IOS recovery on an embedded AP in a Cisco router if the AP is in rommon - Applies to AP801

Sometimes if you lose network connectivity while in the middle of AP IOS upgrade on a Cisco router with an embedded WAP, the flash on the the AP itself may get corrupted.  This will cause the AP to boot in ROMMON with no access to the flash0:
You can issue format flash0: command to format the flash drive.  Once that's done, follow the below steps to load IOS onto the embedded AP.


Embedded AP is connected internally with the host router via an internal console and an internal switchport (wlan-gig0/0)

1. Ensure AP is clean and does not contain any bootloader configuration commands, issue the below command on the host router:
service-module wlan-ap0 reset bootloader
**ABOVE COMMAND WILL RELOAD THE AP AND BRING IT BACK TO ROMMON**

2. Assign a static IP to the AP
set IP_ADDR 172.18.1.3
set NETMASK 255.255.255.0
set DEFAULT_ROUTER 172.18.1.45  (Host router's BVI IP address)

3. On the host router, create a bridge interface and assign a static IP in the same subnet to the BVI interface:

 bridge irb
 bridge 1 protocol ieee
 bridge 1 route ip

int gig0/0
no ip address
bridge-group 1

int vlan 1
no ip address
bridge-group 1

int bvi1
ip add 172.18.1.45 255.255.255.0

NOTE: You will need to assign IP UNNUMBERED to interface wlan-ap0.  I used ip unnumbered bvi1 command on the interface.


4. On the AP, issue below commands

ether_init
tftp_init
flash_init

 Now issue the below command to download the IOS from a tftp-server.  Ensure you have connectivity with the TFTP-Server.

tar -xtract tftp://172.18.1.50/<AP-IOS.tar> flash:


AP should now load the new IOS.  This may take a while.  Once complete, issue the BOOT command to reload the AP with the new IOS.