Upgrade Cisco IOS on the 877W

Yesterday it struck me I was using a less secure wireless setup while the more secure was just a simple configuration change away. While adjusting the configuration I noticed the software version was pretty dated because my last IOS update (12.4.24T1) was from May 2009. To stay current I decided to upgrade my home router.

12.4.24T8 is the latest IOS in the 12.4T series. This version was released on 19 September 2012. I don’t have enough flash capacity to store the new 15.1.4 release, so I will stick with the 12.4.24 release. So I downloaded c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T8.bin from Cisco.

I have described the steps below so it will be a walk in the park next time.

  1. Show current image:

router#show flash 24576K bytes of processor board System flash (Intel Strataflash) Directory of flash:/ 2 -rwx 21839140 Aug 9 2009 19:15:03 +02:00 c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T1.bin 4 -rwx 833024 Mar 1 2002 01:09:03 +01:00 es.tar 6 -rwx 1038 Mar 1 2002 01:09:35 +01:00 home.shtml 7 -rwx 102400 Mar 1 2002 01:09:46 +01:00 home.tar 9 -rwx 491213 Mar 1 2002 01:10:29 +01:00 128MB.sdf 10 -rwx 720 Aug 9 2009 14:51:55 +02:00 vlan.dat 23482368 bytes total (206848 bytes free) router#

  1. Backup current IOS:

router#copy flash:c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T1.bin scp://username@145.99.173.75: Address or name of remote host [145.99.173.75]? Destination username [username]? Destination filename [c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T1.bin]? Writing c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T1.bin Password: Sink: C0644 21839140 c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T1.bin !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 21839140 bytes copied in 78.516 secs (278149 bytes/sec) router#

  1. Delete current:

router#delete flash:c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T1.bin Delete filename [c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T1.bin]? Delete flash:/c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T1.bin? [confirm] router#

  1. Upload new:

router#copy scp://username@145.99.173.75:c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T8.bin flash: Address or name of remote host [145.99.173.75]? Source username [username]? Source filename [c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T8.bin]? Destination filename [c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T8.bin]? Password: Sending file modes: C0644 21910432 c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T8.bin !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 21910432 bytes copied in 559.124 secs (39187 bytes/sec) router#

5 Verify:

router#verify flash:c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T8.bin Verifying file integrity of flash:c870-advipservicesk9 mz.124-24.T8.bin..................Done! Embedded Hash MD5 : 669928343C5569E5118A8B6CCBFBB093 Computed Hash MD5 : 669928343C5569E5118A8B6CCBFBB093 CCO Hash MD5 : F7E40B7C2C6FFF7011610B5A33D6E660 Embedded hash verification successful. File system hash verification failed for file flash:c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T8.bin(No such file or directory). router#

  1. Set startup image and reload:

router#conf t Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z. router(config)#boot system flash:c870-advipservicesk9-mz.124-24.T8.bin router(config)#end router#write mem Building configuration... [OK] router#reload

Wait to let the system start up with the new image.