Upgrading A Cisco AP To Autonomous

Upgrading a Cisco AP, in this case a LAP1142N, from "lightweight" [not very useful] more to "Autonomous" [useful] mode. This assume the access point has been reset to factory defaults. For this example the AP is being upgraded to c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JBB.tar which is available on a tftp service @ 172.31.7.125.

1.) Connect to AP to the ethernet network and connect the workstation/laptop to the console port.
2.) Start minicom and get a connection. A port speed of 9.600 8N1 should work.
3.) When the AP begins to load its default image press Ctri-A, F to send the break. This should interrupt the boot process and drop into ROMMON, the sp: prompt means you won.

flashfs[0]: flashfs fsck took 17 seconds.
Reading cookie from system serial eeprom...Done
Base Ethernet MAC address: e8:b7:48:ac:23:48
Ethernet speed is 1000 Mb - FULL duplex
Loading "flash:/c1140-rcvk9w8-mx/c1140-rcvk9w8-mx"...###################################
Error loading "flash:/c1140-rcvk9w8-mx/c1140-rcvk9w8-mx"

Interrupt within 5 seconds to abort boot process.
Boot process terminated.

The system is unable to boot automatically.  The BOOT
environment variable needs to be set to a bootable
image.

C1140 Boot Loader (C1140-BOOT-M) Version 12.4(23c)JA, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc3)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Compiled Tue 01-Jun-10 12:52 by prod_rel_team

ap:

4,) configure the ethernet connection and bring the AP online.
ap: set IP_ADDR 192.168.37.144
ap: set NETMASK 255.255.255.0
ap: set DEFAULT_ROUTER 192.168.37.19
ap: tftp_init
ap: ether_init
ap: flash_init
Initializing Flash... ...The flash is already initialized.

5.) Untar the desired software version onto the AP's flash. This step may take a moment.
ap: tar -xtract tftp://172.31.7.125/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JBB.tar flash:
extracting info (280 bytes)
c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JBB (directory) 0 (bytes)
extracting c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JBB/c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JBB (119277 bytes).........................
c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JBB/html (directory) 0 (bytes)
c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JBB/html/level (directory) 0 (bytes)
...
ap:

6.) Set the boot image.
ap: set BOOT flash://c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JBB/c1140-k9w7-xx.153-3.JBB

7.) Reboot!
ap: boot

The AP should reboot to the powerful new software. Once the reload is complete be sure to double check.

ap>show version
Cisco IOS Software, C1140 Software (C1140-K9W7-M), Version 15.3(3)JBB, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2015 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Mon 04-May-15 18:53 by prod_rel_team

ROM: Bootstrap program is C1140 boot loader
BOOTLDR: C1140 Boot Loader (C1140-BOOT-M) Version 12.4(23c)JA, RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc3)

ap uptime is 5 minutes
System returned to ROM by reload
System image file is "flash://c1140-k9w7-mx.153-3.JBB/c1140-k9w7-xx.153-3.JBB"

8.) Configure, drink 🍺, order 🌮s.