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IBM Network Station 1000: Firmware 

Power Up

On powering up my IBM Network Station 1000 runs through a self test and then tries to get an IP address from the network. Pressing the ESCape key at this point drops you into the setup pages. In my case there is an immediate prompt for an Administrator password. If (like me) you don't know the password, hitting Enter three times in a row will drop you into a read-only mode where you can use various function keys to view the current configuration.

Note: There is no simple way to reset the administrator password.

From a 1999 IBM document (Service Hints & Tips Document ID: MIGR-47TSWY)

Network Station - Administrator password reset

If you need to reset the administrator password on an IBM Network Station, do not try to 'short' out any hardware, there is no battery in the unit that can be cleared. The password is set in the Network Station Manager software by activating the NSM icon at the server. The setting is under "hardware", "workstations", "system defaults" (or whatever unit you are trying to clear), then under "miscellaneous Settings" - "Administrator Password".

The password is set in the hardware when the kernel downloads and is stored in the NVRAM. If you clear this variable in the NSM software, the password will clear after they:

  1. Boot Normally
  2. Log into the GUI
  3. Log out
  4. Power down
  5. On the next boot the password will be cleared.

I came across this possible solution in the NC-HOWTO. [Link now courtesy of the wayback machine].

...on a Network Station 1000 8362-A53:

The "Typing method" fails, as the "CTRL+ALT+SHIFT+F1" is not honoured _before_ giving the password The "open up box and close jumper" method failed, as the factory-reset connectors don't exist on this model

But there is an easy way round this, that might also work with other models - it only assumes that you can get the netstation to load your standard.nsm once (This is typically easy: with the help of tcpdump find out, what the netstations want - password-protected netstations most often come from former enterprise use with DHCP and if necessary use an old spare box to temporarily give the netstation what it wants)

add the following to your standard.nsm

set unit-global-password = ""
set config-auto-save-nvram = true

and boot the netstation once ... did the trick for Eugen Rieck!

This looks to be something to try on a dark winter's evening when you've got nothing better to do....

 


Any comments? email me.    Last update June 2012