Wireless Access

Hello,

We've been working on a second location and picked up a MC800 to provide a wireless network.

But it seems we got a bit of a bad deal on the firmware, which is absent...

A few topics about upgrading firmware from the serial console use the 'tftp' and 'tftpboot' commands, all with 'cpboot', but our controller is showing everything under 'npboot' and the tftp and tftpboot commands do not exist according to npboot...

Hopefully someone can help us get this thing going again.

Robin

Could you paste the console output so we can get an idea of what you are seeing?

On booting it says:

Version 1.0.32 for CABERNET (64bit,SP,BE)
Build Date: Tue Dec 23 16:05:49 PST 2003 (taylor@harpua)
Copyright (C) 2000,2001,2002 Broadcom Corporation
Copyright (C) 2002,2003 Aruba Wireless Networks

CPU:   0x40103, 400 MHz
DRAM:  64 MB, 100 MHz
PCI:   bus 0 slot 1/0: Registers: 0x00100003, ctrl=0x00000000LDT: 200 MHz
PCI:   bus 0 slot 1/0: HT init: InitDone not set
PCI:   bus 0 slot 1/0:   Link Cmd = 0x20010008, Link Ctrl = 0x00000000
CPU:   BCM1250 Rev 35, [Uniprocessor CPU mode] [Lot 0, Wafer 0], Bin A [2CPU_FI_FD_F2 (OK)]
SysCf: 0080000000428460 [PLL_DIV: 8, IOB0_DIV: CPUCLK/3, IOB1_DIV: CPUCLK/2]
Board: CABERNET rev 1
FLASH: flash0
Net:   eth0 eth1 eth2
Boot:  host0
POST:  passed

npboot>

 And the commands:

npboot> help
Available commands:

eforw               Forward ethernet packets between interfaces
eloop               Loop ethernet packets received from device
esink               Sink ethernet packets received from device
esnake              Snake packets from eth2
etest               Ethernet test
mtest               Tests all available memory
reset               Reset the system.
set console         Change the active console device
loop                Loop a command
flash               Update a flash memory device
cd                  Dump cfg registers
cw                  Modify cfg register
md                  Dump memory
mw                  Modify contents of memory
mf                  Fill contents of memory
mt                  Test memory
dis                 Disassemble instructions
map pci             Define a BAR0 window available to PCI devices
batch               Load a batch file into memory and execute it
go                  Start a previously loaded program.
boot                Load an executable file into memory and execute it
load                Load an executable file into memory without executing it
save                Save a region of memory to a remote file via TFTP
ping                Ping a remote IP host.
arp                 Display or modify the ARP Table
ifconfig            Configure the Ethernet interface
show flash          Display information about a flash device.
show pci            Display information about PCI buses and devices
show heap           Display the heap information
show memory         Display the system physical memory map
show devices        Display information about the installed devices.
unsetenv            Delete an environment variable.
printenv            Display the environment variables
setenv              Set an environment variable.
help                Obtain help for individual commands

For more information about a command, enter 'help command-name'
*** command status = 0
npboot>

Try this document:  https://arubanetworkskb.secure.force.com/pkb/articles/Troubleshooting/R-1181

It is written for newer controllers but the setenv command should work.   Unfortunately, I don't have an 800 to try it with.

---

@Robin wrote:

Hello,

 

We've been working on a second location and picked up a MC800 to provide a wireless network.

But it seems we got a bit of a bad deal on the firmware, which is absent...

A few topics about upgrading firmware from the serial console use the 'tftp' and 'tftpboot' commands, all with 'cpboot', but our controller is showing everything under 'npboot' and the tftp and tftpboot commands do not exist according to npboot...

 

Hopefully someone can help us get this thing going again.

 

Robin

---

Robin,

npboot> means you ended up at the network processor.

Execute below and see if it puts you back into cpboot> prompt.  If not, you may have other issues.

eforw eth0 eth2

Running that command returns:

npboot> eforw eth0 eth2
Forwarding... press <Enter> to stop

 And then any keypress stops it, it doesn't appear to change something.

