On Sun, Jul 15, 2007 at 02:00:29PM -0700, Jonathan Campbell wrote:
> I wrote a set of patches out of concern that even if you compile a 386
> kernel a lot of code irrelevent to legacy machines still remains. Things
> like the Pentium TSC register, DMI information, ESCD parsing, and the use
> of CPUID do not apply to these machines, but looking at System.map you can
> see they're still there.
>
> Already with these patches I can compile a zImage kernel that is 450kb
> large (890kb decompressed) with a small initramfs payload, floppy and
> kernel module support, FPU emulation, that can successfully boot on an
> ancient 386 laptop with only 1MB of extended memory. Eventually what I'd
> like to have is the ability to compile a pure 386 kernel with all non-386
> functions removed (and perhaps the same for 486 machines).
>...
Besides some issues with the patch itself you didn't provide the one
important number:
By how much does your patch decrease the size of the kernel?
Also note that when aiming for a tiny kernel enabling module support is
a huge mistake since it increases the amount of RAM used when running
the kernel by at about 10%.
cu
Adrian
--
"Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
"Only a promise," Lao Er said.
Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed
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