CCNP - 2502 Router hungs when booting

Author

2502 Router hungs when booting

sukuvi

2002-06-05, 5:56 pm

I tried to update the IOS without first making the flash read/write. Now when I turn it on, I get the following:

System Bootstrap, Version 11.0(10c)XB1, PLATFORM SPECIFIC RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

Copyright (c) 1986-1997 by cisco Systems
2500 processor with 4096 Kbytes of main memory

%SYS-4-CONFIG_NEWER: Configurations from version 11.1 may not be correctly under
stood.
F3: 4839480+159168+223484 at 0x3000060

Restricted Rights Legend

Use, duplication, or disclosure by the Government is
subject to restrictions as set forth in subparagraph
(c) of the Commercial Computer Software - Restricted
Rights clause at FAR sec. 52.227-19 and subparagraph
(c) (1) (ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer
Software clause at DFARS sec. 252.227-7013.

cisco Systems, Inc.
170 West Tasman Drive
San Jose, California 95134-1706

Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software
IOS (tm) 3000 Software (IGS-IR-L), Version 11.1(16), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1986-1997 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Mon 15-Dec-97 18:05 by phester
Image text-base: 0x03028BF0, data-base: 0x00001000

cisco 2500 (68030) processor (revision B) with 4096K/2048K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID 01165427, with hardware revision 00000000
Bridging software.
X.25 software, Version 2.0, NET2, BFE and GOSIP compliant.
Cisco-ET Extended Temperature platform.
1 Token Ring/IEEE 802.5 interface.
2 Serial network interfaces.
32K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory.
8192K bytes of processor board System flash (Read ONLY)

Press RETURN to get started!

Once it gets to this point it doesn't do anything no matter what key I hit.
I tried booting to the bootstrap prompt:

System Bootstrap, Version 11.0(10c)XB1, PLATFORM SPECIFIC RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

Copyright (c) 1986-1997 by cisco Systems
2500 processor with 4096 Kbytes of main memory

Abort at 0x10CFBA0 (PC)
>

At this prompt it won't do anything either.

Is the IOS corrupted? Is the flash damaged?
How do I fix this problem?

Thanks everyone

jane55

2002-06-06, 2:01 pm

Try reseating the memory and try ctrl + break and work your way from there.

jane55

2002-06-06, 2:05 pm

Does it have 16 MB of memory? If it doesn't upgrade to 16 MB. I think your IOS is too large for you memory or flash.

kalejaiye

2002-06-06, 6:19 pm

try reset the device and check its performance.

If the problem persists, increase ur memory and do all the necessary processes again

sukuvi

2002-06-11, 4:22 pm

Hi Jane55 and Kalejaiye,

Thanks for the help.
The router has 8Mb DRAM and 8Mb of Flash. The day I tried to update the IOS, I updated it on other routers which have the same size of DRAM and Flash. But because I remembered to make the Flash Read/Write, those routers booted fine to the new IOS.

This router won't work no matter what I've tried. Even removing the Flash and DRAM cards and reinstalling them.

I guess I have to replace the Flash cards.

Thanks for the help anyway.

jane55

2002-06-11, 5:16 pm

Remove one of the flash card and boot with out it. This will let the router boot with an invalid IOS then replace the card and re-install the IOS

sukuvi

2002-06-11, 7:48 pm

Jane55,

I booted with only one flash card and it gave an error about the flash but made the flash Read/Write.
At the message ""Press RETURN to get started"", it's the same problem, it won't respond to keystrokes.
Then I tried the Bootstrap prompt. I got the prompt, but as before, it won't reply to keystrokes.

Thanks.

jane55

2002-06-11, 9:00 pm

Are you sure your key board is working?

sukuvi

2002-06-11, 9:32 pm

Of course yes. it's the same laptop that I use to access all the routers through the console port. Even today while I was working on that problem router, I accessed each router to check their DRAM and Flash sizes. So that computer definitely works.

Thanks again.

jane55

2002-06-12, 2:19 pm

It seems to be the Com port on the router. I don't know any other way to access the router.

SammyG77

2002-06-12, 5:06 pm

If the console router is broken, you can always reverse telnet to it through the AUX port of another router. Connect two router together throught the AUX. Then "telnet" to a loopback interface on the working router, but don't use port 23, instead use port 2065. It looks and feels like going through the console port.

thanks,
Sammy G.

sukuvi

2002-06-23, 3:23 pm

Hi SammyG77,
Thanks for your input about accessing this router.
I'm trying to follow your instructions to access this router through the AUX port but I'm getting confused.
After conncecting the working and the broken routers through the AUX ports, you wrote
""Then "telnet" to a loopback interface on the working router, but don't use port 23, instead use port 2065.""
My confusion is if I'm accessing the working router through the console port, why should I telnet to its loopback interface?
Do you mean to say "telnet to the broken router loopback interface using port 2065."?

If that's the way I need to do it then I'm out of luck here. First I don't think I setup a loopback interface on the broken router. Second, I don't remember the configuration and the interface addresses and so on.

cahillrobert

2002-06-23, 6:20 pm

Options

1. upload the earlier IOS into rommon via tftp or xmodem
rommon>tftpdnld faster
rommon>xmodem
2. config rommon to load the ROM IOS.

