Cisco MWR 2941 - CF card problem

[michauCisco]

Hello,

I have recently bought MWR2941 router to my LAB.

It had CF card inside but I didn't know how to power it up.

I have order 24V 8A power supply and finaly was able to turn it on but...

Rommon say it can't boot from flash.

I have mwr2941-adviprank9-mz.151-1.MR1.bin taken from original CF card but there some boot sector missing (I think).

I read that CF should be formated from the router but when I try to do it from Rommon it say I should use IOS instead. But how to use IOS if it don't boot.

I know that it is better to use Packet Tracer at the begining... but on univercity I did pass first part of CCNA (close to year 2009-2010)  and on before second exam I decided to skipp it because phisical devices worked differently than Packet Tracer and I was not able to handle it. I waited so long to finally earn money to start working with CISCO hardware and it seems that there is no way to download IOS for my devices. It is also hard to understand why those CF cards need to be formated this way... Come one you are the best company in the market and you cannot help beginer?

I was so happy when all switches and routers arrived. Then I hadto figureout how to get IOS for 1841, how to unlock it downgrade it (lack of RAM) and now I don't know what to do with 2941.

I was really thinking that 2941 is newer version of 1841. While it is something way better or.... will be when it will start working.

Can you help or should I wait untill I will earn money to buy support?

[Richard Burts]

I am sure that there is much here that I do not understand. But if you have an IOS image from the original CF card then why not use that card to boot?

[michauCisco]

I used the original CF card and it doesn't work. Perhaps the previous owner did not format it properly. The company that sold me all my routers included the CF card only for the 2941. They were supposedly doing tests, but more like checking if the Rommon works.

I should download the logs from both cards and attach them here.

One has problems with flash: and the other says that some file is missing (it was formatted with a computer).

I have not tried to format the already formatted card from router. Maybe Rommon detects that there is a bin image and does not allow format.

I will first download the logs from both cards, and then try to format the formatted card from Rommon.

If this rooter will start working than I will have proper lessons for the future.

[michauCisco]

System Bootstrap, Version 12.4(20100105:220700) [walrobin-cowgirl2-rommon 101],                                                                                                              DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 1994-2010 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 05-Jan-10 17:40 by walrobin

Processor ID: 0x8032 Revision: 0x0300

MWR2941-DC platform with 524288 Kbytes of main memory

Readonly ROMMON initialized
device does not contain a valid magic number
boot: cannot open "flash:"
boot: cannot determine first file name on device "flash:"



System Bootstrap, Version 12.4(20100105:220700) [walrobin-cowgirl2-rommon 101], DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 1994-2010 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 05-Jan-10 17:40 by walrobin

Processor ID: 0x8032 Revision: 0x0300

MWR2941-DC platform with 524288 Kbytes of main memory

Readonly ROMMON initialized
rommon 1 > ?
alias               set and display aliases command
boot                boot up an external process
cf_info             compact flash information
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
copy                Copy a file-copy [-b <buffer_size>] <src_file> <dst_file>
delete              Delete file(s)-delete <filenames ...>
dev                 list the device table
dir                 List files in directories-dir <directory>
dis                 display instruction stream
format              Format a filesystem-format <filesystem>
frame               print out a selected stack frame
fsck                Check filesystem consistency-fsck <filesystem>
help                monitor builtin command help
history             monitor command history
meminfo             main memory information
mkdir               Create dir(s)-mkdir <dirnames ...>
more                Concatenate (type) file(s)-more <filenames ...>
nvram_info          Read NVRAM manufacturing and ID codes
rename              Rename a file-rename <old_name> <new_name>
repeat              repeat a monitor command
reset               system reset
rmdir               Remove a directory
rommon-pref         Select ROMMON
set                 display the monitor variables
showcookie          display cookie information
showmon             display currently selected ROM monitor
stack               produce a stack trace
stratum4_dump       dump zl3021
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
rommon 2 >
rommon 2 > dir flahs:
dir: missing device identifier.
dir: "dir" to get list of devices supporting filesystems.
rommon 3 > dir flash:
device does not contain a valid magic number
dir: cannot open device "flash:"
rommon 4 >

Above is card nr 1 (not original)

System Bootstrap, Version 12.4(20100105:220700) [walrobin-cowgirl2-rommon 101], DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 1994-2010 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 05-Jan-10 17:40 by walrobin

Processor ID: 0x8032 Revision: 0x0300

MWR2941-DC platform with 524288 Kbytes of main memory

Readonly ROMMON initialized
open: file "mwr2941-atafslib-m" not found
open(): Open Error = -1
loadprog: error - on file open
cannot load the monitor library "flash:%mwr2941-atafslib-m" for device: flash:
boot: cannot open "flash:"
boot: cannot determine first file name on device "flash:"



System Bootstrap, Version 12.4(20100105:220700) [walrobin-cowgirl2-rommon 101], DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 1994-2010 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 05-Jan-10 17:40 by walrobin

Processor ID: 0x8032 Revision: 0x0300

MWR2941-DC platform with 524288 Kbytes of main memory

Readonly ROMMON initialized
open: file "mwr2941-atafslib-m" not found
open(): Open Error = -1
loadprog: error - on file open
cannot load the monitor library "flash:%mwr2941-atafslib-m" for device: flash:
boot: cannot open "flash:"
boot: cannot determine first file name on device "flash:"



System Bootstrap, Version 12.4(20100105:220700) [walrobin-cowgirl2-rommon 101], DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE
Copyright (c) 1994-2010 by cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Tue 05-Jan-10 17:40 by walrobin

Processor ID: 0x8032 Revision: 0x0300

MWR2941-DC platform with 524288 Kbytes of main memory

Readonly ROMMON initialized
rommon 1 > dir flash:
open: file "mwr2941-atafslib-m" not found
open(): Open Error = -1
loadprog: error - on file open
cannot load the monitor library "flash:%mwr2941-atafslib-m" for device: flash:
dir: cannot open device "flash:"
rommon 2 > dir
Currently registered filesystem devices:
         flash:  (external compact flash)

rommon 3 >

Above is original card (or at least this one I've got with router).

On both of them nothing is working.

dir command have also hard time to display anything.

Is there any solution or do I just have not operational router?

[michauCisco · Accepted solution]

So in the end, it turned out that from rommon it is possible to perform card cleaning with the cf_info command. But then it turned out that the card no longer had a known file system. After searching, I managed to upload the image via TFTP Server.

Fortunately, the previous owner had left me a bin file on the card with FAT16. Otherwise it would not have been possible to recover the IOS.

I just had to configure my network card as a TFTP server and match the image name to match the data from the SET (Rommon) command. I still had to disable the Firewall on my computer because it was effectively blocking the server for me. After that, I uploaded the image to the device.
I guess the configuration is kept in internal memory because the router appeared to be locked.
I turned off the power I removed the CF card and plugged the power back in by turning the router on. Then in rommon I issued the command "confreg 0x2142" after which I plugged in the CF card and checked through "dir flash:" to see if the files were visible. After confirming, I have entered the "reset" command. After booting IOS, I ripped the startup-config and overwrote it via running-config to clear the settings. I made a copy of the memory card from Linux just in case.

Well, and the router works. Phew... good to have hope because in the end I managed to solve the problem.

Thanks Richard for reply. May you have a nice day. For me, it is certainly a good day.

[Richard Burts]

Thanks for the update. Glad that you were able to resolve the issue. Thanks for sharing the solution with us.