Recovering from a Lost or Forgotten Password Follow the steps in this procedure if you have forgotten or lost the switch password. Step 1 Connect a terminal or PC with terminal emulation software to the console port. For more information, refer to the switch installation guide.
Note You can configure your switch for Telnet by following the procedure in the "Accessing the CLI" section. 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 goes off. Several lines of information about the software appear, as do instructions:
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
Step 5 Initialize the Flash file system:
switch: flash_init
Step 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_helper
Step 8 Display the contents of Flash memory:
switch: 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)
Step 9 Rename the configuration file to config.text.old.
This file contains the password definition.
switch: rename flash:config.text flash:config.text.old
Step 10 Boot the system:
switch: boot
You are prompted to start the setup program. Enter N at the prompt:
Continue with the configuration dialog? [yes/no]: N
Step 11 At the switch prompt, change to privileged EXEC mode:
switch> enable
Step 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 these normal commands to change the password. Step 14 Enter global configuration mode:
switch# config terminal
Step 15 Change the password:
switch(config)# enable secret <password>
or
switch(config)# enable password <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
The new password is now included in the startup configuration.