Router Power-On

Boot Sequence

2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-1

Configuration Register

- All Cisco routers have a 16-bit software register thats written in to NVRAM. The 16 bits of the configuration register are read from 15 to 0, from left to
right.
The default configuration setting on Cisco routers is 0x2102.
This means that bit 13, 8 and 1are on.
- Remember to add prefix 0x to the configuration register address. The 0x
means that the digits that follow are in hexadecimal.
2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-2

Config-register (1)
0x2100 : System bootstrap prompt (> or rommon>)
0x

0x2101 : Boot system from ROM (Router(boot))

0x

0x2102 : Boot system from flash (Router>)

0x

0x2142 : Ignore start-up configuration

0x

2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-3

Configuration register values

0 3:

Boot field

6:

Ignore NVRAM contents

8:

Break disabled

5, 11, 12:

Console line speed

15:

Diagnostic and ignore NVRAM

2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-4

Reasons to modify Configuration Register

- Recovering a lost password.
- Changing the console baud rate.
- Enabling or disabling Break.
- Forcing the router to boot automatically from the
system bootstrap software or from its system image in
Flash memory, and read any boot system commands that
are stored in the configuration file in NVRAM.

2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-5

Determining the Current Configuration

Register Value
Cisco IOS Software, 2800 Software (C2800NM-IPBASE-M), Version 12.4(5a), RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc3)
Technical Support: http://www.cisco.com/techsupport
Copyright (c) 1986-2006 by Cisco Systems, Inc.
Compiled Sat 14-Jan-06 03:19 by alnguyen
ROM: System Bootstrap, Version 12.4(1r) [hqluong 1r], RELEASE SOFTWARE (fc1)
RouterX uptime is 1 week, 5 days, 21 hours, 30 minutes
System returned to ROM by reload at 23:04:40 UTC Tue Mar 13 2007
System image file is "flash:c2800nm-ipbase-mz.124-5a.bin"
Cisco 2811 (revision 53.51) with 251904K/10240K bytes of memory.
Processor board ID FTX1013A1DJ
2 FastEthernet interfaces
2 Serial(sync/async) interfaces
DRAM configuration is 64 bits wide with parity enabled.
239K bytes of non-volatile configuration memory.
62720K bytes of ATA CompactFlash (Read/Write)
Configuration register is 0x2102

2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-6

Router Power-On Boot Sequence

Perform power-on self-test (POST).
Load and run bootstrap code.
Find the Cisco IOS Software.
Load the Cisco IOS Software.
Find the configuration.
Load the configuration.
Run the configured Cisco IOS Software.

2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-7

Power On Self Test (POST)

- When a Cisco router powers up, it performs a power-on
self test (POST).
- During this self test, the router executes diagnostics from
ROM on all hardware modules.
- These diagnostics verify the basic operation of the CPU,
memory, and network interface ports.
- After verifying the hardware functions, the router proceeds
with software initialization

2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-8

Bootstrap
- The bootstrap loader in ROM executes.
- A bootstrap is a simple set of instructions that tests
hardware and initializes the IOS for operation

2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-9

Finding the Cisco IOS Image

Order of search:
1. Checks configuration register
2. Parses configuration for boot system command
3. Defaults to first file in flash memory
4. Attempts to boot from network server
5. Boot helper image
6. ROMMON
2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-10

Loading the Configuration

Load and execute the configuration from NVRAM.

If no configuration is present in NVRAM, enter setup mode.
Depend on the configuration register value (0x2102, 0x2142).
2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-11

 2007 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.

ICND1 v1.06-12