6509 IOS upgrade 64Mb Flash card Fails - software crash on reboot

PDEdwards · ‎02-22-2010

Hi

I am trying to upgrade the IOS on one of our 6509 switches, with MSFC and Sup2 cards.
I downloaded the image onto a new formatted 64Mb flash card. Despite having half Gb of DRAM and the 64Mb card, on rebooting the 6509 the following error was reported:

*** System received a Software forced crash ***
signal= 0x17, code= 0x41e20000, context= 0x41e4dc94
PC = 0x402d238c, Cause = 0x1820, Status Reg = 0x34018002

Crashinfo appears to point to a lack of memory:

00:00:12: %SYS-SP-3-LOGGER_FLUSHED: System was paused for 00:00:00 to ensure console debugging output.

00:00:34: %SYS-SP-2-MALLOCFAIL: Memory allocation of 262144 bytes failed from 0x402E4C1C, alignment 8
Pool: Processor Free: 259920 Cause: Not enough free memory
Alternate Pool: None Free: 0 Cause: No Alternate pool

-Process= "SCP Download Process", ipl= 0, pid= 82
-Traceback= 40283114 402873F0 402E4C24 4093C1CC 402E1238 402E1A0C 402E2568 402E2680 402E2784 402E283C 402E2B60 402E2CB8 4093C37C 4093C8E4 402E5BD0 40493A78
SYSTEM INIT: INSUFFICIENT MEMORY TO BOOT THE IMAGE!

The chosen image:

s222-advipservicesk9_wan-mz.122-18.SXF17.bin
Requires 256Mb DRAM, 64 Mb Flash

From 'sh ver' on the 6509 - DRAM available = > half Gb:
cisco WS-C6509 (R7000) processor (revision 3.0) with 458752K/65536K bytes of memory

Any advice gratefully received.

Regards,
Paul

Giuseppe Larosa · ‎03-01-2010

Hello Paul,

have you upgraded the boot loader image?

it may be this the issue here

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/switches/lan/catalyst6500/ios/12.1E/native/configuration/guide/supcfg.html#wp1021869

Hope to help

Giuseppe

nallcott · ‎04-11-2011

Giuseppe,

I am having PCMCIA flash formating problems with a 6509 SUP2-MSFC2. I made a post elsewhere in the forum regarding this which is referenced as follows:

https://supportforums.cisco.com/message/3235955#3235955

This post shows the information for the errors. I think all the software is in order for the modules and also the bootloader version.

My hunch is that possibly the company that owned this equipment before me did an IOS to CatOS conversion on the SP. They copied the CatOS file onto the IOS formatted SP bootflash and maybe although the system (SP and RP) can boot correctly, it is not possible to format a PCMCIA flash from CatOS because bootflash: may still have the IOS format? I don't know enough about these systems on aggregate to play with this core functionality and I don't want to break anything because all other functionality appears to work OK.

If you know of a fix for this it would be appreciated. Thanks.