System information

Troubleshooting Hardware and Booting Problems 3-51

Booting: Client ARP Requests Timeout During Netboot

Symptom: Client ARP requests timeout during a netboot. If the router does not receive an ARP

response, a message similar to the following is displayed on the console:

Booting gs3-bfx..........[timed out]

Table 3-17 outlines the problems that might cause this symptom and describes solutions to those

problems.

Table 3-17 Booting: Client ARP Requests Timeout During Netboot

Possible Problem Solution

Bad routing paths

on neighbor routers

Step 1 Verify that neighbor routers can ping the server.

Step 2 Use the trace exec command to determine the path to the server.

Step 3 Use the show arp privileged exec command to examine the ARP

tables or the

show ip route privileged exec command to view the IP routing table. Verify that

the server is listed and that the routing table entries are appropriate.

Step 4 Use the clear arp-cache and clear ip-route privileged exec commands to force

the router to repopulate its ARP and routing tables.

Step 5 Try to netboot the router again.

1 ARP = Address Resolution Protocol

Problems caused

by multiple paths

Step 1 Shut down all extra interfaces except the one over which you intend to netboot the

router.

Step 2 Use the no ip proxy-arp interface conﬁguration command on all neighboring

routers to disable their ability to provide proxy ARP responses.

Make this change with care because it can cause problems for other network

trafﬁc.

If you do not want to disable proxy ARP, boot the router from ROM and conﬁgure

the ip default-gateway global conﬁguration command.

Step 3 Try to netboot the router again.