Using The ROM
Using The ROM
Using The ROM
Debugging Commands
Configuration Register Commands
• Help you isolate or rule out hardware problems encountered when installing your
router.
• Recover your router's Cisco IOS image if the image becomes corrupted.
To verify that you are in the ROM monitor mode, check that the prompt displayed on
your screen is the ROM monitor mode prompt:
rommon # >
From the Cisco IOS software, you can configure the router to automatically enter ROM
monitor mode the next time the router boots by setting virtual configuration register bits
3, 2, 1, and 0 to zero. From the console, enter the following configuration command:
configuration-register 0x0
The new configuration register value, 0x0, is effective after the router is rebooted with
the reload command. The router remains in the ROM monitor and does not boot the
operating system.
As long as the configuration register value remains 0x0, you must manually boot the
operating system from the console. Refer to the boot command in the "Command
Descriptions" section.
ROM Monitor Commands
Enter ? or help at the ROM monitor mode prompt to see a list of available commands.
For example:
rommon 1 > ?
alias set and display aliases command
boot boot up an external process
break set/show/clear the breakpoint
confreg configuration register utility
cont continue executing a downloaded image
context display the context of a loaded image
cookie display contents of cookie PROM in hex
dev list the device table
dir list files in the file system
dis display instruction stream
dnld serial download a program module
frame print out a selected stack frame
help monitor builtin command help
history monitor command history
meminfo main memory information
repeat repeat a monitor command
reset system reset
set display the monitor variables
stack produce a stack trace
sync write monitor environment to NVRAM
sysret print out info from last system return
tftpdnld tftp image download
unalias unset an alias
unset unset a monitor variable
xmodem x/ymodem image download
rommon 2 >
Note You can end any command by pressing the Break key at the console.
command [abc]
• If a minus option is followed by a colon (for example, [-s:]) you must provide an
argument for the option.
• A term in italics means that you must fill in the appropriate information. In the
following example, you replace the term in italics with the interface type you are
using:
command type interface
Command Descriptions
This section lists some useful ROM monitor commands. Refer to the Cisco IOS
configuration guides and command references for more information on ROM monitor
commands.
o b filename boots from the boothelper image because it does not recognize
the device ID. This form of the command is used to netboot the image
named filename.
Cisco 2600 series routers do not have a dedicated boothelper image ([rx]boot) as
used by some other Cisco routers. With Cisco 2600 series routers, the first image
in Flash memory is invoked as the default boothelper image anytime the ROM
monitor does not recognize the device ID in the boot command.
You can override the default boothelper image setting by setting the BOOTLDR
monitor environment variable to point to another image. Any system image can
be used for this purpose.
Options to the boot command are -x, load image but do not execute, and -v,
verbose.
Use the Cisco IOS commands show version and show hardware to see the
source of the currently running image.
DIMM 0 DIMM 1
-------------------
4M
8M-DUAL
16M
32M-DUAL
4M
4M 4M
4M 8M-DUAL
4M 16M
4M 32M-DUAL
8M-DUAL
8M-DUAL 4M
8M-DUAL 8M-DUAL
8M-DUAL 16M
8M-DUAL 32M-DUAL
16M
16M 4M
16M 8M-DUAL
16M 16M
16M 32M-DUAL
32M-DUAL
32M-DUAL 4M
32M-DUAL 8M-DUAL
32M-DUAL 16M
32M-DUAL 32M-DUAL
Debugging Commands
Most debugging commands are functional only when Cisco IOS software has crashed or
is ended. If you enter a debugging command and Cisco IOS crash information is not
available, the following error message appears:
The virtual configuration register resides in NVRAM. You can view or modify the virtual
configuration register from either the ROM monitor or the operating system software.
To change the virtual configuration register from the ROM monitor, enter confreg by
itself for menu mode, or enter the new value of the register in hexadecimal.
In either case, the new virtual configuration register value is written into
NVRAM, but is not effective until you reset or power cycle the router.
The following display shows an example of the confreg command:
rommon 7 > confreg
Configuration Summary
enabled are:
break/abort has effect
console baud: 9600
boot: the ROM Monitor
Configuration Summary
enabled are:
diagnostic mode
break/abort has effect
console baud: 9600
boot: the ROM Monitor
You must reset or power cycle for new config to take effect
The xmodem command establishes a connection between a console and the router
console port for disaster recovery if both the boot and system images are erased from
Flash memory.
The tftpdnld command downloads a Cisco IOS software image from a remote server
accessible from an Ethernet or Token Ring network interface on a Cisco 2600 series
router. The tftpdnld command downloads the Cisco IOS software image into Flash
memory using TFTP.
The following software restrictions apply when using the tftpdnld command:
The tftpdnld command requires that you specify certain variables when you issue the
command. The syntax for specifying the variables is:
VARIABLE_NAME=value
Note Specify the FE_SPEED_MODE variable only for routers with a Fast
Ethernet network interface.
• TR_SPEED_MODE--Sets the Token Ring speed and duplex mode. 0=4 Mbps
half-duplex mode, 1=4 Mbps full-duplex mode, 2=16 Mbps half-duplex mode,
3=16 Mbps full-duplex mode. The default is 2.
Note Specify the TR_SPEED_MODE variable only for routers with a Token
Ring network interface; or for routers with both an Ethernet and a Token Ring
port, those routers that are set to use the Token Ring port with the tftpdnld
command.
Note Specify the TR_1E1R_PORT variable only for those routers with both
an Ethernet and a Token Ring port.
After you specify the variables, you must reenter the tftpdnld command. For example:
IP_ADDRESS=172.15.19.11
IP_SUBNET_MASK=255.255.255.0
DEFAULT_GATEWAY=172.16.19.1
TFTP_SERVER=172.15.20.10
TFTP_FILE=/tftpboot/2600-i-mz
Enter y to begin downloading the Cisco IOS software image. When the process is
complete, the ROM monitor mode prompt appears on your screen.