On Mon, Sep 22, 2025 at 12:49 PM home user via users <users@lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote: > Uh-oh. > Here we go again. > another "overloaded" term in the IT profession?
History, along with possible similar-but-not-quite-the-same terms in different environments. > I've been using the term "kernel" loosely and in a general way. I'm > using it incorrectly? Most people use it loosely and in a general way, most of the time. I think you're OK here. > What is the correct understanding of "kernel" in the context of this > part of this thread (trying to estimate how much space to allocate for > the "kernel"... > current "kernel" + "rescue" + 5 old "kernels" + space for future > "kernel" growth... > when doing installation)? Technically you are concerned with the space used by the initramfs file(s). As an example: 284K /boot/config-6.16.4-100.fc41.x86_64 146M /boot/initramfs-6.16.4-100.fc41.x86_64.img 188K /boot/symvers-6.16.4-100.fc41.x86_64.xz 12M /boot/System.map-6.16.4-100.fc41.x86_64 17M /boot/vmlinuz-6.16.4-100.fc41.x86_64 These files comprise - loosely speaking - the kernel for 6.14.4-100 on Fedora 41 on my laptop. Of these files the only one that has what I consider to be significant size is the initramfs file. So if I decided I wanted to keep an additional 2 "kernels" on this system I would need an additional 300-400 MB. Regarding the more general question "what is the kernel?".... - From an OS perspective, anything that runs in kernel mode (or Ring 0). - From an end user perspective, probably the sum of files included in the installed kernel* packages. - From a hardware perspective, the installed kernel packages *plus* kernel modules (such as Nvidia drivers, etc.). - Etc. -- _______________________________________________ users mailing list -- users@lists.fedoraproject.org To unsubscribe send an email to users-le...@lists.fedoraproject.org Fedora Code of Conduct: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/ List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines List Archives: https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/users@lists.fedoraproject.org Do not reply to spam, report it: https://pagure.io/fedora-infrastructure/new_issue
