Password Recovery Procedure

Description

This document describes the password recovery procedure for the Cisco Catalyst 2900XL, 3500XL, 2950, and 3550 series switches.

Step-by-Step Procedure

  1. Attach a terminal or PC with terminal emulation (for example, Hyper Terminal) to the console port of the switch. Use the following terminal settings:
    9600 baud rate No parity 8 data bits 1 stop bit No flow control
    Connection From Hyper Terminal

  2. Unplug the power cable.

  3. Hold down the mode button located on the left side of the front panel, while reconnecting the power cord to the switch. You can release the mode button a second or two after the LED above port 1x is no longer illuminated.

    The following instructions appear:

    The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the flash file system. 
The following commands will initialize the flash file system, and finish loading 
the operating system software:

flash_init
load_helper
boot

  4. Type flash_init.

  5. Type load_helper.

  6. Type dir flash:.

    !--- Make sure to type a colon ":" after the dir flash

    The switch file system is displayed:

    Directory of flash: 
2 -rwx 843947 Mar 01 1993 00:02:18 C2900XL-h-mz-112.8-SA
4 drwx   3776 Mar 01 1993 01:23:24 html 
66 -rwx    130 Jan 01 1970 00:01:19 env_vars
68 -rwx 1296   Mar 01 1993 06:55:51 config.text
1728000 bytes total (456704 bytes free)

  7. Type rename flash:config.text flash:config.old to rename the configuration file.

    This file contains the password definition.

  8. Type boot to boot the system.

  9. Enter N at the prompt to start the Setup program, Continue with the configuration dialog? [yes/no] : N

  10. At the switch prompt type en to turn on enable mode.

  11. Type rename flash:config.old flash:config.text to rename the configuration file with its original name.

  12. Copy the configuration file into memory: 

    Switch# copy flash:config.text system:running-config
Source filename [config.text]? (press Return)
Destination filename [running-config]? (press Return)

    The configuration file is now reloaded.

  13. Change the password: 

    switch#configure terminal
switch(config)#no enable secret
!-- This step is necessary if the switch had an enable secret password
switch(config)#enable password Cisco
switch#(config)#^Z
!--Control/Z

  14. Write the running configuration to the configuration file:

    15. switch#write memory
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