> Buchan Milne wrote: > > > Felix Miata wrote: > > > > OTOH, not being able to make a standard boot floppy is a serious > > > handicap to those who for whatever reason can't or don't boot from > > > the HD, and don't have CDRW or don't want to boot from CD each time. > > > Hmm, IMHO better to ensure that they can boot from the HD. If there are > > still any guides about linux suggesting not to install the bootloader on > > the HD, let's go and trash them. > > All well and good for geeks, but not so hot for the less adept > multibooters who fix their broken windoze by reinstalling some version > of M$'s OS, thus losing ready access to Linux, since such people need be > lead by the hand to do a rescue boot repair. > > > When was the last time you booted a normal machine off a floppy (ie in > > normal operation). Have you *ever* done this for windows? > > I don't routinely use windoze, but that's irrelevant. I think I > performed that exercise once very long ago just to prove the concept. > OTOH, until Mandrake quit including making a boot floppy during install, > booting from the new floppy was always the first thing I did after a > Linux install. > > If you need boot regularly, HD boot is pretty convenient. OTOH, with a > boot floppy, you're confident being able to reach Linux easily even > after windoze disaster, or even Linux installation disaster, when adding > an additional distro elsewhere on the system and the new goes haywire, > ruining access to the previous. > > > > I see a 'kernel memory freed' statement of nearly 200K on every boot. > > > initrd image. > > > > It seems there ought to be a streamlined way to compile a kernel that > > > would not produce that result, with the result that a boot floppy > > > could easily be produced to fit in 1440K space. > > > $ du -k /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22-9mdk > > 1320 /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.22-9mdk > > > 120k is not a lot ... > > In the context of legacy boot media, 120K is a lot, easily the > difference between a floppy that boots and one that doesn't. > > Why so much kernel and initrd swell of late?
> Mandrake 9.0 > 138691 Sep 30 2002 initrd-2.4.19-16mdk.img > 880346 Sep 20 2002 vmlinuz-2.4.19-16mdk > 1019037 .... > Mandrake 9.1 > 137973 Jul 30 17:47 initrd-2.4.21-0.13mdk.img > 1252778 Mar 14 2003 vmlinuz-2.4.21-0.13mdk > 1390751 ..... > Mandrake 9.1 > 127509 Jul 30 17:48 initrd-2.4.21-0.25mdk.img > 1263795 Jul 24 16:02 vmlinuz-2.4.21-0.25mdk > 1391304 > Mandrake 9.2 > 414616 Sep 22 12:46 initrd-2.4.22-10mdk.img > 1343803 Sep 18 06:43 vmlinuz-2.4.22-10mdk > 1758419 so the bloat started with 9.1 ? can you check grep "CONFIG_KALLSYMS" /boot/config-* kernel hacking===> Load all symbols for debuging CONFIG_KALLSYMS Normally only exported symbols are available to modules. For debugging you may want all symbols, not just the exported ones. If you say Y here then extra data is added to the kernel and modules, this data lists all the non-stack symbols in the kernel or module and can be used by any debugger. You need modutils >= 2.3.11 to use this option. See "man kallsyms" for the data format, it adds 10-20% to the size of the kernel and the loaded modules. If unsure, say N. and a shorter verson :-) it adds 10-20% to the size of the kernel and the loaded modules. If unsure, say N. -- NEU F�R ALLE - GMX MediaCenter - f�r Fotos, Musik, Dateien... Fotoalbum, File Sharing, MMS, Multimedia-Gru�, GMX FotoService Jetzt kostenlos anmelden unter http://www.gmx.net +++ GMX - die erste Adresse f�r Mail, Message, More! +++
