[Techtalk] kernel upgrades

[Kai MacTane]

At 10/11/01 11:21 AM , Glen Strom wrote:

>On 11 Oct 2001, at 11:00, Kai MacTane wrote:
>
>I have looked [in /etc/lilo.conf], and this is what it says:
>image = /boot/vmlinuz
>label = linux
>root = /dev/hdb1
>initrd = /boot/initrd
>
>image = /boot/vmlinuz.suse
>label = suse
>root = /dev/hdb1
>initrd = /boot/initrd.suse
>optional
>
>Unfortunately, it doesn't tell me what the differences are. I haven't
>found any mention of this in the SuSE docs or on the SuSE
>mailing list.

Well, short of reading the /boot/vmlinuz.suse binary to see what it does, 
I'd say the "optional" keyword at the end is a fair indication that Jeff 
Dike's supposition:

>A guess would be that suse might be a fairly generic kernel off the SuSE 
>media, and linux is a customized kernel built later in the install, when 
>it has had a chance to look at your hardware.

is probably a good one. I suspect booting that would give you a somewhat 
stripped-down kernel, which might not recognize some your more esoteric 
hardware (if you have any esoteric hardware), but would more-or-less run 
and be kind of stable.

Does "ls -l /boot/vmlinuz*" show vmlinuz.suse as being noticeably smaller 
than vmlinuz (say, from 50 to 80 percent as big)? That would be another 
indication in favor of Jeff's theory.

                                                 --Kai MacTane
----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Then, when they spill the demon seed
  Turn and face into the wind.
  All along you still believed...
  Believed you were immune."
                                                 --Thomas Dolby,
                                                  "The Flat Earth"