If you replace the gzip kernel compression with bzip2, will it be easy to
also bzip2 initrd images?
If so, does the kernel then no longer need a gzip decompression routine? Does
the current implementation use the same gunzipper for the kernel and initrd
(possibly not? Is the kernel gunzipper real mode?)
If so then this is a good feature for some embedded systems which can trade a
few seconds of boot time for smaller images, particularly if it removes the
routine from the kernel.
How much slower is bunzip2?
On my system, bunzip2 decompresses a kernel image nearly 10x slower than gzip
[mark@athlon linux-2.4.19]$ time gunzip blah
0.08user 0.01system 0:00.09elapsed 96%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
[mark@athlon linux-2.4.19]$ time bunzip2 blah.bz2
0.83user 0.04system 0:00.87elapsed 99%CPU (0avgtext+0avgdata 0maxresident)k
and it only gets 6% smaller
but this is a highly unscientific test.
Mark
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