Edit: not my brightest moment, pulling the cord and booting it up again brings back cpboot...

Working through that document Marcus pointed to, configuring networking all works, after a reset it all appears to be correct, but pinging the gateway or any device returns:

upgrade 0 img.cfg

cpboot> ping 10.4.0.1
ARP broadcast 1 for 10.4.0.1
sibyte#0: tx buffer not transmitted
ARP broadcast 2 for 10.4.0.1
sibyte#0: tx error, buffer not ready

Retry count exceeded; starting again
ARP broadcast 1 for 10.4.0.1
sibyte#0: tx buffer not transmitted

Abort

(It keeps trying and returning the tx buffer error untill you abort it)

It does this with every command that requires a network connection so running tftp or upgrade from a server doesn't work.

I ran upgrade init (suggestion made in another topic here that went about the txbuffer error) and ping now works.

Okay so I ran 'upgrade 0 mcfw (mcfw is the firmware file on the server) and it downloads it says it's done and stops, the checksum signing part that the document shows does not happen and I get no prompt if I want to boot the image.

Do I need to sign the firmware or should it already be signed?

CPBoot 1.1.4 (May 18 2004 - 15:45:14)

CPU:   MPC8245 Revision 16.20 at 199.999 MHz: 16 kB I-Cache 16 kB D-Cache
Board: Cabernet Local Bus at 99.999 MHz
DRAM:  256 MB
POST:  passed
CPLD:  Revision 5
FLASH: 512 kB
PCI:   scanning bus0 ...
       dev fn venID devID class  rev MBAR0    MBAR1    MBAR2    MBAR3
       00  00 1057  0006  060000 14  00000008 00000000 00000000 00000000
       14  00 166d  0001  060000 03  f0000008 00000000 f1000008 f1001008
       15  00 177d  0003  100000 00  00000001 00000000 00000101 00000000
In:    serial
Out:   serial
Err:   serial
IDE:   Bus 0: OK
       Device 0: Model: CF 256MB Firm:  Ser#: 2009B     0000537214
            Type: Removable Hard Disk
            Capacity: 250.7 MB = 0.2 GB (513536 x 512)
Net:   (Invalid MAC address, please program) sibyte#0

Hit any key to stop autoboot:  0
Loading image 0:0.........................
Verifying checksum... failed!
Loading image 0:1.........................
Verifying checksum... failed!
0:2 Image not present
cpboot>

 It now says the MAC is invalid, it will still ping, upgrade and do file transfers but I can't find anything on setting the mac.

I found an old document on my hard drive that is legacy controller specific.  It is for a 200 controller but it is the same with the 800.  Give this a try............it fixed the same issue I had with a 200 years ago.  The file name you specified is odd....it should look something like "A800_5.0.4.9_35335".  I would download a copy from the support site.

1. Format Flash from CP boot:

1) Stop to auto boot at the bootrom by pressing any key during the count down that will get to you the cpboot promt.
2) To format the entire flash use 'format 0'
cpboot>format 0
3) To format a partition, add a colon followed by the partition no. to the same command
cpboot>format 0:0


2) A200 cpboot image upgrading procedure

1. connect the cable to the WAN Ethernet port
2. start the TFTP server
3. reload A200, and get into cpboot mode
4. configure the environment parameters


cpboot>setenv ipaddr x.x.x.x
cpboot>setenv netmask x.x.x.x
cpboot>setenv gatewayip x.x.x.x
cpboot>setenv serverip x.x.x.x (note: if you are running the tftp program on the same PC then the gatewayip and serverip should be same)
cpboot>save
cpboot>uartb
you will see on the console screen:
cpboot> uartb
Connecting UART A to B......
Press 'Q' to quit

eforw eth1 eth2
you will see on the console screen:
Forwarding... press <Enter> to stop

Q (shift +q)
cpboot>upgrade 0 <A200 image file name>

3) Resetting a corrupt "config file"

If you ever get a bad config file onto the switch which is preventing you from getting to the CLI prompt, use the following mechanism to recover:
cpboot> setenv cfgfile
cpboot> save
cpboot> boot

In case the file does not exist you will get to the setup dialog. Just remember when saving after the setup dialog, make sure you save as a different file name so you can email us the bad config file for debugging. Also don't forget to remove the environment variable after you are done fixing/replacing the config file using the command purgeenv.