I think:
setting rommon>confreg to 0x2101 versus 0x2102 will tell the device to boot from ROM.

Obviouly the CONSOLE port is functioning because you are able to review the boot process and copy the load process.

You may also want to verify the checksum of your flash
rommon> dir flash:

sukuvi

2002-06-23, 8:48 pm

Cahillrobert,

Thanks for the suggestions.

The problem is once I get to the bootstrap prompt, I get stuck. The router won't respond to any keystrokes.

If I wait till I get "Press RETURN to get started!", I get stuck too.
So the fact is I can't even get the user mode prompt.
And in both cases, I still have a blinking cursor, so I'm wondering if I could call it "Freeze" or not.

I even went as far as removing the flash cards from a working router and installing them in this router but I was stuck still at the same point.

cahillrobert

2002-06-23, 10:00 pm

sukuvi,

Are you saying you cannot do a <break> and get to a rommon> prompt?

If so this would have nothing to do with the new ios you loaded.

Hoon

2002-06-24, 6:46 am

Yep, the console port may be broken. Maybe, only trasmitted wire from router is working fine, but receive.

Please try to reverse telnet from another router to AUX port of the problem router.

You can do it simply by setting this configuration

Problem router -- AUX -- Roll over -- AUX -- Good router.

Set up a loopback interface on good router. Let's assign its ip address as 1.1.1.1

Then, on good router, show line to see what tty number is AUX port. Let's say it is TTY 65

Then, on good router,
#telnet 1.1.1.1 2065

It should reverse telnet to the AUX port of the problem router. Please let us know the result.

sukuvi

2002-06-24, 10:43 am

Hi everyone,

I tried Hoon's tip but I couldn't get in the broken router.
I got the message: "Connection refused by remote host."

Then I tried the bootstrap prompt on the broken router but got the same message.

So the tip worked but the broken router won't allow me in.

About Cahillrobert's message, I could get the bootstrap prompt (> ) with Ctrl+Break but that's it, it won't reply to keystrokes.

About the IOS, it still has the old IOS, version 11.1(16). I was trying to update it to 12.0(6).

Thank you all for your suggestions.

Hoon

2002-06-24, 9:59 pm

I'm still convincing you that this can be a console port hardware problem.

If it says 'connection refused by remote host', please try 'show line'. Then, see in front of line aux, you should not see '*'. If you see it, do 'clear line aux 0'. Then, confirm again that '*' disappear.

Then, you can try reverse telnet again. Let's know if this help you. Thanks.

sukuvi

2002-06-25, 4:24 am

Hi Hoon,

This is what I got from the working router:

BACKBONE_R1#sh line
Tty Typ Tx/Rx A Modem Roty AccO AccI Uses Noise Overruns Int
* 0 CTY - - - - - 0 0 0/0 -
1 AUX 9600/9600 - - - - - 0 1 0/0 -
2 VTY - - - - - 0 0 0/0 -
3 VTY - - - - - 0 0 0/0 -
4 VTY - - - - - 0 0 0/0 -
5 VTY - - - - - 0 0 0/0 -
6 VTY - - - - - 0 0 0/0 -

BACKBONE_R1#telnet 172.16.10.100 2001
Trying 172.16.10.100, 2001 ...
% Connection refused by remote host

First I did a "show line" and there's no '*' next to AUX line, which TTY 1.
Then I tried the reverse telnet using port 2001 but I couldn't get in as you can see.

Hoon

2002-06-26, 12:15 am

Looks like the problem router 's aux port do not allow telnet. I wish you could verify it by looking at the configuration under line aux 0, if it has 'transport input telnet' or not. But I afraid you cannot do that since you cannot get into console of the router.

Then, my suggestion is trying to setup another good router connect to the problem router through any interfaces. Then, try 'show cdp ne de' to obtain the problem router's interface IP address. If you are lucky, you might be able to telnet to the problem router.

sukuvi

2002-06-27, 12:51 pm

Hoon,

I connected the broken router's serial interface to a working router's interface. Then when I did the "show cdp..." the working router didn't come up with anything, which is due obviously to the interfaces not on the same subnet. I can't even remember whether or not the interfaces are configured.

Hoon, do you think this problem will have something to do with the flash cards?
I have tried different things:
1. I have installed new flash cards but that didn't help.
2. I swapped the 2 flash cards with some from a working 2501 but same problem.
3. I removed one flash card and booted with only one flash card and it made the flash (Read/Write) but that didn't help either.

If I had kept the old IOS (11.1(16)) on it, I could still be using it right now but I wanted to upgrade to at least 12 and here I am, I can't even use it. What is strange is that I tried to upgrade all my routers to IOS 12.0(6) but I forgot to change the config-register to make the flash cards writable. So the upgrade failed on all of them. After I realized it was due to the Read Only flash, I started all over on the all the routers. I changed the config-register to 0x2101 and that made the flash cards Read/Write. All of them upgraded successfully except this one that has been causing a problem.

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