boot: cannot load "bootflash:"
rommon 1 >
-------------------------------------------------------

What the heck do we do now? Is the image corrupt? THanks

 

[Prizmm]

Well, the procedue in the cisco link above didnt work. It wont allow me to do the "show" command let alone many other commands. I am going to look into trying xmodem.

 

[Prizmm]

In that article, it says:

"Before proceeding to the recovery procedure, make sure that you do not have any valid files in the bootflash:. Issue the dir bootflash: command from the rommon> mode to determine if there are any files in the bootflash:. If a valid file exists, issue the boot bootflash: filename to attempt to bring up the switch. As noted in the background information section, it is possible to undelete a deleted file from ROMmon on these switches. You can undelete the file by issuing the undelete bootflash: filename command; the file can then be used to boot the switch. If you have no valid file in the bootflash, go to the recovery procedures below"


What if it bring sup an image, but the image is the wrong image? How can I delete the image in flash?

 

[JOAMON]

The following link might be useful then.....

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products...de_chapter09186a00801368c2.html#xtocid2778014

 

[JOAMON]

When you load it will not load to flash but instead to dram. Once switch is booted you can then delete the incorrect image and tftp the new image to replace it.

 

[JOAMON]

Recovery Procedure
A netboot will allow you to download an image from a TFTP server directly into RAM, where the Supervisor can run it. This procedure does not create any files on the Flash system. It only allows you bring up your switch and perform a normal software download.

 

[JOAMON]

Any luck getting that thing running????

 

[Prizmm]

Got in this morning and everything is up and going perfect! Thanks again so much, you dont know how much work you saved me. Now I just gotta get this thing working like a switch and not a router. Its such an overkill piece of equipment for what we are using it for. I assume I can just configure it like a normal switch and the routing wont happen unless I tell it to. THanks again

Luke

 

[JOAMON]

No Problem....***

 

[Prizmm]

One more question for anyone who has experience setting up a cisco switch. Is this 2948g layer 2 switch any different than setting up a normal 2900 series switch? If I dont want to use vlans, just use it as a standalone switch, should it work right out of the box? Just plug and go? Or do I need to configure VLAN1?

 

[RookThis]

You don't need to configure vlan1, but the only thing you will want to disable is portfast on the port that you use as an uplink.

It would make more sense to trunk the uplink and prune the vlans so you will only carry the vlans that you need. This way you can manage the switch remotely.

 

[Prizmm]

Sounds good, thanks. We dont use any Vlans at all in our network. I do however want to be able to administer it remotely. Im going to have to check my books again about pruning the vlan, not sure what that means exactly. Thanks for the help.

 

[RookThis]

By default the switch allows all vlans on a trunk, pruning just means that you specify what vlans you want to allow to traverse the trunk.

 

[Prizmm]

Okay, I give up. I have tried everyting that I know to get this switch working on our network and to no avail. Here is the goal: I would like to use this switch in one of our labs. I would like to be able to manage/monitor it. I do not want to use vlans. I dont want it to perform any routing. Just a basic managed switch. The only way I have figured out to do it so far is to assign an ip to each of the 48 ports, is this my only option? Thanks for all your help so far. Ideas?

 

[JOAMON]

I wonder if a person could load the IOS for the regular layer 2 2948g switch.......might be worth looking into.

 

[RookThis]

I guess I don't understand what you are trying to do. Is this switch going to be connected to another switch already on the network? Is your network a flat one, meaning are you using some large address space for all of your machines?

 

[Prizmm]

yes, this is just another switch in a flat network. We are not using VLans, just one internal class b network with 300-400 clients. We have a border router of course, but thats it. We just installed a new lab with around 32 client machines and they (administration) gave us this Cisco 2948g L3 switch to connect the lab to the rest of the school network. I would much rather use a basic managed switch, but I have to work with what they gave me. Does that help? Thanks

 

[RookThis]

I'm not sure if this will work or not. I'm assuming that you are using vlan1 for everything. It would make things easier if you have them create you a vlan just for your lab stuff. Then you can have your own address space for your devices, and make it easier to manage the switch.


the simple thing would be to configure your uplink port as a trunk connect it to the upstream switch and connect your PCs to the lab switch. I'm also assuming that you are using DHCP to provide the IPs. You'll need a cross over cable to connect switch to switch. Make sure that you disable portfast on the trunk port. I can't figure out how you would manage the switch, unless you can add an IP address to vlan1 on the lab switch. I'm not sure if you can do that or not.

 

[Prizmm]

I will give that a try. For some reason, I cannot get into VLan1. Shouldnt it let me configure vlan1? The 2950's are so much easier to use, this thing is an SOB. Can you use any port as an uplink port?

 

[lambent]

do you see "interface vlan1" in the sh run output?