Cisco 7206 VXR with (boot)# prompt

[akellogg]

Does anyone know why in our prompt we have the word (boot). It shows our hostname and then (boot)#. I have searched the tech notes on Cisco's site but I am not getting anything helpful.

Just wondering if this is a problem or not. The router seems to work fine, but I haven't seen this on any of our other Cisco routers. I have tried upgrading the software but it still says; hostname(boot)#.

[jamey]

You are running a slimmed down version of IOS. This typically happens when the IOS in flash is upgraded with the wrong image or the image is too big to fit in flash, or the router can't find any IOS to boot at all in flash. Check your flash to see if the IOS is the correct one and is present. Also check your running config for any boot xxxx commands and ensure they are accurate.

Also, having the config-register not set properly will cause the router to boot into this mode. Make sure the config-register is 0x2102. (It might be 0x2101 which=do not boot IOS)

[akellogg]

If I do a sho bootvar I get the following:

boot variable = flash:c7200-mz.123-3.bin,12;

config_file ... not exist

bootldr ....not exist

config registar 0x102

I also verified the image on flash to make sure I didn't have any typos. Originally I believe the image was wrong which would explain the (boot), but since then I have upgraded the image a newer version (c7200-kboot-mz-123-3.bin) Could the (boot) just be left from the original bad image? Thanks for your reply.

[jamey · Accepted solution]

It looks like you config-reg is ok so it must have something to do with the flash not having a valid IOS image or the image is corrupt or it is trying to boot the wrong image or even it cannot find the image due to an incorrectly configured boot system statement in your config.

Depending on the flash you have do a dir slot0: or dir disk0: If you see both images still in there-delete the one that was wrong and squeeze the flash. Next add the boot statement in global config mode of the router:

boot system flash slot0: (or disk0:)

and make sure there are no others listed in the config.

A useful URL:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/130/sw_upgrade_highendrouters_23233.html

-HTH

[tsettle]

This would indicate you are running the boot helper code. What is your config register set to? Use 'sh ver' - number will end in 1. Also, is your boot system variable configured correctly. You could be going into boot mode because of your config-reg or you may not be configured to boot the correct image in bootflash. Use the 'show bootvar' command to see which image is being booted. Use the 'dir bootflash:' (or which ever file system you image is stored) to make sure the image is present and matches your config.

[subbarao.s]

Your router is booting from BootROM...which holds a basic IOS image. Usually this image is good enough to bring up the physical interfaces and basic ip addressing and rouing but does not support advanced IOS and IP features in older NPEs. Which NPE you have? New NPEs has huge BootROM and can hold complete functional IOS in that case you dont have to worry about this prompt.

Please verify whether you inserted your PCMCIA flash properly or not on NPE if you expected your router to boot from PCMCIA Flash of NPE.

[deilert]

One more importtant item re this prompt , do not write mem , it will overwrite the startup config . If you do wr mem make sure you do a copy tftp start then reload, the reason for this is no ip route-cache is default in boot mode , If you leave this on the CPU on your box will get hammered , Once you recover from this mode , make sure that no ip route-cache is not enabled on all your interfaces , it will bring down a good size box in minutes .