problem with enormous linux-image.deb when I compile the debian way

graysky · 2008-12-28 20:35:27

As the risk of offending, let me say that I am dual booting Arch and Ubuntu to try out intrepid without losing my Arch partition. Anyway, I'm hoping to tap the expertise here on a Ubuntu kernel quirk I've encountered. The topic pretty much sums up my experience compiling a kernel the debian way under Ubuntu 8.10 using the official /boot/config-2.6.27-9-generic as a starting point. I made a few minor tweaks including my processor type which is Newer Core2/Xeon and upping the timer frequency from 250 to 300 Hz. I also disabled Xen support because it gives errors otherwise.

ANYWAY, here is my problem: my linux-image-2.6.27.10-custom_amd64.deb is enormous at 257 M. This is in stark contrast to the standard kernel-image.deb in the repo which is 22 M. I know this method is sound; before using Arch, I ran Debian and when I compiled under Debian/Lenny using the Debian config, they also came out around 22 M.

There *must* be an option in the .config that adds in all the extra size. Does anyone have a clue what would explain the 11x size difference?

Debian:

5.9M 2008-12-25 12:42 linux-headers-2.6.27.10-xeon64_2_amd64.deb
20M 2008-12-25 12:41 linux-image-2.6.27.10-xeon64_2_amd64.deb

Ubuntu:

6.5M 2008-12-28 14:37 linux-headers-2.6.27.10-ubuntu64_1_amd64.deb
257M 2008-12-28 14:36 linux-image-2.6.27.10-ubuntu64_1_amd64.deb

I should say that if I just take the out-of-the-box kernel config from ubuntu, remove the Xen support, and compile, I get the the huge file.

Thanks in advance

buddabrod · 2008-12-28 20:54:13

Check the debug options first. Maybe you activated something there.

graysky · 2008-12-28 21:41:57

You're the man! I went though line-by-line with the Debian kernel config and indeed, the Ubuntu config had a bunch of debugging options enabled under Kernel and elsewhere. Just got the kernel built and it's the right size after disabling these debugging options.

6.5M 2008-12-28 16:36 linux-headers-2.6.27.10-ubuntu64_1_amd64.deb
22M 2008-12-28 16:36 linux-image-2.6.27.10-ubuntu64_1_amd64.deb

Now the real question is why doesn't the kernel-image in the repo have the same huge size? After all, it is built from the same config file as the one I copied over from the /boot isn't it

Last edited by graysky (2008-12-28 21:57:12)

finferflu · 2008-12-28 21:55:19

As this discussion does not pertain Arch, I'm moving it to... hmm.. say, Linux Discussion.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-12-28 20:35:27

problem with enormous linux-image.deb when I compile the debian way

#2 2008-12-28 20:54:13

Re: problem with enormous linux-image.deb when I compile the debian way

#3 2008-12-28 21:41:57

Re: problem with enormous linux-image.deb when I compile the debian way

#4 2008-12-28 21:55:19

Re: problem with enormous linux-image.deb when I compile the debian way

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