Hi Over the years, stage1 (both all.rdz, boot.iso, ...) got bigger & bigger: 10.0-10.1: 8Mo 10.2-2005: 15M <======= 2006.0: 13M 2007.0: 14M 2007.1: 10M 2008.0-2008.1: 12M 2009.0: 26M <======= 2009.1: 32M <======= 2010.0: 33M 2010.1: 36M (37M on 64 bit) 2011 : 44M mga1 : 39M (40M on 64bit) (NEW: 53M on non-free 64 bit...)
I've reduced this by: - removing alt1 (x86_64 only for now): - removing busybox - compressing initrd with XZ instead of gzip: only good on firmware - re compressing kernel modules with XZ instead of gzip: Removing alt1 (x86_64 only for now) saved 20Mb on boot.iso (50%) and on boot-nonfree.iso (43%). Removing busybox saved 1B (5.7% of all.rdz, 5% of boot.iso, 3.7% of boot-nonfree.iso) Compressing initrd with XZ instead of gzip saved 2Mo (7.7%) on boot-nonfree.iso (better compressed firmwares). Re-compressing kernel modules with XZ instead of gzip saved -2.4Mb (15.9%) on all.rdz, -2Mb (10.5%) on boot.iso, -2mb on boot-nonfree.iso (8.3%) Total gain on boot.iso: -23Mb (57.5%) on x86_64 (less on i586) This should save space on ISOs too (we could save more by not including install/images on ISOs btw) There's a minor drawback: KA install won't work anymore but it's a niche. Is there someone using that feature? The proper way to support it would be to either: - have a stage1.5 for KA with busybox - include a static mke2fs (compiled against dietlibc) - disable KA support See you