How Large is the Linux Kernel Binary

Lucere · 10-05-2012, 10:02 AM

How large is the Linux Kernel Binary for each of the different systems it employs: Desktop, server, etc?

Thanks!

TobiSGD · 10-05-2012, 10:07 AM

The Linux kernel does not care at all if you run a server or a desktop. These differences are determined by the installed userspace software, not the kernel.
The size of the kernel itself is dependent on which subsystems and drivers you compile in and which optimizations are used. It will also change the size if you use an embedded filesystem.
In short, this question is unanswerable.

H_TeXMeX_H · 10-05-2012, 10:16 AM

It depends entirely on how you configure it. As an example Slackware 14.0 kernels:

These kernels have nearly everything bulit-in:
64-bit huge install kernel is 6048 KB
32-bit huge install kernel is 5668 KB

These kernels have mostly modules:
64-bit generic kernel is 3080 KB
64-bit generic kernel is 2785 KB
64-bit custom kernel is 2290 KB

Whether the kernel was built for a server or desktop is not relevant. More relevant would be:

Code:

  ┌─────────────────────────── Optimize for size ───────────────────────────┐
  │ CONFIG_CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SIZE:                                            │  
  │                                                                         │  
  │ Enabling this option will pass "-Os" instead of "-O2" to gcc            │  
  │ resulting in a smaller kernel.                                          │  
  │                                                                         │  
  │ If unsure, say Y.                                                       │  
  │                                                                         │  
  │ Symbol: CC_OPTIMIZE_FOR_SIZE [=n]                                       │  
  │ Type  : boolean                                                         │  
  │ Prompt: Optimize for size                                               │  
  │   Defined at init/Kconfig:942                                           │  
  │   Location:                                                             │  
  │     -> General setup                                                    │

Rupadhya · 10-07-2012, 09:52 AM

My kernels are...

Quote:

-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 4611776 May 7 12:51 vmlinuz-3.3.4-5.fc17.i686
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 root root 4405088 Oct 2 14:10 vmlinuz-3.6.0

They are pretty vanilla kernels for a 32-bit system. I use Fedora 17, and the 3.6.0 is compiled from source from www.kernel.org.

- Raj

Lucere · 10-09-2012, 10:27 AM

Thx H_TexMex_H and Raj!