vmlinuz

[Mikkel L. Ellertson]

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On 08/06/2012 08:24 AM, Ed Greshko wrote:
> On 08/06/2012 07:43 PM, Tim wrote:
>> On Sun, 2012-08-05 at 22:37 -0700, Richard Vickery wrote:
>>> is it possible to use an image from another user
>> Maybe...
>>
>> If I recall correctly, it's custom-built for your computer's hardware
>> when the kernel is installed, including the things you need for
your PC
>> to boot. It mightn't have what someone else needs to boot up, or may
>> boot up but be lacking something important (such as no working
network
>> hardware, or drivers for all your disc drives, et cetera).
>>
>
> FWIW, I'd not give vmlinuz much thought....
>
> So, I downloaded the kernel-3.5.0-2.fc17.x86_64.rpm and extracted
its vmlinuz-3.5.0-2.fc17.x86_64 and did a diff of what is on my
system and what is on a VM. They are all identical.
>
The difference in is the initrd file generated when the kernel is
installed. That file has the system specific drivers needed for
boot, along with other startup information. Without it, you would
either need a lot of drivers compiled into the kernel, or compile a
machine specific kernel.

Compiling your own kernel and doing away with the initrd file can be
fun, and a good test of system hardware. But it is not something
most people want to bother with. Besides, it takes knowledge of your
specific hardware, and what is/is not required to do it correctly. I
know how to do it, but I do not bother except for use on
low-resource machines. (I have a 486 table with 24M of RAM and 360M
of storage.)

Mikkel
- -- 
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and
taste good with Ketchup!
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