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Catalyst 6500 Series Switch Command Reference—Release7.6
78-15328-01
Chapter1 Command-Line Interfac es ROM Monitor CLI
ROM Monitor CLI
The ROM monitor is a ROM-based program that executes upon platform startup, reset, or when a fatal
exception occurs.

Accessing the ROM Monitor CLI

The system enters ROM-monitor mode if the switch does not find a valid system image, if the NVRAM
configuration is corrupted, or if the configuration register is set to enter ROM-monitor mode. From the
ROM-monitor mode, you can load a system image manually from Flash memory, from a network server
file, or from bootflash. You can also enter ROM-monitor mode by restarting the switch and pressing the
Break key during the first 60 seconds of startup.
Note Break is always enabled for 60 seconds after rebooting the system, regardless of whether Break is
configured to be off by configuration register settings.
To connect through a terminal server, escape to the Telnet prompt, and enter the send break command
to break back to the ROM-monitor mode.

Operating the ROM Monitor CLI

The ROM monitor commands are used to load and copy system images, microcode images, and
configuration files. System images contain the system software. Microcode images contain microcode
to be downloaded to various hardware devices. Configuration files contain commands to customize
Catalyst 6500 series software.
The manual boot command has the following syntax:
Note Enter the copy file-id {tftp | flash | file-id} command to obtain an i mage f ro m th e ne twork .
•boot—Boot from ROM
•boot [-xv] [device:][imagename]—Boot from the local device. If you do not specify an imag e name,
the system defaults to the first valid file in the device. The image name is case sensitive.
Once you are in ROM-monitor mode, the prompt changes to rommon 1>. W hile you are in ROM-monitor
mode, each time you enter a command, the number in the prompt increments by one.