Cisco PIX Firewall Version 6.3(5)
Cisco PIX Device Manager Version 3.0(4)

PIX506E up 13 mins 38 secs

Hardware:   PIX-506E, 160 MB RAM, CPU Pentium II 300 MHz
Flash E28F640J3 @ 0x300, 8MB
BIOS Flash AM29F400B @ 0xfffd8000, 32KB

0: ethernet0: address is 0017.9514.3ce6, irq 10
1: ethernet1: address is 0017.9514.3ce7, irq 11
Licensed Features:
Failover:                    Disabled
VPN-DES:                     Enabled
VPN-3DES-AES:                Enabled
Maximum Physical Interfaces: 2
Maximum Interfaces:          4
Cut-through Proxy:           Enabled
Guards:                      Enabled
URL-filtering:               Enabled
Inside Hosts:                Unlimited

Serial Number: 810143007 (0x3049cd1f)
Running Activation Key: 0x529aa009 0xb9ef16f9 0xcd45dcc2 0x5ff50558
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I started up the TFTP server and ran ‘copy tftp flashdm’ on the PIX.

pixfirewall(config)# copy tftp flashdm
Address or name of remote host [0.0.0.0]? 192.168.1.35
Source file name [cdisk]? fakepdm.bin
copying tftp://192.168.1.35/fakepdm.bin to flashdm
[yes|no|again]? yes
Erasing current PDM file
Writing new PDM file
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!tftp: Timed out during transfer
Erasing partial PDM file
PDM file not installed.
pixfirewall(config)#

After this message appears “Erasing current PDM file”, unplug the ethernet cable from the PIX. As you can see by my output above, the writing new PDM portion times out. Then you will see that the PIX is ‘Erasing partial PDM file’ and ‘PDM file not installed’.

You’ve basically cleared enough space in flash memory to run any upgrade.

I’ve decided to upgrade to version 7.01 only. It’s your choice if you want to go higher.
Next, I ran the upgrade as normal by issuing ‘copy tftp flash:image’ and used the pix701.bin file.

pixfirewall(config)# copy tftp flash:image
Address or name of remote host [0.0.0.0]? 192.168.1.35
Source file name [cdisk]? pix701.bin
copying tftp://192.168.1.35/pix701.bin to flash:image