Table of Contents

Entering the ROM Monitor Mode

Verifying that You Are in ROM Monitor Mode

ROM Monitor Commands
ROM Monitor Syntax Conventions
Command Descriptions

Debugging Commands
Configuration Register Commands

Procedures for Recovering Boot and System Images

Using the xmodem Command
Using the tftpdnld Command

Using the ROM Monitor

This appendix describes using the ROM monitor (also called the bootstrap program), which is the firmware that runs when you power on or restart a Cisco Voice Gateway 200 (VG200). During normal operation, the ROM monitor helps to initialize the processor hardware and boot the operating system software. You can also use the ROM monitor to:

• Entering the ROM Monitor Mode

• ROM Monitor Commands

• ROM Monitor Syntax Conventions

• Command Descriptions

• Procedures for Recovering Boot and System Images

Entering the ROM Monitor Mode

To use the ROM monitor, you must have access to the console port (see the chapter "Overview."

Perform the following steps to enter the ROM monitor mode:

vg200> reload

Step 2 Force the gateway to stop booting and enter the ROM monitor mode by pressing the Break key in response to the following prompt:

Press the Break key during the first 60 seconds while the system is starting up

Verifying that You Are in ROM Monitor Mode

To verify that you are in the ROM monitor mode, check that the prompt displayed on your screen is the ROM monitor mode prompt, as follows:

rommon # >
 

The # is the line number and increases incrementally at each prompt.

From the Cisco IOS software, you can configure the gateway to automatically enter the ROM monitor mode the next time the gateway boots by setting virtual configuration register bits 3, 2, 1, and 0 to zero. From the console, enter the following configuration command:

rommon # >configuration-register 0x0
 

The new configuration register value, 0x0, is effective after the gateway is rebooted with the reload command. The gateway 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 display 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 abort any command by pressing the Break key at the console.

ROM Monitor Syntax Conventions

The ROM monitor syntax in this appendix uses the following conventions:

• Square brackets [ ] denote an optional element. In the following example, the element abc is not required, but you can specify it if you choose:

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.

• boot or b---Boots an image.

  • b boots the first image in Flash memory.

  • b flash:[name] boots the Cisco IOS software from Flash memory.

  • b filename tftpserver boots from the specified file over the network from the specified TFTP server. For example:

  boot vg200-i6s-mz 172.15.19.11
  

  • 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.

  The Cisco VG200 does not have a dedicated boothelper image ([rx]boot) as used by some other Cisco gateways. With the Cisco VG200, the first image in Flash memory is invoked as the default boothelper image any time 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.
  

• dir device:[partition:]---Lists the files on the named device. For example:

• help---Displays a summary of ROM monitor commands (equivalent to ?).

• meminfo---Displays size in bytes, starting address, available range of main memory, the starting point and size of packet memory, and size of nonvolatile random-access memory (NVRAM). The following example shows the meminfo command:

• meminfo [-l]---The meminfo command with the -l option displays supported DRAM configurations. The following example shows an example of the meminfo -l command:

• reset or i---Resets and initializes the gateway, similar to power on.

• tftpdnld---Downloads an image using TFTP from a remote server.

Debugging Commands

Most debugging commands are functional only when Cisco IOS software has crashed or is aborted. If you enter a debugging command and Cisco IOS crash information is not available, the following error message appears:

"xxx: kernel context state is invalid, can not proceed."
 

• stack or k---Produces a stack trace.

• context---Displays processor context.

• frame---Displays an individual stack frame.

• sysret---Displays 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. For example:

Configuration Register Commands

The virtual configuration register resides in NVRAM. You can display or modify the virtual configuration register from either the ROM monitor or the operating system software.

Procedures for Recovering Boot and System Images

If your Cisco VG200 experiences difficulties and no longer contains a valid Cisco IOS software image in Flash memory, you can recover the Cisco IOS image using one of the following ROM monitor commands:

• xmodem---Use this if the computer attached to your console has a terminal emulator that has Xmodem capability.

• tftpdnld---Use this if you have a TFTP server directly connected to the Ethernet 0 port.

Using the xmodem Command

The xmodem command establishes a connection between a console and the gateway console port for disaster recovery if both the boot and system images are erased from Flash memory.

Using the tftpdnld Command

The tftpdnld command downloads a Cisco IOS software image from a remote server accessible from an Ethernet network interface on a Cisco VG200. The tftpdnld command downloads the Cisco IOS software image into Flash memory using TFTP.

The following software restriction applies when using the tftpdnld command:
(the Ethernet platform only accepts and sends Ethernet V2.0 data packets).

tftpdnld [-h] [-r]---Begins the TFTP copy procedure.

Options include the following:

• h---Displays the tftpdnld command help screen.

• r---Loads the Cisco IOS software image only to DRAM and launches the image without writing the image into Flash memory.

The tftpdnld command requires that you specify certain variables when you issue the command. The syntax for specifying the variables is:

VARIABLE_NAME=value
 

The variables that you must specify include the following:

• IP_ADDRESS---IP address for the VG200 gateway.

• IP_SUBNET_MASK---Subnet mask for the VG200 gateway.

• DEFAULT_GATEWAY---Default gateway for the VG200.

• TFTP_SERVER---IP address of the server from which you want to download the image file.

• TFTP_FILE---Name of the file that you want to download.

The following tftpdnld command variables are optional:

• TFTP_VERBOSE---Print setting. The default is 1.

  • 0 = quiet---After you enter the tftpdnld command

  The prompt Do you wish to continue? y/n: is the only information that displays until the command completes successfully or fails.
  

  • 1 = progress---Displays the state of the required tftpdnld command variables. Also displays progress characters to indicate successful and lost packet transmissions.

  • 2 = verbose---Displays all progress print setting messages, along with error information. The information provided by this print setting may be useful when debugging interface link and configuration problems that may prevent connecting to the TFTP server.

• TFTP_RETRY_COUNT---Number of times from 1 to 65535 that the ROM monitor will retry ARP and ACK. The default is 7.

• TFTP_TIMEOUT---Overall timeout of the download operation, in seconds. The range is from 1 to 65535 seconds. The default is 7200 seconds.

• TFTP_CHECKSUM---Performs a checksum test on the image. 0 = checksum off, 1 = checksum on. The default is 1.

• FE_SPEED_MODE---Sets the Fast Ethernet speed and duplex mode: 0 = 10-Mbps half-duplex mode, 1 = 10-Mbps full-duplex mode, 2 = 100-Mbps half-duplex mode, 3 = 100-Mbps full-duplex mode, 4 = auto-negotiation. The default is 4.

Specify the FE_SPEED_MODE variable for the Fast Ethernet network interface. After you specify the variables, you must re-enter the tftpdnld command. For example:

rommon 1 > IP_ADDRESS=172.15.19.11
rommon 2 > IP_SUBNET_MASK=255.255.255.0
rommon 3 > DEFAULT_GATEWAY=172.16.19.1
rommon 4 > TFTP_SERVER=172.15.20.10
rommon 5 > TFTP_FILE=/tftpboot/vg200-i6s-mz
rommon 6 > tftpdnld
 
     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/vg200-i6s-mz
     
Invoke this command for disaster recovery only.
WARNING: all existing data in all partitions on flash will be lost!
Do you wish to continue? y/n: [n]:
 

Enter y to begin downloading the Cisco IOS software image. When the process is complete, the ROM monitor mode prompt appears on your screen.

Posted: Mon Jun 12 12:56:46 PDT 2000
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