Procedure With Password Recovery Enabled - Cisco Catalyst 2960 Software Configuration Manual

Recovering from a Lost or Forgotten Password
Stacking is supported only on Catalyst 2960-S switches running the LAN base image.
Note
Follow the steps in this procedure if you have forgotten or lost the switch password.
Connect a terminal or PC with terminal-emulation software to the switch console port. If you are
Step 1
recovering the password to a switch stack, connect to the console port of the stack master.
Set the line speed on the emulation software to 9600 baud.
Step 2
Power off the standalone switch or the entire switch stack.
Step 3
Reconnect the power cord to the standalone switch or the stack master and, within 15 seconds, press the
Step 4
Mode button while the System LED is still flashing green. Continue pressing the Mode button until the
System LED turns briefly amber and then solid green; then release the Mode button.
Several lines of information about the software appear with instructions, informing you if the password
recovery procedure has been disabled or not.
•
•
After recovering the password, reload the standalone switch or the stack master:
Step 5
Switch> reload
slot <stack-master-member-number>
Proceed with reload? [confirm] y
Power on the rest of the switch stack.
Step 6

Procedure with Password Recovery Enabled

If the password-recovery mechanism is enabled, this message appears:
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
Initialize the flash file system:
Step 1
switch: flash_init
Step 2 If you had set the console port speed to anything other than 9600, it has been reset to that particular
speed. Change the emulation software line speed to match that of the switch console port.
Catalyst 2960 and 2960-S Switches Software Configuration Guide, Release 15.0(1)SE
39-4
If you see a message that begins with this:
The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the flash file system. The
following commands will initialize the flash file system
go to the "Procedure with Password Recovery Enabled" section on page
If you see a message that begins with this:
The password-recovery mechanism has been triggered, but is currently disabled.
go to the "Procedure with Password Recovery Disabled" section on page
Chapter 39 Troubleshooting
39-4, and follow the steps.
39-6, and follow the steps.
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