kernel image size

[John Allen]

I need to get the kernel that I am building for my Geode sc1200 
(including the linuxbios code) small enough to fit on a 256K eeprom.  Is 
this possible?  My first attempt resulted in vmlinux of  626K.  After 
compiling linuxBIOS it gave my a rominage of  448K.  Am I missing 
something?  I tried to strip as much out of the kernel as possible.  
John

[Ronald G. Minnich]

On Thu, 7 Nov 2002, John Allen wrote:
> I need to get the kernel that I am building for my Geode sc1200 
> (including the linuxbios code) small enough to fit on a 256K eeprom.  Is 
> this possible?  My first attempt resulted in vmlinux of  626K.  After 
> compiling linuxBIOS it gave my a rominage of  448K.  Am I missing 
> something?  I tried to strip as much out of the kernel as possible.  
> John

you are SOL. Linux has not been that small for years. You could try to 
compile an older kernel, but we have had zero luck with 256KB.


oh yeah, don't compile older kernels on newer linux. I've tried that and 
it fails. re-install red hat 1.0


ron

[Tyson D Sawyer]

I'm not sure that uC-Linux can't get that small.  You loose some 
features bu it might be worth checking.

http://www.uclinux.org/

I don't know the details or how current this info is but from the "What 
is page":

* Common Linux API
* uCkernel < 512 kb
* uCkernel + tools < 900 kb

I don't know what is included in that 512K or if it is a compress image 
or not.  However, I've heard its smaller.  ...slim chance but worth 
looking into.

Ty

Ronald G. Minnich wrote:
> On Thu, 7 Nov 2002, John Allen wrote:
> > I need to get the kernel that I am building for my Geode sc1200 
> > (including the linuxbios code) small enough to fit on a 256K eeprom.  Is 
> > this possible?  My first attempt resulted in vmlinux of  626K.  After 
> > compiling linuxBIOS it gave my a rominage of  448K.  Am I missing 
> > something?  I tried to strip as much out of the kernel as possible.  
> > John
>
> you are SOL. Linux has not been that small for years. You could try to 
> compile an older kernel, but we have had zero luck with 256KB.
>
> oh yeah, don't compile older kernels on newer linux. I've tried that and 
> it fails. re-install red hat 1.0
>
> ron
>
> _______________________________________________
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]
> http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios

[Karthik Bala Guru]

Oh yuh,
I was into reducing linux kernel to around 256 kb ...
it was a futile attempt some 3 months back... !!
But i suppose that it will be acheivable with a
vast band of assembly programmers with tonnes of
time in hand !!!

yes, compiling older kernels on the newer ones
was never a success story in my experience !!

Try out asmutils ... It will give u enough idea.
It is much similar to tomsrtbt but gives 
clear idea to reduce linux kernel size !!

The smallest linux kernel in world is that of 
coventive technologies according to many newsgroups.

The smallest size achieved by me with MINIRTL ...
a tiny RTLINUX is that of around 450KB with many
supports removed !!

karthik bala guru





 --- Tyson D Sawyer <[e-mail]> wrote: > I'm
not sure that uC-Linux can't get that small.
> You loose some 
> features bu it might be worth checking.
>
> http://www.uclinux.org/
>
> I don't know the details or how current this info is
> but from the "What 
> is page":
>
> * Common Linux API
> * uCkernel < 512 kb
> * uCkernel + tools < 900 kb
>
> I don't know what is included in that 512K or if it
> is a compress image 
> or not.  However, I've heard its smaller.  ...slim
> chance but worth 
> looking into.
>
> Ty
>
> Ronald G. Minnich wrote:
> > On Thu, 7 Nov 2002, John Allen wrote:
> > > I need to get the kernel that I am building for my
> > > Geode sc1200 
> > > (including the linuxbios code) small enough to fit
> > > on a 256K eeprom.  Is 
> > > this possible?  My first attempt resulted in
> > > vmlinux of  626K.  After 
> > > compiling linuxBIOS it gave my a rominage of 
> > > 448K.  Am I missing 
> > > something?  I tried to strip as much out of the
> > > kernel as possible.  
> > > John
> >
> > you are SOL. Linux has not been that small for
> > years. You could try to 
> > compile an older kernel, but we have had zero luck
> > with 256KB.
> >
> > oh yeah, don't compile older kernels on newer
> > linux. I've tried that and 
> > it fails. re-install red hat 1.0
> >
> > ron
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Linuxbios mailing list
> > [e-mail]

http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios
> _______________________________________________
> Linuxbios mailing list
> [e-mail]

http://www.clustermatic.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxbios 

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John Allen <[e-mail]> writes:
> I need to get the kernel that I am building for my Geode sc1200 (including the
> linuxbios code) small enough to fit on a 256K eeprom.  Is this possible?  My
> first attempt resulted in vmlinux of  626K.  After compiling linuxBIOS it gave
> my a rominage of  448K.  Am I missing something?

Only that we usually use etherboot as a bootloader in a situation
like this, and so we avoid the problem of shrinking the kernel
down to an unreasonable level.

Eric