HP A5120-48G-SI (JE072A) not able to upgrade to new firmware

[ibuyufo]

I was hoping someone here had some insight with this managed switch.  I've downloaded firmware 5120.SI_5.20_R2513P60 from HP's download site and uncompressed it into a folder on my desktop.  Using hyperterminal I booted the switch into the extended menu and proceeded to select 6 to update firmware, then 1 to update full bootrom.  Then I used the Xmodem mode and changed the baud value to 115k and uploaded the uncompressed .bin file into the switch.  Once finished, the switch asked if I wanted to update the BootRom.  I said Yes along with the update to the Extended BootRom.

When finshed with the update I took down the baud rate to 9600 and pressed enter to go back to the previous menu.  From there I select 0 to return to boot menu and 0 to reboot the switch.

Once the switch reboots it says "the normal and back basic is not equal.  update back to basic..."

"The normal and back extend is not equal.  update back extend...."

Then it just reverts back to the old firmware.  Anyone ever seen this?

[ibuyufo]

I found another way to upgarde the switch using FTP to transfer the file into the switch itself.  Then at the prompt I used the "bootrom update file flash:/firmware.bin"  I was not able to use the "slot 1" at the end of the line.  Once that was updated I used "boot-loader file flash:/firmware.bin main" and again slot 1 was not recognized so it was not used.  

Doing the above step I get some weird things happening in the web interface where if I click on say the forwarding link it returns me to the login screen.  Also the POE showed up in the web interface as an option for my switch but when I click on it I am taken back out to the login screen.  

So there seems to be something wrong with the firmware flash and I was able to revert back to the old firmware without any issue.

[ibuyufo]

For anyone that is interested I finally realized why the firmware would revert itself to the previous version.  It's a 2 part process 1) bootrom firmware update and 2) application update. 

After uploading the firmware through your pick of TFTP, Xmodem, or FTP, updating the bootrom and rebooting, press control B to get back into the options menu press 1.  This is the option to update the application.  Once again the firmware can be uploaded either through TFTP, Xmodem, or FTP and once it's done uploading and updating select the (Main) option as the main application to load.

[liveoaksf]

Thanks for this, I just ran into the same problem last night.

One question: is the application file used for the update the same as the one for the boot loader? When I looked on HP's site I only saw a "firmware" update file, but maybe this .bin file contains both parts of the update.

It just seems silly that you'd have to do it twice...it takes like 10 or 15 minutes each time via XMODEM.

[ibuyufo]

Wow!  Glad I was able to help out!  I thought I was the only one who had this problem.  Yes, both the boot loader and the applications file are one and the same!  Normally an update should be done only 1 time but this process is so counter-intuitive.  

I have a question for you but I will take it offline and PM you since this is off topic.

[Apachez-]

It seems that A5120 firmwares now include the "autoupdate" of bootrom from within the .bin aswell (except for R2220P11 who has a separate .btm file for the bootrom update).

For A5820 there are no btm files, the bin-file during the first boot will check the bootrom and update that if necessary (for example if you install R1808P16) and then reboot the device again to finally load the actual firmware (the bin file).

If you have the separate btm file you can delete it from the flash once you have issued the "bootrom update file <filename> slot 1" command (and rebooted to verify that it was loaded properly and such) to free up some space.