Trouble loading IOS for Cisco 3640 Router

[Andrew Lutz]

Hello All, running into some problems trying to load an IOS on our 3640 router.  From Rommon I have tried to load the IOS using XMODEM, but receive this message:

Smart Init is enabled
smart init is sizing iomem
  ID            MEMORY_REQ                 TYPE
000042          0X0009EA00 Four Port Ethernet
000037          0X00056400 Combination Single Ethernet 2 WAN
000044          0X0004FE00 Single Port Fast Ethernet
000044          0X0004FE00 Single Port Fast Ethernet
                0X0010A6F8 public buffer pools
                0X00211000 public particle pools
TOTAL:          0X004B00F8

If any of the above Memory Requirements are
"UNKNOWN", you may be using an unsupported
configuration or there is a software problem and
system operation may be compromised.
Rounded IOMEM up to: 5Mb.

Not enough memory in the system to run this image
Required pmem/iomem: 38191820/5242880
System Bootstrap, Version 11.1(20)AA2, EARLY DEPLOYMENT RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
Copyright (c) 1999 by cisco Systems, Inc.
C3600 processor with 32768 Kbytes of main memory
Main memory is configured to 64 bit mode with parity disabled

Is the IOMEM set too low?  The IOS file is right around 10k.

I read about an IOMEMSET command, but it isn't on my list of commands that I can see.

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 file system
dis                 disassemble 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
unalias             unset an alias
unset               unset a monitor variable
xmodem              x/ymodem image download

Any help would be appreciated.

[krahmani323]

Hello Andrew,

It appear the router have not enough RAM to run the loaded IOS version as per the message 'Not enough memory in the system to run this image'

Your router has 32Mb of RAM memory => 'C3600 processor with 32768 Kbytes of main memory'

Can you post the output of 'dir' command in order to see what IOS the router is trying to boot ? I think that the image need more memory to run and I would like to verify what is the image ...

Thanks !

Karim

[Andrew Lutz]

Thanks for the reply.  When I run dir, I receiving no output.  It says the usage is "usage: dir "

The image is one we had from another 3640 since we couldn't get one from Cisco's site any longer as it is an end of life router.

c3640-is-mz.121-5.t12.bin

One thing to note is that if I ran xmodem -c c3640-is-mz.121-5.t12.bin then I would receive the error ERR:Image size exceeds free flash space

So last time I tried to run xmodem -r to load it into DRAM, but it still ended up failing after the transfer as noted in the post above.

Some IOS load should be possible with the current memory, right?

[krahmani323]

Hello Andrew,

Sorry I did not mentionned it but the command is=> ' dir flash' (or dir flash:) in order to see what is in the flash:

After having checked on Cisco download section I have seen that an IOS in the same train and feature sets (c3640-is-mz.121-5.T5.bin) needs 48Mb of DRAM and the router have only 32Mb.

This is the reason why you get this message at the boot => You might try either to download and install an 3640 image which can run with 32Mb (there are a very little number of IOS in 12.2 train which can run with 32Mb but there is), upgrade your 3640 memory (DRAM and/or Flash memory) or even upgrade your 3640 router if possible.

Note also c3640-is-mz.121-5TX.bin are deferred release (this is why we see 0.00Kb for the size).

About message : "ERR:Image size exceeds free flash space" you may need to make some room in the flash device (or maybe format) in order to get suffisient space where to downlaod a IOS which can run with 32Mb of memory.

So the idea would be to delete the current IOS image in your flash => From rommon : delete flash:c3640-is-mz.121-5.t12.bin  or erase flash:c3640-is-mz.121-5.t12.bin (i don't remember exactly) or even format flash:

Then download an ios image (12.2..) which is OK with your DRAM and Flash restriction and try to boot again...

Cheers!

Karim

[Andrew Lutz]

Thanks for your reply, it is very helpful.

dir flash yields this:

device does not contain a valid magic number
dir: cannot open device "flash:"

I have not been able to find a way to format or delete the flash from Rommon.  Do you have any ideas on this front?  I don't see any of the commands you listed below as options.

Right now, this router is our only option.

Does Cisco still allow downloading of 3640 IOS?  I wasn't able to find that.

[krahmani323 · Accepted solution]

Hi Andrew,

From linkhttp://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/products/hw/routers/ps259/products_tech_note09186a0080094a0b.shtml#topic1 it is said :

Note: There are instances where the system message "Device does not contain           a valid magic number" appears. If this happens, in addition to getting a valid           Cisco IOS software image, you might need to reseat the Flash or replace it, if           it is damaged.

/ (link for 2600 series family but same idea with 3600). I hope the flash is not damaged./

Is it possible to proceed to the following steps :

1- Reload your router (capture the output).

2- Try again an xmodem transfer with one of 32Mb DRAM IOS (for exemple c3640-i-mz.122-46a.bin)

I confirm we can download 3640 images yet => Routers > Branch Routers >  Cisco 3640 Multiservice Platform (Can you see it when logging with your CCO Id ?)

3- If it does not fix the situation, try as stated in the document to 'reseat' the memory (physically open the router and eject/insert the DRAM DIMM

4. Try again to do xmodem with the specified versoin (with ouput capture).

5- Good luck, I hope you will fix the situation:

Regards.
Karim

[Andrew Lutz]

Thanks again, you have been a great help.  It appears I don't have the access required to download the images. I got the other image from someone else at another one of our campuses who has a 3640, and he is the one that told me it was unavailable to download for him.  He must have greater memory in his router as he has the IOS I outlined above.  I guess I need to investigate gaining the level of access needed so I can get that IOS.  Any recommendations on how to do that?  Thanks again, great help man.

[krahmani323]

Hi Andrew, my pleasure...

This is just a guess but downloading may be available for type of devices for which a contract is associated with your cco ID.

Thanks and regards.

Karim

[glen.grant]

  You need to verify you have enough nvram to run the version of code you are trying to load .   You will see those messages if you arer trying to load an image  that is too large.   Do a show version and see how much nvram you have and then check the mimimum requirements for nvram for the image you are trying to use .  You may not have enough RAM to run what you are loading .

[Andrew Lutz]

Thanks for your reply.  Unfortunately, I can not get into the router as no IOS is currently loaded on it.  I'm unsure of the requiremen

ts for the IOS I'm trying to load but the NVRAM is 128KB.