In the hope of being able to fit 2.4.x and linuxbios into a 256KB rom
I have been playing around with a number things. Adding config
options to compile so of code out of the kernel is one of them.
Currently I have built a 226KB patched 2.4.2 kernel with a network
device driver, and initrd support. This isn't yet a useable size but
it is close.
Using UPX seems to give a pretty steady 24KB reduction in kernel
size, which makes the whole process easier. The current gzip
decompressor is only 8KB so it can't simply be that UPX needs a
smaller decompressor.
If I add in tcp/ip support the image size goes up to 301KB.
With no network support and just generic IDE support I get a 228KB
image.
I have a number of things I would like to cut out to see if I can
reduce the size to something livable:
- Swapping support
- Support for processors other than the one you compiled for.
So there is some hope of getting linux down to a useable size, for
working on a 256KB ROM. In my preliminary tests I figure is about
192KB so there is some slack for linuxBIOS and a very minimal initrd.
Eric
