Question about upgrading hardware/software on 2500 router

I have two routers running the following hardware and sofware setup;

ROUTER A

ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 5.2(8a), RELEASE SOFTWARE
BOOTFLASH: 3000 Bootstrap Software (IGS-RXBOOT), Version 10.2(8a), RELEASE SOFTW
ARE (fc1)

kaj uptime is 53 minutes
System restarted by power-on
System image file is "flash:c2500-i-l.120-17a.bin"

ROUTER B

ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 5.2(5), RELEASE SOFTWARE
ROM: 3000 Bootstrap Software (IGS-RXBOOT), Version 10.2(5), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc
1)

AVANI uptime is 1 hour, 10 minutes
System restarted by power-on
System image file is "flash:igs-d-l_.bin", booted via flash

I'm about to upgrade both routers to Boot ROM chip Version 11.0(10c)XB2 which I'm buying on ebay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/Cisco-2500-Boot-ROM-Upgrade-Free-Shipping_W0QQitemZ5800939969QQcategoryZ28033QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I'm also going to upgrade my system image file to both routers to
c2500-js-l.121-26.bin which I got from IOS hunter for free.

I just want to make sure I got the right flash file and hardware before upgrading.

thanks,

kaj

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Comments

2lazybutsmart

you'r going from 10 to 11? you should be going from 10 to 12.2 or 12.3.

Get yourself more mem and IOS 12.0 or later.

2lbs.

forbesl

He's talking about upgrading his bootstrap software to 11.0, not his IOS.

He stated he is upgrading his IOS to 12.1(26)....c2500-js-l.121-26.bin

wildfire

Id imagine you had a max of 8Mb flash running those old boot roms, so you will need to upgrade the flash to 16MB probably to run that IOS. Carefull becuase some of the IOS on IOS hunter run over 14MB and older 2500's have 2MB take from the flash for RAM whereas the later 2500's have 2MB soilder on the mainboard!

Good luck with the upgrade

kadshah

wildfire wrote:

Id imagine you had a max of 8Mb flash running those old boot roms, so you will need to upgrade the flash to 16MB probably to run that IOS. Carefull becuase some of the IOS on IOS hunter run over 14MB and older 2500's have 2MB take from the flash for RAM whereas the later 2500's have 2MB soilder on the mainboard!

router A has 16MBs Router B has 4MB bytes of processor board System flash (Read ONLY)

I just brought 2 Cisco 2500 Series Router BOOTROM Upgrade Kit still waiting for that in the mail. I tried to run the copy TFTP flash on router A using the file c2500-js-l.121-26.bin which I downloaded using IOS hunter but it didn't work I got the flash boot file c2500... open failed. For some reason it rejected the file. I noticed a lot of files in IOS hunter under 2500 router with different sizes and dates how do you go about choosing a compatible file that will work with a router? The only reason I down loaded the c2500-js-l.121-26 file was because I thought it was similar to the original meaning same platform. I also checked to see if I had enough room to hold the image which I did hmm i'm sure I overlooked something.

wildfire

System image file is "flash:c2500-i-l.112-18", booted via flash

cisco 2500 (68030) processor (revision N) with 14336K/2048K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID 17072180, with hardware revision 00000000

The above router is an onld one with 16Mb of flash and 16mb of DRAM, it doesnt have 2 mb soildered on to the board, so some of the 12.3/12.2 high end IOS are over 14.336Mb and therefore load into the flash but it crashes on boot if you have

cisco 2500 (68044) processor (revision L) with 16126K/2048K bytes of memory

Then you have have a later edition and can run a better IOS

However as both you bootroms are 5.2 then you can use Intel 8MB flash x 2 and 1x 16Mb DRAM without any problems

www.anthonypanda.com is a good supplier.

