7960 problem, briked?

Can you do a factory reset, see this cisco troubleshooting page. http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/voice/c_ipphon/en...
If you can do a factory reset and then unlock the phone you may be OK. I wrote this how-to on Cisco phones a while ago, I managed to get one phone to load the SIP image even though it came up with protocol application invalid. The how-to is here http://cat24.net/Cisco_Sip_Phones.html#top There are a number of links at the bottom of this page that I found very useful. It is also worth looking at the tftp logs (if you can get the tftp server IP into the phone!) I found that the atftp server on the trixbox works well.

Did you try a factory reset as I suggested? As described in the first link I posted.

Power cycle the phone while holding the # key down - then type 123456789*0#, then use key 2 on the keypad as an answer to delete the network config. also described here: http://www.sokol-associates.com/?q=node/51

Try a factory reset. Does this work? It may not work but what does the display on the phone show when you try?

Are you trying to use a soft key at the edge of the display to answer the question "Save network cfg? 1=yes 2=no" or the key 2 on the keypad? This can be confusing because the layout of the display looks like the softkeys should work, but they don't for a factory reset you "must" use the digits on the keypad.

After you have done a factory reset what does the display say?
Does the phone get an IP address from your network DHCP server?

Well in answer to your first question at the top of this thread the phone is not a brick. So don't hit it with a hammer!

On my how-to I have a section - Surviving "Protocol Application Invalid" I found that one Cisco 7960G that we tried, would not boot or communicate with the tftp server on our trixbox® server. The only feedback from the phone was an error message “Protocol Application Invalid”. The phone did not appear to be dead but the only keyboard function that worked was a “factory reset”. You seem to be in a similar position - factory reset works but that's all.

After I followed some Cisco help and other links from google I used the option 150 settings in the dhcp server, I think this automatically gives the phone the correct tftp server IP when the dhcp server hands out the IP address.

So go and look at my how to here: http://cat24.net/Cisco_Sip_Phones.html#cis02 You need to add option 150 to the setup of your dhcp server. What I did was to disable the dhcp server on my (smoothwall) firewall and start the dhcp server on trixbox. Edit the trixbox dhcp server config, as I describe, restart the dhcp server and then reboot the phone. etc....

I have given a sample dhcpd.conf towards the end of my write up. I have given various links that are worth reading, you have a bit of work to do, but I got my "dead" 7960 working in the end.

Thank you, perfect post, worked like a charm,

thank you one more time, option 150 in tftp works for 7970 too

Did you change the load file information either in the endpoint manager or SIPDefault.cnf ???

Did you run setup-cisco before you provisioned the phone using the endpoint manager?

If not, delete the phone, run setup-cisco then follow these instructions.

First you have to make sure that you have the correct entry in SIPDefault.cnf. Open it up and look at the first line. It should look like this:

image_version: "P0S3-08-4-00"

It is essential that this line matches the version number of the firmware you loaded. Use the nano editor to view so (examples from my system}

[root@skytrixhome tftpboot]# # Change the directory
[root@skytrixhome tftpboot]# cd /tftpboot
[root@skytrixhome tftpboot]# # Then we get a directory of the softare
[root@skytrixhome tftpboot]# ls P0S*
P0S3-08-2-00.loads  P0S3-08-4-00.loads  P0S3-08-8-00.loads
P0S3-08-2-00.sb2    P0S3-08-4-00.sb2    P0S3-08-8-00.sb2
[root@skytrixhome tftpboot]# # I happen to have a few versions, however I am using 8.4
[root@skytrixhome tftpboot]# #Then we edit the file
[root@skytrixhome tftpboot]# nano SIPDefault.cnf
[root@skytrixhome tftpboot]# # let's pull up a live view to see what the phone is doing
[root@skytrixhome tftpboot]# tail /var/log/atftpd.log -f

Now reset the phone using these procedures:

1. 1. As the phone is starting up, immediately press *and hold* the # key.
2. 2. Keep it pressed. The phone will flash the three lights for headset, mute, and speaker.
3. 3. When the speaker light turns off, release the # button.
4. 4. The phone should flash all three of those lights again. I believe it will keep flashing them for 60 seconds, which indicates it's waiting for you to do something.
5. 5. Enter 123456789*0#
6. 6. If it worked, the phone should ask "Keep network cfg?" with options for yes or no.

You can download the software from ftp://cisco.com for that series of phone for free.

Use WinSCP to transfer the files to /tftpboot, it's freeware.

You did not answer my question about dhcp on the trix server

It the phone is not even trying to pull config files fro the server tat you have another problem.