Password Recovery With Password Recovery Enabled - Cisco Catalyst 3550 series Software Configuration Manual

Chapter 37 Troubleshooting
Note On Catalyst 3550 Fast Ethernet switches, a system administrator can disable some of the functionality
of this feature by allowing an end user to reset a password only by agreeing to return to the default
configuration. If you are an end user trying to reset a password on a Catalyst 3550 Fast Ethernet switch
and password recover has been disabled, a status message shows this during the recovery process.
Follow these steps if you have forgotten or lost the switch password.
Step 1 Connect a terminal or PC with terminal-emulation software to the switch console port.
Set the line speed on the emulation software to 9600 baud.
Step 2
Unplug the switch power cord.
Step 3
Press the Mode button, and at the same time, reconnect the power cord to the switch.
Step 4
You can release the Mode button a second or two after the LED above port 1X turns off. Several lines
of information about the software appear with instructions, informing you if the password recovery
procedure has been disabled or not.
•
•

Password Recovery 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
Follow these steps when the password-recovery is enabled:
Initialize the Flash file system:
Step 1
switch# flash_init
If you had set the console port speed to anything other than 9600, it has been reset to that particular
Step 2
speed. Change the emulation software line speed to match that of the switch console port.
Load any helper files:
Step 3
switch# load_helper
78-11194-09
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 "Password Recovery with Password Recovery Enabled" section on page
the steps.
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
Catalyst 3550 Multilayer Switch Software Configuration Guide
Using Recovery Procedures
37-3, and follow
37-5, and follow the steps.
37-3