I have a couple of routers running 5.2 bootrom and they run

c2500-jos56i-l.121-4 without any problems (this can be found on IOS hunter) and it about 11Mb so shouldnt be a problem for you

Remeber the IOS saves into flash then when the router boots it runs from DRAM so they both have to be high (ie 16MB)

Also be carefull on IO hunter, some dont work, and aviod ones that are .mz at the end, theres are compressed and decompress into dram and can end up being like 20Mb hence a router crash!

kadshah

thanks i'll look into it. I have 2 files in my flash directory here's the output for sh flash;

System flash directory:
File Length Name/status
1 5743000 c2500-i-l.120-17a.bin
2 8023460 /c2500-i-l.121-18.bin
[13766588 bytes used, 3010628 available, 16777216 total]
16384K bytes of processor board System flash (Read ONLY)

Question, How do I delete the 2nd file /c2500-i-l.121-18.bin to make room in flash?

IOS came up with c2500-jos561-l.121-5.bin image size is 16092495
didn't have the file size you suggested.

2lazybutsmart

delete flash:/c2500-i-l.121-18.bin

I hope that should do it
2lbs.

kadshah

didn't work this is what I got,

Router#delete ?
flash: File to be deleted

Router#delete flash:/c2500-i-l.121-18.bin
Delete filename [c2500-i-l.121-18.bin]?
Delete flash:/c2500-i-l.121-18.bin? [confirm]
%Error deleting flash:/c2500-i-l.121-18.bin (Device is read-only)
Router#

any suggested?

2lazybutsmart

Your flash is read only. that's the problem.

this is the result from my 2611:

System flash directory:
File Length Name/status
1 5248524 c2600-i-mz.122-5d.bin
[5248588 bytes used, 3140020 available, 8388608 total]
8192K bytes of processor board System flash (Read/Write)

note the Read/Write in brackets.

2lbs.

kadshah

so there's no way to erase it bummer.

wildfire

The can be erased but you have to do it in ROMON mode, ie Ctrl Break on boot and xmodem in that way! not easy!

2lazybutsmart

if your flash was read only, i'm starting to wonder how you got that version 12 IOS into the thing in the first place.

or was that file already there?

kadshah

i think it was there already i'll try the break sequence and see if i can figure it out i'll let you know the results thanks.

kadshah

wildfire wrote:

The can be erased but you have to do it in ROMON mode, ie Ctrl Break on boot and xmodem in that way! not easy!

ok here are the steps I took to upgrade my IOS from read-only flash memory (if anyone is new to this you might want to follow along cause this took me a while to figure it out)

First I ran the sh flash here was the output;

System flash directory:
File Length Name/status
1 5743000 c2500-i-l.120-17a.bin
[5743064 bytes used, 11034152 available, 16777216 total]
16384K bytes of processor board System flash (Read ONLY)

Since the flash memory is in read-only mode I had to get into ROM monitor mode so at the config terminal prompt iI typed the command config-register 0x2100 at the prompt I typed b then entered into the (boot)>prompt. At this point I had problems connecting to the TFTP server
I couldn't get through. I got a message that said
no IP protocol or something similar. I assigned my router an IP address and default mask this took care of the connectivity problem. At the router prompt I typed copy tftp flash here's the output:

Router(boot)#copy tftp flash

System flash directory:
File Length Name/status
1 8023460 c2500-i-l.121-18.bin
[8023524 bytes used, 8753692 available, 16777216 total]
Address or name of remote host [255.255.255.255]? 192.168.0.3
Source file name? c2500-js-l.121-26.bin
Destination file name [c2500-js-l.121-26.bin]?
Accessing file 'c2500-js-l.121-26.bin' on 192.168.0.3...
Loading c2500-js-l.121-26.bin from 192.168.0.3 (via Ethernet0): ! [OK]

Erase flash device before writing? [confirm]
Flash contains files. Are you sure you want to erase? [confirm]

Copy 'c2500-js-l.121-26.bin' from server
as 'c2500-js-l.121-26.bin' into Flash WITH erase? [yes/no]
After anwsering yes it took a while to upload the new IOS image file and then I reloaded and ran the sh flash command and presto there it was the new IOS image. I might have skipped over a step or two but basically that's what I did. Hope this hes anyone with a similar problem.

johnnynodough

this is exactly why buying some gear for your studies is much better than using sims. This is invaluable experience that you could possibly one day experience in the field and would look dumb if your only experience was with simulators.

kadshah

johnnynodough wrote:

this is exactly why buying some gear for your studies is much better than using sims.

Amen! Everyone, thanks for helping me out on this.