Recovering from Lost or Forgotten Passwords on Non-LRE Catalyst 2950 Switches Follow these steps if you have forgotten or lost the switch password on a non-LRE Catalyst 2950 switch:
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Step 1 Connect a terminal or PC with terminal emulation software to the console port. For more information, refer to the switch hardware installation guide.
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Note You can configure your switch for Telnet by following the procedure in the "Accessing the CLI" section.
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Step 2 Set the line speed on the emulation software to 9600 baud.
Step 3 Unplug the switch power cord.
Step 4 Press the Mode button, and at the same time, reconnect the power cord to the switch.
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, as do instructions:
The system has been interrupted prior to initializing the flash file system. These commands will initialize the flash file system, and finish loading the operating system software:flash_initload_helperbootStep 5 Initialize the Flash file system:
switch# flash_initStep 6 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.
Step 7 Load any helper files:
switch# load_helperStep 8 Display the contents of Flash memory as in this example:
switch# dir flash:Directory of flash:/ 3 drwx 10176 Mar 01 2001 00:04:34 html 6 -rwx 2343 Mar 01 2001 03:18:16 config.text171 -rwx 1667997 Mar 01 2001 00:02:39 c2950-i6q412-mz.121-14.EA1.bin 7 -rwx 3060 Mar 01 2001 00:14:20 vlan.dat172 -rwx 100 Mar 01 2001 00:02:54 env_vars7741440 bytes total (3884509 bytes free)Step 9 Rename the configuration file to config.text.old.
This file contains the password definition.
switch# rename flash:config.text flash:config.text.oldStep 10 Boot the system:
switch# bootYou are prompted to start the setup program. Enter N at the prompt:
Continue with the configuration dialog? [yes/no]: NStep 11 At the switch prompt, change to privileged EXEC mode:
switch> enableStep 12 Rename the configuration file to its original name:
switch# rename flash:config.text.old flash:config.text Step 13 Copy the configuration file into memory:
switch# copy flash:config.text system:running-config Source filename [config.text]? Destination filename [running-config]?Press Return in response to the confirmation prompts.
The configuration file is now reloaded, and you can use the following normal commands to change the password.
Step 14 Enter global configuration mode:
switch# configure terminalStep 15 Change the password:
switch(config)# enable secret
or
switch(config)# enable password Step 16 Return to privileged EXEC mode:
switch(config)# exit switch#Step 17 Write the running configuration to the startup configuration file:
switch# copy running-config startup-config
