Table of Contents

Identifying Hardware Problems with the ROM Monitor

This section describes the ROM monitor bootstrap program, which you can use to identify hardware problems encountered during installation. The ROM monitor runs when you power on or restart the Catalyst 4224 Access Gateway Switch. During normal operation, the ROM monitor helps to initialize the processor hardware and boot the operating system software.

This section includes the following topics:

Entering ROM Monitor Mode

To use the ROM monitor, your terminal or workstation must be connected to the console port of the switch. See the "Connecting a Terminal to the Console Serial and Ethernet Management Ports" section for information on making this connection.

To enter ROMMON mode, perform the following tasks:

Procedure

Step 2   Enter the reload command at the Gateway# prompt to restart the Catalyst 4224.

Step 3   Press the Break key for 60 seconds while the system is starting up. Pressing this key forces the Catalyst 4224 to stop booting and enter the ROMMON mode.

This example shows how to enter ROMMON mode:

Configuring for Autoboot

You can configure the Catalyst 4224 to enter ROMMON mode automatically upon a reboot by setting virtual configuration register bits 3, 2, 1, and 0 to 0.

To configure automatic reboot, follow these steps:

Procedure

Step 2   Enter the configuration command configuration-register 0x0 at the Gateway# prompt.

Step 3   Enter the reload command at the Gateway# prompt to restart the Catalyst 4224.

This example shows how to configure for autoboot:

The new configuration register value, 0x0, is effective after the reboot. This means that upon a reboot, the Catalyst 4224 remains in ROMMON mode and does not boot the operating system. To boot the operating system, you must do so from the console.

Refer to the boot command in the "General Use Commands" section and the tftpdnld command in the "Boot and System Image Recovery Command: tftpdnld" section.

ROM Monitor Commands

This section describes the ROM monitor syntax conventions and the most commonly used commands. To display a complete list, enter ? or help at the ROMMON prompt, as follows:

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Note    You can terminate any command by pressing the Break key at the console.

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ROM Monitor Syntax Conventions

The ROM monitor commands use the following conventions:

Command Descriptions

This section describes some of the more commonly used ROM monitor commands:

For more information, refer to the Cisco IOS configuration guides and command references.

General Use Commands

This section lists the ROM monitor general-use commands.

boot or b

Enter the boot or b command to boot the Cisco IOS software image from either Flash memory, TFTP, or boothelper.

boot usage notes are as follows:

An example of this command is as follows:

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Note    If the device does not have an image or if the Flash is corrupt, the device's Flash ID might be lost.

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You can override the default setting for the boothelper image by pointing the BOOTLDR monitor environment variable to another image. (Any system image can be used for this purpose.)

boot command options are as follows:

To display the running image, enter the show version and show hardware IOS commands.

dir device: [partition:]

Enter the dir device [partition] command to list the files on the named device. An example of this command is as follows:

meminfo

Enter the meminfo command to display the following details of main memory:

An example of this command is as follows:

meminfo [-l]

Enter the meminfo[-I] command to display supported Dual In-Line Memory Module (DIMM) configurations. An example of this command is as follows:

priv

Enter the priv command to enter privileged ROMMON mode. An example of this command is as follows:

reset or i

Enter the reset or i command to reset and initialize the Catalyst 4224. This command's function is similar to power on.

An example of this command is as follows:

version

Enter the version command to display the software version of ROMMON. An example of this command is as follows:

Debugging Commands

This section lists the ROM monitor debugging commands.

Most debugging commands are functional only when IOS software has crashed or is aborted. If you enter a debugging command and IOS crash information is unavailable, this error message is displayed:

stack or k

Enter the stack command produces a stack trace. An example of this command is as follows:

context

Enter the context command to display processor context. An example of this command is as follows:

frame

Enter the frame command to display an individual stack frame. An example of this command is as follows:

sysret

Enter the sysret command to display return information from the last booted system image. This information includes the reason for terminating the image, a stack dump of up to eight frames, and, if an exception is involved, the address where the exception occurred. An example of this command is as follows:

Cookie Commands

This section lists the ROM cookie and fxs_high_density cookie commands.

cookie

Enter the cookie command to display identification information for the Catalyst 4224.

In nonprivileged mode, the cookie command displays read-only information for a Catalyst 4224.

An example of this command is as follows:

In privileged mode, the cookie command lets you edit the switch information as follows:

fxs_high_density cookie

Enter the fxs_high_density cookie command to display identification information for the Catalyst 4000 8-port RJ21 FXS module.

In nonprivileged mode, the fxs_high_density cookie command displays read-only information for an 8-port FXS module.

An example of this command is as follows:

In privileged mode, the fxs_high_density cookie command allows you to edit the module information as follows:

Configuration Register Command

This section describes the ROM confreg command.

confreg

Enter the confreg command to display the contents of the virtual configuration register.

After entering the command, you will see a prompt asking you to alter the contents as follows:

confreg [hexnum]

Enter the confreg [hexnum] command to change the virtual configuration register to the value specified. The value is always interpreted as hexadecimal.

Modifying the Configuration Register from the Operating System Software

The virtual configuration register resides in NVRAM. You can display or modify the register from either the ROM monitor or the operating system software. When you change the register, the new value is written into NVRAM, but is not effective until you reset or power-cycle the Catalyst 4224.

To modify the configuration register from the operating system software, enter the following commands:

Boot and System Image Recovery Command: tftpdnld

If your Catalyst 4224 will not boot, the Cisco IOS software image in Flash memory might be corrupt. If so, you can obtain a new one with the tftpdnld ROM monitor commands.

Enter the tftpdnld command to download a Cisco IOS software image from a remote server into Flash memory using TFTP. (You must have a TFTP server directly connected to the front-panel Ethernet management port.) Monitor variables are used to set up parameters for the transfer.

Usage: tftpdnld [-rxe]

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Note    In nonprivileged mode, only the -r command line option is available.

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The syntax for specifying variables is as follows:

The following variables are required:

The following variables are optional:

Command line options are as follows:

After you specify the variables, you must reenter the tftpdnld command as follows:

Enter y to begin downloading the Cisco IOS software image. When this process completes, the ROMMON prompt displays on your screen.

To terminate tftpdnld, press Break or Ctrl-C.

Upgrading the ROM Monitor

There are two ways to upgrade the ROM monitor:

Upgrading the ROM Monitor from Cisco IOS CLI

To upgrade the ROM monitor, enter this Cisco IOS command in privileged mode:

This command downloads the new ROM monitor image from a TFTP server and then overwrites the previous image in Flash memory.

Upgrading the ROM Monitor from ROMMON

To upgrade the ROM monitor, follow these steps:

Procedure

Step 2   Enter sync to save the variables to NVRAM.

Step 3   Enter tftpdnld -r to boot theCisco IOS image from the network.

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Note    You can boot the c4gwy-rommon-mz image or boot the Cisco IOS image from Flash memory if present.

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