"New" Router no IOS installed. New Flash

[PavelSchroeder]

I bought a used router on Ebay and it didn't come with a compacted flash. Also it only boots to ROMMON. I bought this for lab work for getting my CCNA. I can't seem to find any good reference online to what to do. I sent a IOS over Xmodem. but the flash card is still blank? it seem to be configured and running but as soon as I turn it off it goes back to ROMMON and the have to send the IOS over Xmodem again. Which takes hours. 

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

I assume you have a 'rommon > prompt ? What is the output of 'dir flash:' ?

Also, do you have a 'tftpdnld' option ?

[PavelSchroeder]

I got "program load complete, entry point 0x8000f000, size: 0xcb80 Directory of flash:"

Also yes i have 'tftpdnld' available.

[Richard Burts]

tftpdnld is much easier and quicker way to load the IOS image as compared to xmodem. Give it a try and if it does load the new image give us the output of show version and of dir flash:

[PavelSchroeder]

I'm still new to this how do I find the router's IP, Sub, and Gateway? I have the TFTP server running. 

[Georg Pauwen]

Hello,

tftp is a whole lot faster than xmodem, so you might want to install a tftp server on your connected PC and try to download the IOS from there.

Try and format the flash with the 'format' command, then try xmodem or tftp to install the IOS again.

What router model do you have ?

[Richard Burts]

The original poster asks "how do I find the router's IP, Sub, and Gateway? I have the TFTP server running." You do not need to find the router's IP. You choose an IP address, mask, and gateway that will fit into your environment and that will make the tftp server reachable from the router. And then in rommon you use the set command to set the IP address, mask, gateway, image name, and tftp server address and then tftpdnld uses that information to download the image file.

[Leo Laohoo]

What exact model of a router? 

[PavelSchroeder]

Okay got the IOS on flash but when I start it up I get 'Error opening TFTP://255.255.255.255/sup-bootflash: ...bin (Timed out)'

it just keep retrying.

[balaji.bandi]

can we know what device is this, what IOS you trying to install ?

connect the console and post a full output of the process that you doing to understand.

[Leo Laohoo]

1. What is the model of the router? 
2. Console into the router and reboot.  Post the entire boot-up process so we can have a look at what the router is/is not doing.

[Richard Burts]

I am not clear about what you are telling us. You say "got the IOS on flash". If the IOS is on flash why does the boot message include TFTP parameter? I am also surprised to see 255.255.255.255 in the message. This makes me wonder if some of the parameters that you entered were not correct. Could you post the sequence of commands that you entered in rommon to use tftpdnld?

[Leo Laohoo]

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@Richard Burts wrote:

I am not clear about what you are telling us.

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@PavelSchroeder, I do not care where the router is sourced from.  
I do not even care where the IOS was source from. 

We are here to help.  If you want to play "secret squirrel" then do not expect any help from me.  

@Richard Burts, until @PavelSchroeder starts providing information helpful to his plight, I am out.

[Martin L · Accepted solution]

you may need to tell router "boot this ios".  in ROMMON mode looks for boot variable setting and change it to your IOS name

if you do not have instructions for your router, we need model of router to help you

Regards, ML
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[Martin L]

Yes, using Xmodem to transfer file takes hours but you can change speed of your Xmodem connection to make it faster; not as fast as via tftp but it helps.

Regards, ML
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