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2924 XL: Insufficient memory when booting

I have a new (used) WS-2924XL-EN switch. The "version" command showed it had 8 meg of memory.

This switch is to replace the one partially damaged by lightning. Its version is older than my current one, so I decided to install the one I had downloaded.

My lighthing-damaged one is running 12.5 (WC9) The one I had downloaded was 12.5 (WC16)

So, after reading software installation instructions, I proceed with the install. The TAR command when expanding the html files due to lack of space. So I deleted the old version and then the TAR command worked to completion.

But upon rebooting:

------------------------------------------------------ Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software IOS (tm) C2900XL Software (C2900XL-C3H2S-M), Version 12.0(5)WC16, RELEASE SOFTW) Copyright (c) 1986-2006 by cisco Systems, Inc. Compiled Thu 21-Sep-06 13:00 by antonino Image text-base: 0x00003000, data-base: 0x00352924

Initializing C2900XL flash... flashfs[1]: 19 files, 3 directories flashfs[1]: 0 orphaned files, 0 orphaned directories flashfs[1]: Total bytes: 3612672 flashfs[1]: Bytes used: 2945536 flashfs[1]: Bytes available: 667136 flashfs[1]: flashfs fsck took 7 seconds. flashfs[1]: Initialization complete. ...done Initializing C2900XL flash. C2900XL POST: System Board Test: Passed C2900XL POST: Daughter Card Test: Passed C2900XL POST: CPU Buffer Test: Passed C2900XL POST: CPU Notify RAM Test: Passed C2900XL POST: CPU Interface Test: Passed C2900XL POST: Testing Switch Core: Passed C2900XL POST: Testing Buffer Table: Passed C2900XL POST: Data Buffer Test: Passed C2900XL POST: Configuring Switch Parameters: Passed C2900XL POST: Ethernet Controller Test: Passed C2900XL POST: MII Test: Passed SYSTEM INIT: INSUFFICIENT MEMORY TO BOOT THE IMAGE!

-------------------------------------- The unit then reboots (and thus goes into an infinite booting loop).

So now, I will focus on using xmodem to copy my WC9 version from the running switch.

However, I am curious about this.

Could Cisco have released software that doesn't run on units which the release notes say it should run on ? (my model is listed in the release notes, and the "version" command does confirm I have 8 meg of memory).

Would the amount of data store in flash memory result in the insuficient memory message ? (aka: the html files were loaded) ?

Or did I do something else that is wrong ?

That unit had 12.5 XU if I remember correctly. (dated from 2000).

Reply to
JF Mezei
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The XL in the part should signal its an 8M switch. The WS-C2924 versions were the 4M part. (assuming this isn't a 2924C or 2924M switch) which had different rules for memory in its part name :(

Hmm, that shouldn't be the instructions. Normally they have you *rename* the IOS file in flash to the new name, and then TFTP the bin or copy /archive the .tar file in. The upgrade will then over write the old file correctly that a delete doesn't do correctly on the older cisco switches.

It could be the bad IOS image from the delete/copy cycle instead of the procedure outlined in the release notes.

Probably not. I've put WC15 on plenty of them.

Probably 12.0(5)XU or 12.0(5.2)XU. Very popular images for its time.

Reply to
Doug McIntyre

The TAR command had failed while processing the html files after the .bin due to lack of space.

So I then deleted the old IOS file and did the tar command again and this time it had worked.

In any event, I am now stuck trying to download via XMODEM and the first attempt failed probably due to some text/binary issue which I *hope* i have now fixed.

Is there some minimalist IOS image I could get for that switch that would give me TFTP and TAR capabilities to load the image on the switch ?

Ok thanks. Pretty interesting then. I considered reformatting the flash file system to really start from a clean slate (now that I am stuck with xmodem anyways).

I've had to scrounge up old XMODEM source for my vms system and update it to more modern C standards just so I could do this. :-( :-( :-(

Reply to
JF Mezei

I found the culprit !

I managed to load WC9 on the switch via XMODEM.

It rebooted fine. I then loaded my config.text and vlan.dat and it would then exhibit the same "not enough memory" problem.

I removed the 2 files and it would reboot fine. I then formatted the flash drive, and used the TAR command to load the WC16 version (at which point I didn't have to worry about deleting files since the flash drive was virgin). It rebooted fine.

Then I added the config.text and vlan.dat. Was able to copy startup-config running-config fine. But rebooting would get me to the OUT OF MEMORY error message !

This time, I just deleted VLAN.DAT and was able to reboot without a problem.

Will have to investigate further. (could be some issue with binary/text transfers)

So a bad vlan.dat will get you that out of memory error ! Learn something new every day.

Reply to
JF Mezei

...

Cool, good to know. I keep track of the VLANs in use and recreate them in the end out of my config archive rather than trying to backup and recreate vlan.dat, although there isn't any 2924xl still in use that isn't only a leaf anymore in my networks.

Again, thank cisco for doing away with that nonsense on newer switches.

Reply to
Doug McIntyre

FWIW, there are 2900XL series switches with only 4M of memory. I'm looking at the back of a WS-C2908-XL (fixed configuration) as I write this and it only came with 4M. The WS-C2916M-XL (modular configuration) is another example.

Regards, Mike

-- | Systems Specialist: CBE,MSE Michael T. Davis (Mike) | Departmental Networking/Computing

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| The Ohio State University | 197 Watts, (614) 292-6928

Reply to
Michael T. Davis

Well, Mr Murphy must be near me.

After all the time spent debugging my problem, I was ready to install the switch in the rack and start switching cables from my older switch.

When I powered it back up, the switch was fine, but a few minutes later, started to do free games on the serial console. Seemed it decided to ramndomly switch baud rates. I managed to get it at 4800 baud for a couple of minutes then it switched to some other baud rate.

One reboot yielded lots of red lights above the ports, waited a few minutes and it seemed to boot OK but a few minutes later started to freegame again.

I take it this switch is terminally ill ?

Oh well, at least I managed to play with it, change software, erase the flash and reload via XMODEM. But a lot of wasted time.

:-( :-(

Reply to
JF Mezei

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