Re: kernel-{image,headers} package bloat

[james@netcsi.com]

On Mon, Apr 30, 2001 at 12:41:22PM +0200, Torsten Landschoff wrote:
> This is the point where I disagree. I really hate having to build my
> own kernel just to do some tests with a fresh installation. I think
> the standard kernel should support SMP. I don't know if it causes
> any problems with UP machines though...

Unfortunately it seems that a kernel that supports both i386 and SMP
would have to use very slow methods for locking since instructions
allowing faster locking only came in with the 486 and above.

Maybe there really ought to be exactly two kernels:

  1) Uniprocessor kernel compiled for i386 (kernel-image-foo)
  2) SMP kernel compiled for a suitable least common denominator of
     95+% of SMP boards out there but using newer instructions for
     decent locking performance.  Might not run on older UP boards
     or maybe a few really ancient SMP boards.

The UP kernel would be used in the installer, but maybe the SMP
version could be installed automatically on systems that support it.

This would allow virtually everyone to get a kernel on their machine
that would run at least very good (not perfect) performance while
keeping the archive even less bloated than the old 'flavors' system.

-- 
James Deikun, Techie(tm), CSI Multimedia
The opinions expressed &c.