Tried that and upgrading returned:

cpboot> upgrade init

Writing image...*
cpboot> upgrade 0:0 img.cfg
ARP broadcast 1 for 10.4.0.1
ARP broadcast 2 for 10.4.0.1

Retry count exceeded; starting again
ARP broadcast 1 for 10.4.0.1
ARP broadcast 2 for 10.4.0.1

Retry count exceeded; starting again
ARP broadcast 1 for 10.4.0.1
ARP broadcast 2 for 10.4.0.1

Retry count exceeded; starting again
ARP broadcast 1 for 10.4.0.1
ARP broadcast 2 for 10.4.0.1

Retry count exceeded; starting again
ARP broadcast 1 for 10.4.0.1
ARP broadcast 2 for 10.4.0.1

Retry count exceeded; starting again
ARP broadcast 1 for 10.4.0.1
ARP broadcast 2 for 10.4.0.1

Retry count exceeded; starting again
ARP broadcast 1 for 10.4.0.1
TFTP from server 10.4.0.1; our IP address is 10.4.0.2
Filename 'img.cfg'.
Load address: 0x70000000
Loading: ###############################################################
         ###########################################TTTT
Retry count exceeded; starting again
ARP broadcast 1 for 10.4.0.1
TFTP from server 10.4.0.1; our IP address is 10.4.0.2
Filename 'img.cfg'.
Load address: 0x70000000
Loading: ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         ###############################################################
         #########################################################
Done
Bytes transferred = 27154596 (19e58a4 hex)
cpboot>

 I can't make much out of it, when I started it the network pretty much crashed... It was only a local test network so no harm there, once it stopped doing whatever it was doing and started loading the image from the server everything connected again, so that was 'interesting', might need to look if there's a loop somewhere in the network, but that's a different thing.

I formatted the flash, all of it, and as you can see above also ran the upgrade command.

(I am using the firmware supplied by the site, but renamed it to make it a bit more easier as I've been typing it quite a few times now)

But it downloads the firmware and then just stops saying it's done, I feel different about that, but it says it's done and stops, booting it up again and it does load the first image, validates the checksum and says it's invalid, it does the same for the second partition and the third partition is empty and then it stops.

Getting desperate now, surely I've forgotten something?

I've tried just about all firmware images that I could find, and got in touch with a friend who has a MC800 at work and he got me a dump of the image, which I loaded onto mine and as before, it loads it and then declares it's done, only to say the checksums are invalid once you try to boot it up.

Is there anything to do about the checksums? An option to disable boot checksums, supply generic ones with the firmware or do anything to just get it to boot up and show the webinterface from where I can at least get it running as we do need to get it up and running within two weeks, and if this switch isn't going to work I don't want to search, order and configure a new switch in the last day.

To be honest I had not done that yet, just tried it with three images and it still downloads the image, and stops.

I fear we'll have to call in the waranty on it or something?

Unless someone has a trick to blow life into it.

Anyway, many thanks for the help, I'll try to get the support guys on it, if I find the solution, or support does, I'll update it here for future reference, don't think many will be using it anymore but still.

Robin,

When the controller is functioning properly, if you rename the firmware filename and upload it, you get the same error.  Try upgrading without changing the filename.

No I've tried that, uploaded the firmware as it came, at some point even the entire zip, no matter what I load onto it, it downloads it and stops...

I do see now that it does that when it doesn't recognize the firmware, uploading a random file does the same thing.

So then the firmware would be to blame, but three of them are from the site, I've got two firmware dumps from another MC800 and several firmwares that were linked on this forum in other topic's, and yet none of them appear to work...