Introduction

This document describes USB recovery for Catalyst 9130AX APs with faulty Ethernet ports unable to transfer recovery files via traditional methods.

Recovery Procedure – Overview

1. Download the special image axel-qca-single-ng.img .
2. Copy the image in a USB flash drive and connect it to the access point's USB port.
3. Console into the affected access point.
4. Break into U-Boot mode.
5. Run the required commands to copy the image to the access pointfrom the USB Drive.

Caution: Do not attempt to use the recovery image on a non-9130 model. Doing so renders the access point unusable.

Detailed Steps

Download The Special Image

From the WNBU Groups Builds, download a file named axel-qca-single-ng-8_10_130_0.img from one of the nightly builds folders. If the file is no longer in the specified folder, browse for a later version. You can find the file here.

Put the image in a USB stick and connect it to the access pointUSB port Prepare the USB Drive

Format the USB flash drive in FAT32.
Copy the correct single image (for example, axel-qca-single-ng.img for the 9130 model) onto the USB drive.
Insert the USB drive into the access point’s USB port.

Access the U-boot on the console.

1. Connect a serial cable to the access point's console port (this has a pale blue label that is not labeled "2.5G").  The  serial port can be configured for 9600 bps, 8 databits, 1 stopbit, no parity, no flow control.
2. Power up the access point.

As soon as the access point starts powering up, enter the ESC key repeatedly in the terminal window, until you see the u-boot prompt.

Auto boot mode, use bootipq directly
APPS power cycled and restart reason is 0x10 
 Hit ESC key to stop autoboot:  2 
(BTLDR) #

Transfer the Image from USB

Run these commands in sequence to initialize the USB drive and transfer the image:

1. usb start
2. fatls usb 0:1
3. fatload usb 0:1 0x60000000 <filename>
4. imgaddr=0x60000000 && source $imgaddr:script
5. reset

Example outputs :

1. Initialize the USB Drive:

(BTLDR) # usb start
starting USB...
USB0: Register 2000140 NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.10
scanning bus 0 for devices... 2 USB Device(s) found
USB1: Register 2000140 NbrPorts 2
Starting the controller
USB XHCI 1.10
scanning bus 1 for devices... 1 USB Device(s) found
(BTLDR) # 

2. Display the USB Contents:

(BTLDR) # fatls usb 0:1
system volume information/
150080276 axel-qca-single-ng.img
1 file(s), 1 dir(s)
(BTLDR) #

3. Load the image to the access point

(BTLDR) # fatload usb 0:1 0x60000000 axel-qca-single-ng.img
reading axel-qca-single-ng.img
150080276 bytes read in 77816 ms (1.8 MiB/s)
(BTLDR) # 

4. Execute the script

(BTLDR) # imgaddr=0x60000000 && source $imgaddr:script
## Executing script at 60000000
crc32+ Flashing btldr: [ done ]
Flashing ubi: [ done ]
(BTLDR) # 

5. Reboot the access point and use the reset command. Once it is fully rebooted, it must respond to Enter with a "Username:" prompt.

(BTLDR) # reset
resetting ...
?h(IH
iw
Board type: C9130AX
U-Boot REL 2016.01 (btldr release 298) (Jul 05 2022 - 14:33:36 -0700)
This product contains some software licensed under the
"GNU General Public License, version 2" provided with
ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY under the terms of
"GNU General Public License, version 2", available here:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html
DRAM: 2 GiB
Nand: Detected ONFI Micron TH58NYG3S0H 8G 1.8V 8-bit
qpic_nand: changing oobsize to 160 from 224 bytes
SF: Detected MX25U6435F with page size 256 Bytes, erase size 4 KiB, total 8 MiB
Scanning shenv data blocks
Total valid parts=4
Active shenv part[0:1], write_counter=22
MFG data loaded
PCI Link Intialized