2500 router - Flash read ONLY 1

[pstnguy]

I give up as to what is going on here. I have two cisco 2500 router that I use at home. I updated the IOS to 12.2 and now the flash comes up as 'read only'. I do have the register set to 0x2102.

There were 11.8 IOS version routers.
Thanks in advance.

Cisco Internetwork Operating System Software

IOS (tm) 2500 Software (C2500-D-L), Version 12.2(13), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

Copyright (c) 1986-2002 by cisco Systems, Inc.

Compiled Tue 19-Nov-02 20:25 by pwade

Image text-base: 0x030559E8, data-base: 0x00001000



ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 11.0(10c)XA, PLATFORM SPECIFIC RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)

BOOTLDR: 3000 Bootstrap Software (IGS-BOOT-R), Version 11.0(10c)XA, PLATFORM SPECIFIC RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)



router3 uptime is 2 minutes

System returned to ROM by power-on

System image file is "flash:c2500-d-l_122-13.bin"



cisco 2500 (68030) processor (revision L) with 14336K/2048K bytes of memory.

Processor board ID 02817407, with hardware revision 00000000

Bridging software.

X.25 software, Version 3.0.0.

1 Ethernet/IEEE 802.3 interface(s)

2 Serial network interface(s)

32K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory.

16384K bytes of processor board System flash (Read ONLY)



Configuration register is 0x2102

 

[burtsbees]

Never saw that...where does it say that it's read only? Can you do anything with the router? Does it still say read only if you downgrade back to 11.8?

Burt

 

[Minue]

Hello
Here's the subtle difference.

Flash Memory

Flash memory is implemented (on a Cisco 2500) using two Single Inline Memory Module (SIMM) slots that hold erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM). Flash memory is used to store and run the Cisco IOS software - the router's operating system. When a router is powered down, the contents of Flash memory are not lost. However, its contents can be upgraded by "flashing" the chip, not unlike one can do with a BIOS in the PC world. While a router is running, the contents of Flash are set to a read-only mode.


Regards

 

[pstnguy]

ALL: the routers do work, READ ONLY shows up under the 'show version' command. No, I cannot downgrade the router, it will NOT allow an 'erase flash' command during the 'copy tftp flash' sequence.
What a bummer!

 

[burtsbees]

Read what Minue posted.

Burt

 

[fwre01]

The Cisco 2500 does have Read-Only flash, and you cant always use the erase flash command, but when you use the command copy tftp flash command the router prompts you to erase the existing image before continuing

 

[southoz]

The 2500 Series have a mini IOS which is used for IOS management purposes. To access the mini IOS use a config register value of 0x2101 and reboot. You will notice that the prompt has changed to indicate that you are using the mini IOS stored in ROM. A show version will indicate that the flash filesystem is now read/write.

Connect your tftp server and configure the ethernet interface as you would when booting from a normal IOS and copy the new image across. If the flash is partitioned in while in the Mini IOS you can issue the erase flash command, reboot and the flash will be seen as one partition.

*Note if your Router Bios is old eg version 5.2 there may be some small variations in the commands required to upgrade the IOS.