LinuxQuestions.org - Linux Kernel Size

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Linux Kernel Size

I am interested to see what the sizes are of other Linux Users' Kernels in comparison with other people and my own.

My Kernel size is 948Kb

mine (not includeing System.map is 762084 bytes, i dont have usb suport, i use alsa modules pcmcia-cs modules (these are also not included), so i dont have a big kernel as i havent compiled what i probly wont/never will need to use for a laptop

You should include the kernel version as the later 2.6.x versions are significantly larger than the previous kernels.

I currently run 2.4.24 on all my machines except 2.6.0 and 2.6.1 on two different machines.

My 2.6.x's are between 1.5 - 2.0 megs and my 2.4.24 are around 1.2 megs. I remember getting 2.4.19 down to about 800kb average.

Yes - I am running Linux 2.6.2 on my Laptop which I use in school - About a week ago it was a massive 1.8Mb which is far too large, so I spent some time looking at the bits I need and don't need and then taking bit's out (It's supprising how many unneccerary things I compiled into the Kernel!). I am rather pleased because I now how a Kernel which I have reduced in size by about 48% and it also supports all my hardware!

Mandrake 9.1 kernel 2.4.21-0.13mdk. Is 1.2Mb

Well up until around 2.4.15 I used to keep mine under 800k. Not anymore.

Code:

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1014998 Nov 28 23:30 vmlinuz-2.4.23

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1015071 Jan  5 08:30 vmlinuz-2.4.24

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1233205 Dec 18 20:30 vmlinuz-2.6.0

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1380435 Jan  9 10:30 vmlinuz-2.6.1

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1338058 Feb  5 14:50 vmlinuz-2.6.2

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1331149 Feb 10 19:31 vmlinuz-2.6.3-rc1

-rw-r--r--  1 root root 1342503 Feb 12 17:49 vmlinuz-2.6.3-rc2

I use 2.4.20 and mine is around 700K . Not tried the 2.6 one though :).

So - Who else want's to post their kernel size and possibly version?

1.4mb - 2.6.2
920kb - 2.4.24

main box :
2.6.2 - 1.6mb
web server :
2.4.20 - 1.1mb

Interesting how this has grown over the years. Here's a recent Fedora kernel:

Code:

ls -l /boot/vmlinuz-5.16.18-100.fc34.x86_64 

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 11312336 Mar 28 11:02 /boot/vmlinuz-5.16.18-100.fc34.x86_64

size /boot/vmlinuz-5.16.18-100.fc34.x86_64 

    text  data            bss            dec            hex        filename

11306432      0              0        11306432        ac85c0        /boot/vmlinuz-5.16.18-100.fc34.x86_64

LFS 5.8.1 (hand built) 6.0 M.
Slackware generic 5.15.39 7.2 M.

Regular Devuan kernel

vmlinuz-5.10.0-8-amd64

6.5*MiB (6,821,216 bytes)

...& just for interest

initrd.img-5.10.0-8-amd64

51.4*MiB (53,851,562 bytes)

Not up to date.

Arch

Code:

__ls -l --block-size=M /boot/initramfs-linux.img

-rw------- 1 root root 9M Mar 14 08:14 /boot/initramfs-linux.img



__ls -l --block-size=M /boot/vmlinuz-linux

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 10M Mar 14 08:14 /boot/vmlinuz-linux



__ls -l --block-size=M /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img

-rw------- 1 root root 33M Mar 14 08:14 /boot/initramfs-linux-fallback.img



pacman -Si linux

Name            : linux

Version        : 5.16.14.arch1-1

Description    : The Linux kernel and modules

Architecture    : x86_64



Depends On      : coreutils  kmod  initramfs



Download Size  : 155.22 MiB

Installed Size  : 160.52 MiB

Given that this thread is over a decade and a half old, I think it's safe to say that the kernel has increased in size a wee bit over the years.

From 3 months ago on an openSUSE Tumbleweed where I have no good reason not to save old kernels:

Code:

/boot # ls -Gg vmlinuz*t

-rw-r--r-- 1  8913120 Dec 19  2019 vmlinuz-5.3.12-2-default

-rw-r--r-- 1  9052400 Feb  2  2020 vmlinuz-5.4.14-2-default

-rw-r--r-- 1  9142512 Mar 29  2020 vmlinuz-5.5.13-1-default

-rw-r--r-- 1  9311888 Jun  8  2020 vmlinuz-5.6.14-1-default

-rw-r--r-- 1 10290768 Aug  3  2020 vmlinuz-5.7.11-1-default        # last version with framebuffer scrollback

-rw-r--r-- 1 10414896 Oct 20  2020 vmlinuz-5.8.15-1-default

-rw-r--r-- 1 10499088 Dec 13  2020 vmlinuz-5.9.14-1-default

-rw-r--r-- 1 10781936 Feb 22  2021 vmlinuz-5.10.16-1-default

-rw-r--r-- 1 10870672 Apr 26  2021 vmlinuz-5.11.16-1-default

-rw-r--r-- 1 11020368 Jun 28  2021 vmlinuz-5.12.13-1-default

-rw-r--r-- 1 10981680 Aug 19 14:07 vmlinuz-5.13.12-1-default

lrwxrwxrwx 1      44 Nov 20 01:27 vmlinuz-5.14.14-3-default -> ../usr/lib/modules/5.14.14-3-default/vmlinuz

lrwxrwxrwx 1      44 Feb 15 01:08 vmlinuz-5.15.12-1-default -> ../usr/lib/modules/5.15.12-1-default/vmlinuz

lrwxrwxrwx 1      43 Feb 15 01:22 vmlinuz-5.16.8-1-default -> ../usr/lib/modules/5.16.8-1-default/vmlinuz

# ls -Gg /usr/lib/modules/5*/vmlinuz

-rw-r--r-- 1 11145360 Nov 15 15:19 /usr/lib/modules/5.14.14-3-default/vmlinuz

-rw-r--r-- 1 11441840 Jan  7 15:31 /usr/lib/modules/5.15.12-1-default/vmlinuz

-rw-r--r-- 1 11966928 Feb 11 18:46 /usr/lib/modules/5.16.8-1-default/vmlinuz

From 3 years ago on a multiboot PC, openSUSE, Fedora & Debian:

Code:

                OS 11.4        OS 13.1        OS 15.0        OS TW        F30        Deb 10        

Kernel Version        3.0.101        3.12.67        4.12.14        4.19.12        4.19.13        4.19.37

/boot/vmlinuz          4.7M          6.1M          6.8M          7.8M          8.3M          5.0M

/boot/initrd          6.6M          6.9M          8.3M          8.7M        15.5M          7.2M

/lib/modules/        132.7M        152.7M        257.1M        269.0M        62.5M        252.9M