have you try to follow the admin guide yet? https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BynPQojkIX8rcU5rWlg5clYzYmM/edit?usp=sharing
Voltaire/Mellanox 4036 firmware update
- Thread starter markpower28
- Start date
Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.
why don't you take the CF card out and copy it then nuke it?
or fsck it and stick it back in.
if it is corrupted or full, you may wish to clean it up.
it would be surprising if they did not use a fat or ext3 filesystem.
if the fileystem (/tmp) or whatever it uses is full, you will get nowhere without fixing the problem, since the firmware is usually unzipped, and checked for integrity. If the file can't unzip, it surely isn't going to pass the next step
Is there not a backdoor during boot? All the trident/strataXGS switches had a ctrl-C or space/enter during the first 3 seconds, but you have to disable X-ON/X-OFF in putty (serial port) or you will be blocked from sending anything.
then you get a backdoor command bar where you can format, change serial #'s, mac address , etc. BOOTSTRAP.
if the passwd file is corrupt or in lost+found, it won't matter how many times you reset it, probably not going to work.
handy to have a livecd of linux for these cases
DD copy to another card, then have a go at fixing it
or fsck it and stick it back in.
if it is corrupted or full, you may wish to clean it up.
it would be surprising if they did not use a fat or ext3 filesystem.
if the fileystem (/tmp) or whatever it uses is full, you will get nowhere without fixing the problem, since the firmware is usually unzipped, and checked for integrity. If the file can't unzip, it surely isn't going to pass the next step
Is there not a backdoor during boot? All the trident/strataXGS switches had a ctrl-C or space/enter during the first 3 seconds, but you have to disable X-ON/X-OFF in putty (serial port) or you will be blocked from sending anything.
then you get a backdoor command bar where you can format, change serial #'s, mac address , etc. BOOTSTRAP.
if the passwd file is corrupt or in lost+found, it won't matter how many times you reset it, probably not going to work.
handy to have a livecd of linux for these cases
DD copy to another card, then have a go at fixing it
:mrkrad
Your advice regarding the CF card is good but not in this case. Regarding the backdoor during boot, i'm not aware of such an option, but it might be there. Just let us know if you found it.
:d2000
Unfortunately from my knowledge (after opening Mellanox 4036 switch) there is no CF card. The flash is on the MB. In the 4036 there is just a SODIMM socket with a ram module which can be swapped.
I think you should try all the options you have in the manual of 2.1 firmware version / or manual of 3.91 firmware version like :markpower28 suggested. There are some major changes between some of the firmware releases on the path from 2.1 to 3.91.
Your advice regarding the CF card is good but not in this case. Regarding the backdoor during boot, i'm not aware of such an option, but it might be there. Just let us know if you found it.
:d2000
Unfortunately from my knowledge (after opening Mellanox 4036 switch) there is no CF card. The flash is on the MB. In the 4036 there is just a SODIMM socket with a ram module which can be swapped.
I think you should try all the options you have in the manual of 2.1 firmware version / or manual of 3.91 firmware version like :markpower28 suggested. There are some major changes between some of the firmware releases on the path from 2.1 to 3.91.
Thanks Adrian,
I was going to mention that I did open the switch earlier in the day to check myself. I was hoping it was a CF because that probably would have made my life much easier.
I have also looked at the manual, previously as well. All the commands I find in there are commands that can only be executed after you login as an admin user so it is all pretty much useless for me. While I was looking at the boot menu, I realized it was actually U-boot. I'm not too familiar with this boot loader and after looking through it, one of the options that was given during the pause was to "run flash_nfs" which is suppose to load the filesystem on an NFS mount rather then the local flash. I was able to mount the uImage file using both nfs and tftpboot options (as a test) but for some reason when I try to run flash_nfs to load the file system on NFS with the same settings, the process hangs. At this point I'm stuck right here. My hope is to be able to boot the filesystem on NFS and then be able to login so I can do some clean up of the flash (once I can get in).
This is unless I find a way to get in the system thru some kind of mode like single mode in linux. I don't see this kind of option exists for uboot (as far as I can see).
Turning out to be more work then expected.
FYI, update just in case for those who are interested.
I finally got around to working on this problem. Interestingly someone referenced this thread on the mellanox forum.
Mellanox Voltaire 4036 VLT-3011s way to reflash... | Mellanox Interconnect Community
I didn't realize there was a way to reset to factory defaults using the info in the thread,
run the following commands:
imm 53 90.1
01
enter
ctr+c
boot
Anyway, this allowed me to get back in the 4036 system. I was able to both ssh in and login as an root after the factory reset.
But I still have problems upgrading. But since I can ssh in, I went snooping around in the switch. Turns out in the log folder, I found a log.5 log file that had only a single line of error repeating thousands of time and took up 120 megs of space. Since the drive used in upgrading the system, has only 250 megs, I see that, during the unzipping of the file, it would fail since, uploading 100megs + unzipping would be around 200 megs just by itself. Somehow during the initial upgrade to 2.1 upgrade, something fubared where during the reboot, the files didn't get cleaned. I /dev/null the log file.
Anyway, I've successfully upgraded to 3.9.1 since cleaning out the log file. Thanks everyone.
By the way, to get rid of the CRC error during the boot, just type "saveenv" during the u-boot booting up process.
I finally got around to working on this problem. Interestingly someone referenced this thread on the mellanox forum.
Mellanox Voltaire 4036 VLT-3011s way to reflash... | Mellanox Interconnect Community
I didn't realize there was a way to reset to factory defaults using the info in the thread,
run the following commands:
imm 53 90.1
01
enter
ctr+c
boot
Anyway, this allowed me to get back in the 4036 system. I was able to both ssh in and login as an root after the factory reset.
But I still have problems upgrading. But since I can ssh in, I went snooping around in the switch. Turns out in the log folder, I found a log.5 log file that had only a single line of error repeating thousands of time and took up 120 megs of space. Since the drive used in upgrading the system, has only 250 megs, I see that, during the unzipping of the file, it would fail since, uploading 100megs + unzipping would be around 200 megs just by itself. Somehow during the initial upgrade to 2.1 upgrade, something fubared where during the reboot, the files didn't get cleaned. I /dev/null the log file.
Anyway, I've successfully upgraded to 3.9.1 since cleaning out the log file. Thanks everyone.
By the way, to get rid of the CRC error during the boot, just type "saveenv" during the u-boot booting up process.
and here the latest firmware for the voltaire 4036E
Drivers & Software - HP Support Center.
Drivers & Software - HP Support Center.