Contents
Description
Step-by-Step Procedure
Related Information

Description
This document describes the password recovery procedure for the Cisco Catalyst 2900-XL and the Cisco Catalyst 3500-XL.

Step-by-Step Procedure
Attach a terminal or PC with terminal emulation to the console port of the switch. Use the following terminal settings:
9600 baud rate
No parity
8 data bits
No stop bit

Unplug the power cable.
Hold down the mode button 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

Type flash_init.
Type load_helper.
Type 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)

Type rename flash:config.text flash:config.old to rename the configuration file.
This file contains the password definition.

Type boot to boot the system.
Enter N at the prompt to start the Setup program, Continue with the configuration dialog? [yes/no] : N
At the switch prompt type en to turn on enable mode.
Type rename flash:config.old flash:config.text to rename the configuration file with its original name.
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.

Change the password.
switch#config terminal
switch(config)#enable password Cisco

Write the running configuration to the configuration file.
switch(config)#write mem