pSCP and getting CIsco IOS on Cisco routers.

I had a great time with pSCP failing to copy an image to an ASR1000 Cisco router recently.

The router was setup to allow SCP- basically setup aaa so the local or remote has exec and enable etc. and turn on the SCP server with the command "ip scp server enable).  Full document here:  http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/12_2t/12_2t2/feature/guide/ftscp.html.

I was trapped on a windows jump box with pSCP instead of scp from the openssh stuff like Linux or OS X.  Which is fine, but maybe the logging would have been easier.  But my pscp kept failing.  Turned on logging on the router and the client and only got this obscure message:

SSH-4-SSH2_UNEXPECTED_MSG: Unexpected message type has arrived. Terminating the connection

Hmmm... so the secret is pSCP did not default to actual SCP.  Here is the command line that got me over:

pscp -scp -2 c2951-universalk9-mz.SPA.152-4.M1.bin username@192.168.1.1:flash0:/c2951-universalk9-mz.SPA.152-4.M1.bin


Seriously had to force scp and ssh v2 with the two switches at the beginning. The rest is as you'd expect source, target username@host:location.  Crazy.  Apparently it was trying to use sftp.  Good to know that the utility can do that as well, but it is called pscp- wouldn't the default be scp?  Maybe something in the negotiation.  I don't know.  That was an extra hour of my day that I hope I'm saving you next time.

No break in MacOS X minicom? No it is the prolific driver

Just when I thought I was going nuts. Couldn't password recover a Cisco switch, then a router. I used to do it on OS X with a Powerbook G4. Now on the intel 10.5 I can't.

Well it turns out it is the prolific driver:

http://blog.curthread.org/posts/macosx/usb_serial_break.html

Fix is rumored to be this driver. Maybe I'll try it, later. Meanwhile I've got linux boxes that will control break.

Later: 2 seconds in a linux VM and ctrl break worked fine.

Cisco 2500 router IOS upgrade

Bucket of pain. The 2500 series routers can have 16Mb of RAM and 16Mb of flash. It stores the OS, called IOS in the flash. The config goes in NVRAM and the boot stuff goes in the boot rom.

I have two routers with two banks of 8Mb flash and it was a mother to upgrade one of them.

The first router upgraded fine with the classic copy tftp: flash: syntax. It erased the old IOS and put the new one on over and away it went (only had to good with the conf reg once 0x2142 to get rid of a config with a password I forgot).

The second one was pain. The two Flash banks showed up seperate, the copy tftp: flash: spat back READ ONLY FILE SYSTEM... so on and so forth.

Here was the fix:

conf 0x2101 (this boots a rom or cut down IOS).
partition 1 16 (make one big 16Mb partition instead of two 8s)
copy tftp flash
conf 0x2102

The 2500 is great for a lab, but don't use one in production. The new ISR routers are quite nice.

Cisco 3005 VPN concentrator resurrection

I found an unused 3005 going through one site's material. Since the current VPN terminates on PCs, I thought I'd get the 3005 going.

While I had the 3005 on the shelf in the lab, I found a problem. The 3005 has a public and private interface. The private interface would intermittently drop physical connection. I inspected the network jack, it looked good, no bent pins. But everytime I'd wiggle the network cable (or even move the middle of the cable), the connection would drop.

So I tore the out of warranty and service 3005 apart (don't do this, it will void your warranty). I checked the posts and solder on the network jack. It looked good, so I put the 3005 back together. While I had it apart I noticed two little silver tabs on the sides inside of the jack where the pins are. I used a very fine screwdriver and bent these two tabs out on both jacks hoping it would tighten the grip on the network cable.

Sure enough it works. I'll try to get a macro picture up soon.