Cisco IOS – An interface whose trunk encapsulation is “Auto” can not be configured to “trunk” mode.

KB ID0001167

Problem

If you try and change a ports status, to make it a trunk port, you may see this error;

[box]

Petes-Switch(config-if)#switchport mode trunk
Command rejected: An interface whose trunk encapsulation is "Auto" can not be configured to "trunk" mode.

[/box]

Trunk Settings

I don’t know if this is a throwback to when we had ISL trunking and 802.1q, but you need to specify the encapsulation before you can specify a trunk.

[box]

Petes-Switch(config-if)#switchport mode trunk
Command rejected: An interface whose trunk encapsulation is "Auto" can not be configured to "trunk" mode.
Petes-Switch(config-if)#switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q
Petes-Switch(config-if)#switchport mode trunk
Petes-Switch(config-if)#

[/box]

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA