Re: Which kernel is the best for a small linux system?

On 3/13/06, Pantelis Antoniou <pantelis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tuesday 14 March 2006 00:01, j4K3xBl4sT3r wrote:
On 3/13/06, Pantelis Antoniou <pantelis@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Monday 13 March 2006 20:27, Sam Ravnborg wrote:
On Mon, Mar 13, 2006 at 09:17:47AM +0100, Arjan van de Ven wrote:
On Sun, 2006-03-12 at 21:40 -0300, j4K3xBl4sT3r wrote:
Hello all,

I've been seeing many Linux versions, with many features, some of them
just for the newest branches (2.4.x and 2.6.x), I would like to know
for which kind of system each kernel is recommended. On the distros
that we see inside the Net there is the 2.4.x series, normally I
update to 2.6.x (in case of my Slackware 10.2, even getting problems
with some devices). Is that floppy disks uses only 2.0.x and 2.2.x
Kernels? If applicable, where can I get (detailed) information about
these issues? I'm new on Kernel managing, started doing my own distros
at less than one month and would like to know it.

regardless of the size issue; you should really not start any new
projects based on 2.4 kernels; they are in deep deep maintenance mode
for now, but it's unclear how long they will be (I suppose as long as
people keep sending patches), especially complex security issues should
worry people ;)

2.6 is actively maintained and will be for quite some time :)

Any comments on this:
http://www.denx.de/wiki/Know/Linux24vs26

On another denx.de page I found this summary (so you do not have to
visit the page):
# slow to build: 2.6 takes 30...40% longer to compile
# Big memory footprint in flash: the 2.6 compressed kernel image is
# 30...40% bigger
# Big memory footprint in RAM: the 2.6 kernel needs 30...40% more RAM;
# the available RAM size for applications is 700kB smaller
# Slow to boot: 2.6 takes 5...15% longer to boot into multi-user mode
# Slow to run: context switches up to 96% slower, local communication
# latencies up to 80% slower, file system latencies up to 76% slower,
# local communication bandwidth less than 50% in some cases.

I'm merely asked because I have been pointed to this page several times
and I do nto have numbers for 2.4 versus 2.6.

Note: denx does support 2.6 now.

I do not concur and recommend 2.6 but wanted to know if anyone had more
insight to share.

Sam
-

Hi there.

Since I've been dealing with those platforms quite a lot, let me have
my $0.02.

Yes 2.6 is larger than 2.4 and with small embedded processors with small
caches & a small number of TLBs that footprint is felt quite a lot.

For the 8xx which shows the biggest performance, later kernels offer
the CONFIG_PIN_TLB option which help quite a bit.

So for anything new I'd recommend 2.6 anyway, the performance delta
is not so great as this test appears to show. I'd like this test to be performed
again against a newer kernel version if possible.

Pantelis


so, in the case of the big footprints, might I use a 2.4.x instead of
2.6.x just to avoid memory leaks and performance loss?

j4k3.


What memory leaks? And cut it out with 1337 speak. It stopped
being funny 10 years ago...

Pantelis


OffTopic: lol @pantelis, so how would be "memory leak" in leet lang? =p
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Why OS takes so much memory?
    ... begin "Rinaldi J. Montessi" dedi ki: ... Because kernel VM management is so bright and greedy to utilize that last ... 300M on a system with 4G RAM, some parts of this 300M is not used much. ... Swap out stale parts of that 300M, reduce real memory footprint from ...
    (comp.os.linux.setup)
  • Re: Which kernel is the best for a small linux system?
    ... I'm new on Kernel managing, ... # Big memory footprint in RAM: the 2.6 kernel needs 30...40% more RAM; ... context switches up to 96% slower, ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: Which kernel is the best for a small linux system?
    ... I'm new on Kernel managing, ... # Big memory footprint in RAM: the 2.6 kernel needs 30...40% more RAM; ... context switches up to 96% slower, ... # latencies up to 80% slower, file system latencies up to 76% slower, ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: Which kernel is the best for a small linux system?
    ... I'm new on Kernel managing, ... # Big memory footprint in RAM: the 2.6 kernel needs 30...40% more RAM; ... context switches up to 96% slower, ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: Which kernel is the best for a small linux system?
    ... I'm new on Kernel managing, ... # Big memory footprint in RAM: the 2.6 kernel needs 30...40% more RAM; ... context switches up to 96% slower, ...
    (Linux-Kernel)