Difference between ROM Monitor and RXBoot

I am struggling to grasp the difference between ROM Monitor and RXBoot and when the router would go into each of these modes. The materials I have dont go into a lot of detail about this. Can anyone explain?

thanks

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kryolla

Rxboot contains a mini version of the IOS just so the router can boot then it loads the IOS. The Rom Mon is so you can change the config file that the router boots on.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/routers/ps133/products_tech_note09186a008022493f.shtml

Plazma

rommon = mode for recovery on most routers.

rxboot = stripped down IOS image stored in ROM used for recovery (on many of the 2500's and so forth)

tiersten

ROMMON is the bootloader. It is the first thing that is run when you start your router/switch. It does initial setup of the hardware and is responsible for running IOS. It will also allow you to load in another copy of IOS via the console port or if it is new enough, via the network.

RXBOOT is a stripped down ROM resident version of IOS that is present on old routers. The old routers would actually run IOS straight from the flash so you can't overwrite it whilst running IOS. The ROMMON present in these routers tended not to have the ability to load an IOS image via the network either so if you wanted to actually do it quickly then you needed to use RXBOOT.