how to copy a new IOS to a cat 6500 when in rommon

[carl_townshend]

Hi all

If I totally lost the IOS on my cat 6500, how would I copy a new IOS to it?

cheers

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi Carl,

If you have not rebooted the switch after deleting the IOS, you are fine.  You can simply plug a laptop to a port on the switch, make it a TFTP server, load the IOS on it and copy it to the switch.

HTH

Reza

[carl_townshend]

how would i do this from rommon ?

[Jerry Ye]

If you have only one chassis, you can use XModem (and it is very slow - I mean hours).

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_tech_note09186a008015bfa1.shtml

HTH,

jerry

[Reza Sharifi]

Yes, xmodem will take for ever to load a file that is over 110mb.  One thing you can do is to raise the baud rate to 38400 or 115200.  It will significantly load faster.

Thanks,

Reza

[Leo Laohoo]

If your Supervisor engine has a CF, then copy the IOS into the CF using a multi-card reader.

[Eric Bretthauer]

Download the IOS you want to use to your laptop.  Copy it to the pcmcia card, which you should have, from your 6k.  Verify the file using a MD5 verification tool (there are many free ones out there).  After that, install the card back to the 6k, do a dir flash: from the Rommon> prompt, or a dir disk0: verify the file is in the flash drive.  Then, from a Rommon> do a boot (flash/disk0:) (filename.bin) exactly as it is listed in the flash drive.  It will boot blah blah blah...  Once the image is loaded and you are in running-config, do the following

dir disk0: (verify the image is on the pcmcia card)

config t

boot system disk0: (image name exactly as it appears in flash .bin)

end

wr mem (or copy run start)

reload the router, make sure it comes back up...  That should be it.  Quick and easier than xTerm